Tag: sebastian vettel

F1 2013: Belgium GP Review – Vettel saunters to Spa Victory

The Belgium GP isn’t one to be associated with processional racing. However, when the leader of the race is the young, three time world champion – it doesn’t have much of say.

Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position on Saturday from the grasp of Sebastian Vettel but that was as close to beating the German as Hamilton was going to get this weekend. As the weather held firm over the Spa circuit, Vettel pounced on Hamilton immediately and took the lead of the race as the field headed into Les Combes at the top of the hill. Fernando Alonso upheld his illustrious reputation at the start of grand prix as he transformed ninth on the grid to fifth by the end of lap one.

The day was to belong to the championship leader and there was no looking back for the defending champion as he expertly controlled the race from the front. Driving within himself and nursing his first stint tyres Vettel opened a gap of seven seconds over Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. Further down the field the Lotus pair of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen had made little progress from their starting positions. Nevertheless, Raikkonen was able to overtake several drivers to get himself solidly into the point. However, smoking brakes on the starting grid was an indication that the Finn could run into trouble later in the race. Several radio messages later Raikkonen pulled the Lotus into the pits and retired from the Belgium GP bringing to an end a 28 race point scoring streak.

Despite being felled by the brake issue Raikkonen was having substantial difficulty in passing cars on the Radillon straight – even with DRS. It’s not a new problem for the Lotus team as they experienced the same issue in last year’s Belgium and Indian grand prix. It was during last year’s Spa race that Raikkonen was instructed to overtake then Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher to which the Iceman responded with one of his ever-popular monotone quips – ” then give me more power.” It seems top end speed is still haunting the Lotus team; and this ahead of the power hungry Monza.

There was very little excitement throughout the rest of race as Vettel seemingly cruised at the front. Fernando Alonso made short work of Hamilton and took over second place but that is where his progress would cease. Although the Ferrari team managed to put together a much better performance this weekend Alonso will still be asking for more from his Italian team. The Spaniard may have finished second in the race and taken over second place in the standings but in truth he was nowhere near to matching the Red Bull’s pace. The number one Red Bull was comfortably in the lead of the race but Vettel was nevertheless instructed to progressively open the gap to Alonso should there be a threat of rain. The rain never arrived by Vettel was able to extend his lead by a second per lap and never looked on the edge while doing so.

The race for the top three positions between Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton seemed settled but a handful of peculiar incidents caused several drivers to be slapped with penalties. Sergio Perez was the first driver to be hit with a drive-through penalty for ‘crowding’ Lotus’ Grosjean off the track at the entry to Les Combes. The Mexican driver was well past the Frenchman who appeared to outbrake himself and race off the circuit. Perez has been known for hot-headed moves in the past but this time the McLaren driver was in the clear.

An incident involving Pastor Maldonado, Adrian Sutil, Esteban Gutierrez and Paul di Resta saw the latter bunted out of the race. Force India’s Sutil cut short an attempted overtaking my Maldonado but would have dire consequences for his teammate. As Maldonado failed to check his mirrors he appeared to dive for the pits triggering contact with Gutierrez who in turn smashed the rear of di Resta’s car to pieces. Maldonado was given a ten second stop/go penalty.

On a quieter, somewhat anonymous note, Nico Rosberg brought his Mercedes home in fourth ahead of Mark Webber and Jenson Button. Felipe Massa, who has been given two races to save his Ferrari seat, finished seventh ahead of Grosjean, Sutil and Daniel Ricciardo. Toro Rosso’s Ricciardo was the biggest gainer of the day by going from nineteenth on the grid to finish tenth and score one championship point.

Straightforward victory in the Belgium GP is the 31st of Sebastian Vettel’s career. It is also enough to give the triple world champion his biggest margin, 46 points, at the top of the standings. Eight races remain and it is now evident that whoever wants to win this driver’s championship need to make a move – yesterday.

August 25, 2013
2013 Shell Belgian Grand Prix – Post Race Press Conference

Drivers: 1 – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 2 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), 3 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

PODIUM INTERVIEW (Conducted by David Coulthard)

Q: Sebastian, your 31st Grand Prix victory, you’re now just one behind the man who finished in second place. That looked pretty easy for you today.

Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, it was fantastic race for us. From start to finish really very good tactics. Obviously it helped the first lap to have the tow off Lewis through Eau Rouge and then I was flying. Once I passed him we had incredible pace and really could control the race until the end. We were a bit afraid of the rain coming towards the end but I think it just passed the circuit. Great race. Thank you to the team, thanks to Renault. All the guys have been working very hard and… yeah, fantastic result, can’t be any better.

Q: You passed a milestone today if you’re into statistics. You seem to like to get the fastest lap towards the end of these grand prix but you’ve now led well over 2000 laps in your grand prix career. Were you aware of that one?
SV: Now I am. Thank You! Yeah, incredible.

Q: Fernando, this must feel like a victory today. You’ve never won around the Belgian Grand Prix circuit, which is surprising given that you’ve got 32 victories in your career but that was typical attacking stuff from ninth place.
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, we had to recover some places. We were not OK yesterday and everything went OK from the start and then the car has the speed to overtake some cars and it was a little bit boring. After we get the second place we are nowhere near Sebastian and not a big threat from behind.

Q: Looking ahead to Monza, you must feel pretty much buoyed for Ferrari, going to what is the home grand prix for the Ferrari team.

FA: Yeah, definitely it’s an important weekend for us, for the team. Last year we were very close to repeat the victory that we get also in 2010, so we arrive fully motivated again and in Monza we would like to give some smiles and some satisfaction to the tifosi and we will try our best.

Q: Lewis, that’s your 54th podium, that equals you with Niki Lauda who is one of the senior management at the Mercedes grand prix team. Does that statistic mean anything to you and what do these points mean for you this afternoon?
Lewis Hamilton: We had a tough race, these guys were a little bit faster than us but the team did a great job throughout the weekend and I’m really happy with the results. Of course to be put in the same sentence as someone as legendary as Niki is a real privilege. I’m happy with the result we had, I’m glad to see so many great fans here this weekend. They made the weekend.

Q: Once again we heard you on the team radio saying you were taking absolutely everything out of the car and the tyres. You went off into the summer break as the victor, you’ve come on a roll of four pole positions. Looking ahead to the next grand prix, what do you think you’ve learnt from this Belgian race.
LH: I came in this weekend and when we started I felt that we perhaps didn’t have as good a package as these two here. I think we’ll go away after this weekend, we’ll try and see if we can improve for Monza. But definitely when we get to Singapore, I think we’ll have a much better chance there.

Q: [Sebastian] I believe your points lead is extended to the largest ever margin you’ve had. You must feel good looking to the second half of this season.
SV: Yeah. Obviously winning helps. Just really controlled. The car was much better than I think we expected going into the race. So we had a bit of pace on hand to control the race. I really enjoyed that a lot. I think the guys on the pit wall as well, it was not as stressed as at other times. Fortunately there was no rain, so in terms of critical calls there were none to make. It was a very good afternoon for us and obviously looking forward to Monza where we don’t expect, maybe, to be that strong but let’s see.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Sebastian, your 31st career victory – two less than Fernando – and your fifth this season. Clearly the decisive moment was the opening lap of the race. Tell us about that and how it set you up for the rest of the afternoon.
SV: Yeah, obviously very difficult around here to plan your start because first of all you need to have a good launch off the line and then there’s a long straight coming. A bit like Korea. I tried my best to line up behind Lewis and basically benefit from a massive tow through Eau Rouge. I think especially in the opening lap when the tyres are not yet completely there and the fuel tank is full, Obviously the cars are quite heavy up the hill and produce a lot of drag and I was able, in the tow, to make up a lot of speed and when I got side by side I had a lot of advantage over Lewis and was able to get straight ahead. So, yeah, it worked very well, what I was trying to, let’s say, plan at the exit of turn two. And after that I just tried to settle into the rhythm. I tried to open a gap to be flexible at the first stop and yeah, until the end we had incredible pace. We didn’t expect that. We knew, probably, going in that, in the dry, we should be able to beat Mercedes on the track but we knew other cars – Lotus, Ferrari – they looked very competitive in the dry, so in that regard yeah, we had massive pace and could control the race until the end.

Q: You’ve increased your championship lead as well, now over Fernando, almost two race wins clear. How are you feeling about it at this stage?
SV: For sure a positive message today but I’m honestly more happy to win the race today: it’s a fantastic track and especially when the car works well, you don’t want the race to stop. The car is getting lighter and lighter and I was very comfortable at the end on the Primes. The car, as I said, was just a pleasure to drive. You don’t… I didn’t think about the championship or points. Obviously I know the higher up you finish the better it is: ideally ahead of everyone else, which worked today. But yeah, such a great circuit. We’ve had good races here in the past so it’s nice to have another one, another great memory today. So, that’s what honestly I was focussing on most. For sure, regarding the championship, it’s a bonus.

