A look at the F1 team and driver pairings for 2012 -updated
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A look at the F1 team and driver pairings for 2012
Once again the F1 year promises so much, but can it deliver???!! 2011 saw a dominant performance by one man and one team but it wasn’t a boring season by all means. Hopefully 2012 will see Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes and some other surprise runner mix it all together.....
Red Bull – Seb Vettel and Mark Webber
No reason not to expect more of the same from Red Bull. Adrian Newey has an excellent base line to start from