Q: Fernando, obviously for you also the start was pretty decisive. Ninth on the grid, up to fifth on the opening lap. You passed Rosberg, Webber, Button, Hamilton to come through to second place. That’s quite a recovery from what must have been a very disappointing qualifying performance yesterday.
FA: Yeah, I think the weekend was more or less good for us with recovering some feelings that we lost in July with the car especially. We were a little bit more competitive – or we felt a little bit more competitive this weekend. Not for sure maybe for pole position but to be in the first four or five positions on the grid, maybe that was possible but yesterday I think were extremely unlucky with the situation in Q3 with weather and the track: where we were, in the place we were, at the time we were was wrong. So, unfortunately some times in these changeable conditions you are lucky, sometimes unlucky. I remember Malaysia very well in Q3, we were in the right place in the right moment and we were second and third of the grid. Yesterday was a little bit the opposite. So we had to plan a perfect race from the start to the pace of the car, to the strategy and everything worked fine and we could recover some places and extremely important for the championship also to get some good points again after three races not so good.

Q: Lewis touched on it yesterday in the press conference here, that throughout the practice and qualifying as well the Ferrari looked quite quick and looked like it had taken a step forward. Do you feel that over the course of this weekend? Is that giving you encouragement? Obviously we’re going to some very different kinds of circuits in the next few weeks but are you taking encouragement from this weekend?
FA: I’m happy. I’m happy with the feeling that I had this weekend. I’m happy with the parts that we brought here, seems that they are working fine. We need to take things very carefully because, as you say, this is a very specific circuit and we are not first and second in any practice or any qualifying or any race. We are ninth and tenth in quali and now we are second and seventh in the race. At the moment it is still work to do.

Q: Lewis, great getaway from pole into the first corner but describe the remainder of that first part of that first lap from your perspective.
LH: It was not particularly exciting or anything. It was pretty straightforward. Half-decent start and I felt like I got a good exit out of turn one but these guys… Sebastian just caught me massively, particularly through Eau Rouge. There was no defending really. I could only move once, so I moved once and just had to watch him glide by. After that it was very, very difficult to hold onto him. And also when Fernando came by, particularly down the straights, he was just pulling away.

Q: At one point on the radio you were saying “I’m getting everything I can out of the car.” Obviously finishing around 27 seconds behind at the end of the race. Is that a concern for you, given the way you translated pole to victory before the summer break?
LH: Not really. I think every year you come here – here and Monza – you come with a new package, new front and particularly rear wing and sometimes you hit the nail on the head and sometimes you don’t. I think we’ve done a decent job but obviously these guys have done a slightly better job. Whether or not we can make an adjustment before the next race, we’ll wait and see but I think more importantly we’ll be back to being very competitive – or more competitive when we get to Singapore.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1 Zone) Fernando, definitely a good race for you, starting from P9 but is it also good for your championship, as Vettel finished ahead of you?
FA: I think it’s good; obviously we lost an extra seven points but when they are dominating the weekend, when they do everything better than us and they win the race, they deserve the win and we need to aim for maximum points. Weekends like this one we need to extract the maximum from the car. That is what we did this weekend, all we could in qualifying, all we could in the race. In the race, once we were second we were two to four tenths slower per lap. When you are the second fastest, you deserve to finish second. So we just need to congratulate Sebastian, Red Bull and try to get better for Monza, but in terms of the championship, as I said, we came from two fifth places in Hockenheim and Hungary, with a little bit of a not good feeling and not good performance from the car and today I think we recovered some of the optimism that we lost and I think it was a good weekend for the championship in terms of feeling and in terms of points as well.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, Kimi is now 63 points behind you. Do you think he’s out of this championship?
SV: No, there’s more than 63 points you can score before the end of the season. I don’t know what happened to him. It’s obviously a shame for him but these things can happen. I had a technical failure in Silverstone, we lost the race. It hurts but equally you have so many races that all of us we have these kind of things happening; surely the cars are – in terms of generation – at their end and it’s not a completely new car if you look at the previous years but still we are pushing. The cars are on the limit and you try to get everything out of them. Things that are built on the limit can also break.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, do you feel you are like in the situation of two years ago when you won the championship quite early in Japan? Do you think it’s going smoothly and you are relaxed with the situation around you?
SV: Well, I… maybe you have a different memory but what I remember from 2011 is that we had a fantastic season but we were working very hard, step by step, race by race and surely not working towards a certain race to seal the championship with a couple of races to go. I wasn’t relaxed at that time, I was as nervous as I am today, hopefully. Therefore, as I said, it’s really step by step and not trying to be too smart, too clever and think too far ahead.

Q: (Andy Young – Richland F1) Fernando, once again you were fast in the race but not so much in qualifying. Do you think this could affect your championship chances against Sebastian?
FA: Well, we need to improve the qualifying performance but to be honest, I’m doing what I can. I’m 8-3 against my teammate, I think. Yesterday was about qualifying but I was 0.6s quicker than my teammate, so in a way, it’s not that the races are good and the qualifyings are bad, it’s just the way it is and we are extracting the maximum from the car all the time. In the races there are more aspects, not pure performance of the car. There is the strategy, the management of the tyres, the characteristics of the cars and on that aspect, I think we are very strong. In the pure performance of the car, we are maybe lacking some performance compared to the others but as I said, I’m extremely happy with the performance we are achieving on Saturday and also on Sunday and the championship is open and we have the best example last year. I was leading with 41 points ahead of Sebastian after the Monza race and I arrived in Texas 15 points behind, so things can change very quickly. Our hopes are to keep developing, to keep improving performance and try to repeat what happened last year the other way around.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Lewis, after being on pole position, is this more of less what you expected in the race or did you expect to be closer to Red Bull?
LH: I think yesterday I said that I don’t think we generally have the same pace as these guys, or at least, not necessarily the Ferraris but more so the Red Bulls. But they were both too fast for us today. It’s the best we could have done. Yesterday, the weather helped us to get up to where we were. At the end of the day, we just need to work a little bit harder. I think we can do a better job, hopefully for Monza.

Q: (Jerome Pugmeister – Associated Press) Fernando, you said the team’s recovered some of its optimism. How far can that optimism take you; do you still believe you can mount a genuine title challenge with eight races left?
FA: Yeah, yeah. I think we cannot forget that in the first five races we were a very competitive team. We won two of the five races and we were in a position to fight for the podium all the time. At that point, we were a very few points behind the leader. Then there were some races in the championship where we went backwards in terms of a step in the car and we lost direction a little bit. We understood the problem, we analysed everything and all the things that we are now bringing to the races are delivering what we expected, finally, so this gives us the possibility to get our good form back but we still have to recover some of the gap, to fight for pole positions etc but the championship is very long, and as I said before, the example is what happened to us last year. If you have a competitive car and you win four or five consecutive races like Sebastian did last year in India, Japan, Singapore etc, you recover very quickly. If we are in the position to do that, we will find out very soon.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, I think unusually for Red Bull, your car was set up for quite a high top speed. Was it because you have taken into consideration that you expected to do some overtaking during the race, and how well does that look for Monza, with reasonably low downforce? You were very quick here.
SV: Well, ideally we try to set up our car to the optimum. I think we were maybe more competitive than we expected. Whether that’s us over-performing or the others under-performing, I’m not entirely sure to be honest. So in that regard, it’s always nice to have speed on the straights if you have to overtake, then it’s obviously easier to get yourself side-by-side with the other car and to lose something more under braking, whereas if you’re limited by straightline speed it’s very difficult to pass. We’ve had some bad experiences around here so maybe this year we were a little bit on the higher side in terms of speed. For Monza, I don’t know actually. It’s very difficult to predict. We had painful years in a way, where we just get hammered down the straights and we’ve had years where the loss down the straight was limited, so we could come back in the corners and for sure, if you look back the 2011 experience was great in that regard. How it turns out to be this year it’s difficult to say. I think we can be quite confident. We had a good race in Canada, we had a very good race here which are both medium downforce type of tracks, so I hope that our low downforce package goes in the same direction.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, when you attacked Lewis did you have some KERS left for it and then obviously to Lewis, did you have some KERS to defend yourself or was everything gone after the start?
SV: I had some left.

LH: I had some left but he was catching me so I didn’t use the rest of it, I saved it for the rest of the lap.

August 25, 2013
Belgium GP: Post Qualifying Report – Hamilton times it to a tee

The notorious Spa weather had a definitive say in today’s qualifying sessions as Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position in the dying seconds of the session.

The fickle weather dampened the 7 km long circuit enough to prompt the fitting of intermediate tyres all twenty-two cars. It was the opportunists who would cash into the difficult conditions and on this occasion both Caterham and Marussia happily took the gamble to run the medium compound slick tyres towards the end of the first twenty minute session.

As the circuit dried considerably so the laptimes tumbled. The Williams duo who had found themselves heading the timing sheets ultimately ended up outside the top sixteen. Giedo van der Garde for Caterham and Marussia Chilton and Bianchi all advanced the second part of qualifying thanks to some quick thinking tactics.

The second session was run in completely dry conditions and it was Kimi Raikkonen who a set a low 1 minute 48 to end the session quickest of all. While Jenson Button stuck his McLaren into 5^th place on the sheets teammate Perez failed to advance.

The dry running would be confined to the second part of qualifying as the light rain marked the start of the top ten shootout. As the field rushed out of the pitlane on white-walled medium tyres only Paul di Resta opted to remain in his garage. The Force India emerged shortly afterwards on intermediate tyres. It appeared to be a stroke of tactical genius by the Force India team as the other nine cars on circuit all returned to the pitlane for inters.

Di Resta was left with a clear track and what appeared to be the best track conditions as the rain intensified and circuit became a slippery thrill ride. For the majority of the session it looked as if the Scotsman was on course for his first pole position. Nevertheless, there would be a late twist in the tail. The rain had ceased and conditions had hugely improved towards the end of the ten minutes.

As several drivers snatched the top spot it was Lewis Hamilton who timed it to perfection. The Brit was the last driver to cross the line – therefore setting his lap at the time the circuit was at its best.

Hamilton snatched the pole position by two tenths of a second from championship leader Sebastian Vettel. Mark Webber lines up third ahead of the sister Mercedes of Nico Rosberg in fifth. Paul di Resta ended up with fifth place ahead of Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa rounds out the top ten.

August 24, 2013
2013 Belgian Grand Prix: Free Practice 2 Report

Free Practice 2 for the Belgian Grand Prix was dominated by Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel setting the quickest time of the session followed very closely by his team mate, Mark Webber.

Vettel set a P1 time of 1:49.331, just 0.059s ahead of Mark Webber in the other Red Bull, who set a time of 1:49.390. The session was not without incident though. Vettel suffered a rear right puncture with 30mins left in the session. Eyebrows will be raised at this incident since Pirelli changed the construction of the tyres. Thankfully the entire construction stayed intact and did not explode in the same way as the tyre failures as the British Grand Prix.

Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde had a moment out of T15. He lost the back of the car and spun out into the tyre barrier. Interestingly enough, it looks as though he’s incident was in the same area where Vettel picked up his puncture.

The long run pace of Red Bull and Lotus is looking very strong. With some teams that will opt for a 1-stop strategy, it could make things very interesting come race day.

Included below is the timing sheet for FP2 for the 2013 Belgian Grand Prix

August 23, 2013
F1 2013: Belgium GP: Spa – the greatest place on Earth

There aren’t many things that Formula 1 teams and the sport’s fans see eye to eye on. But the one thing that has everyone’s unanimous agreement is that Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps is incomparably the best racing track on the face of the planet.

Where other circuit’s layouts are identified by numbers, here corners are named. Eau Rouge, Pouhon and Blanchimont ooze Formula 1 history and have demanded respect from every era’s most talented drivers. Sites such as Abu Dhabi and Singapore are modern-day showpieces but Spa is where it is every driver’s desire to be part of its mystical history.

The Belgian circuit stands apart in other areas as well. It is the longest on the calendar at 7.004 km and houses its own micro-climate in the foothills of the Ardennes mountain range. The weather effect has been as colossal as the circuit is demanding. The temperamental rain has been known to severely limit running in free practice. While the over 7km long race track stretches through a grand vista of sprawling hills it brings with it the likelihood of contradictory weather conditions at either end of the circuit.

Several teams will bring upgrade packages to the race this weekend with Lotus expected to bring their last major upgrade for the year to their E21 car. A final decision on whether to run the passive DRS system has not been made yet but according to Lotus’ trackside operations director Alan Permane there is a “good chance” that the device will be deployed this weekend.

German sources have suggested that Red Bull Racing is expected to announce Daniel Ricciardo as Sebastian Vettel’s teammate for 2014 this weekend. Dr. Helmut Marko was quoted as confirming that the announcement would be made at Spa. No official announcement has been made by Toro Rosso or its drivers.

What then of Raikkonen’s rumoured move to the championship winning outfit? Rumours of an impending move back to Ferrari have gained a lot of momentum during the month-long break. Subtly, Finnish media have been using images of Raikkonen in Ferrari gear alongside articles and several sources maintain that the Finn has inked a two-year deal with the option of extending for another year.

Raikkonen’s time at Ferrari came to an unpleasant end in 2009 with team president Luca di Montezemolo calling the Finn “unmotivated”. Many have speculated that Raikkonen had gotten on well within the Ferrari team and that the only potential animosity was created by LDM’s comments. If Raikkonen does return to the Maranello outfit it will be slightly humiliating for di Montezemolo who favoured a sponsorship deal with Spanish bank Santander over Raikkonen. Nevertheless, it is guaranteed that if Raikkonen is to return to his former team that Ferrari will welcome their last world champion back with open arms. What the dynamic will be between Fernando Alonso and Raikkonen is debatable; but it is surely a match made in Formula 1 heaven.

Opportunities for overtaking may be abundant but a good qualifying position is nonetheless vital. If for no reason other than to avoid being caught up in someone else’s accident. Romain Grosjean was the perfect case in point in 2012 as he took out several cars including potential race contenders Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

The cooler track temperature coupled with the tougher medium and hard compound Pirelli tyres will favour a team like Mercedes and with a confident Lewis Hamilton they may be a good bet. However, Fernando Alonso needs to make inroads on Vettel’s championship lead and the Spaniard has never won the famous Spa-Francorchamps race. This is more than enough motivation for the double world champ. In reality however his chances will hinge on what Ferrari has up their upgrade sleeves this weekend. Kimi Raikkonen has won the Belgium GP four times once, in 2009, with an exceptionally sluggish Ferrari. He goes into the race a hot favourite for victory.

The best drivers, the greatest sport on the planet on the world’s premier racing circuit – Spa-Francorchamps is unquestionably a Formula 1 fan’s nirvana.

August 22, 2013
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
Second places aren’t enough – Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen says that second places aren’t enough and he needs to increase his wins in the remainder of the season if he hopes to close the gap to championship leader Sebastian Vettel.

With Lewis Hamilton winning the Hungarian Grand Prix before the summer break, Raikkonen finished second ahead of Vettel but this resulted in only closing the gap by three points.

“I am now back in second which was a good way to enter the summer break,” Raikkonen said. “I finished ahead of Seb [Vettel] in Hungary so obviously scored more points than him there. To beat him, we need to be winning races and if we keep finishing second like we’ve done many times this year it’s probably not going to be enough for the championship, but you never know what might happen.”

Raikkonen added that his main focus for the rest of the season will be on qualifying in order to increase his chances of winning races.

“Obviously I keep making my life difficult on Saturdays in qualifying so then we pay a price, but we still have a good car in the race. Now we have tyres that are a little bit different we have to understand exactly how to use them. We made progress in Budapest so it should be easier in Spa, but that will be the same for everyone. To win, it’s always better to be starting near the front.”

Raikkonen won the first race of the season in Melbourne but he has not visited the top step of the podium since. He has finished second five times so far this season including at the last two races in Germany and Hungary.

Photos by the Lotus F1 Team

August 18, 2013
Red Bull to confirm Daniel Ricciardo at Spa

Daniel Ricciardo is set to partner Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull according to a report in Germany’s, Sport Bild.

The tabloid’s correspondents Bianca Garloff and Ralf Bach said that the news will be announced at next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. The paper quoted Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko as saying, “Unfortunately, I cannot say any more than that we will make an announcement at Spa.”

There has been no further official confirmation from Red Bull, Toro Rosso or any of the drivers.

Daniel Ricciardo told Sport Bild that he expects to get along with the reigning world champion should he be selected to race for the Red Bull team, “I know Seb quite well,” he said, “as I was the reserve driver in 2010. I was out for dinner with him a few times and we get on really well.”

Both Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso have also been linked to Mark Webber’s Red Bull seat, so we’ll only really know once an official announcement has been made.

If Alonso does move to Red Bull, Kimi Raikkonen’s rumoured move back to the Ferrari team does seem a little more likely than the Finn joining the team to play second fiddle to Alonso.

Photo by Red Bull Racing Twitter Team.

August 18, 2013
Humbled by F1 headlines – by @Reynardg

I hate to lose and I hate it even more if I lose and people can put me in my place about it.

To top it all off – I’m actually the one who started this. With this being my usual post-race F1 column, everything expressed here is my own opinion. This however started on my personal Facebook profile on Thursday night where after three weeks of no F1, I was very much looking forward to the race and a win for Sebastian Vettel.

It was probably a good thing that I didn’t bet any money on the race, however it would’ve been a safe bet if I predicted which of my colleagues and friends would be the first to remind me of how over-optimistic I was. However, while sitting and licking my wounds, I did indeed start thinking of how interesting this current F1 season still can become.

Here are the facts: Red Bull has looked fairly indestructible in recent times. Between them and Lotus they made the tyre issues look like a little niggle.

Remember however, at Silverstone the Gearbox on Vettel’s car packed up and at Budapest it was KERS.

Meanwhile Pirelli brought along some new tyres and teams now had their fair share of legal and illegal tyre tests.

Now let’s add the drivers here. No one really knows what goes on in the mind of Iceman Kimi Raikkonen although I’ll bet his mind is set on winning races rather than crying over a salary.

Ever since he announced his retirement Mark Webber has been looking like a new man and one on a mission to leave a legacy. Looking past his penalty, Romain Grosjean has started living up to the potential we always knew he had. Nico Rosberg secured two wins in the first part of the season and has really become a driver that just looks more like believing that he can win a title. Then there’s Lewis Hamilton, newly single and just looking all that more motivated.

Vettel is still in the lead of the championship, but the road to winning four consecutive titles is not an easy one and it’s not a sure bet. At the end of the race we all heard him saying “Sorry guys, I did all I could” and in all honesty… he did.

Hungary 2013 was a GP in which all the key contenders did all they could. There’s still a lot that can happen this year and the championship may well again carry on until the last lap at Interlagos.

Hungary taught Vettel to be humble, it taught me not to pre-write headlines, but more so – I hope it taught all the those who constantly write off F1 as a boring sport that there’s nothing like a foregone conclusion in the fastest sport in the world.

Reynard Gelderblom is the motorsport editor for Street Motion.

Keep up to date with the latest local motorsport news by following Street Motion on Twitter.

August 1, 2013
Silly Season Update – Red Bull drops another hint?

Red Bull have said that there is no pressure for them to put one of it’s young drivers into their car for 2014.

Rumours have been rampant the past month on who will replace Australian Mark Webber. The confirmed potential drivers on the shortlist are Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo and Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen. And as of the Hungarian grand prix race weekend Fernando Alonso also seems to be under consideration for the champion squad. However, it remains to be seen whether Alonso will be contractually available, whether Ferrari would let him go without too much of a fight and most importantly, whether or not the rumour is just a bit of political by-play from Alonso.

Even though the Toro Rosso team was set up with the aim of bringing young talent into the sport Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says that Ricciardo will not be selected if it is not in the best interest of the team. “Of course we want the strongest drivers in the cars that you possibly can,” said Horner.

It makes sense to plan for the future with a younger driver. But what Horner is saying makes more sense. Formula 1 is about now and having the best driver line-up ensures at the very least a chance of fighting amongst the front-end.

Daniel Ricciardo proved his prowess at the three-day Silverstone test. However, being in the thick of things against a triple world champion teammate, with every miniscule move scrutinised by the world’s sporting media is whole different prospect. Does Ricciardo have the talent to perform in the Red Bull? Almost certainly. Can Ricciardo cope with the pressure of racing for Formula 1’s premier team? Big question mark. Chances are that he could handle it without any problems but the doubt is there.

Contrastingly, having a driver of Raikkonen or Alonso’s calibre in the team is a guarantee. A guarantee of speed, consistency and knowing how to handle the world’s media.

It will also be more beneficial for Sebastian Vettel to have either Raikkonen or Alonso as his teammate. Though Vettel is a triple world champion he has hardly ever been pushed by a teammate for an extended period of time. Some suggest that for Vettel to be truly regarded as one of the greats he needs to beat the best drivers on the grid. With all things being equal, armed with the same car, would he be able to do that against Raikkonen or Alonso? No matter the answer of this question pairing Vettel with either one of these two is going to be one hell of an explosive ride.

Photos by Red Bull Racing Twitter Team.

August 1, 2013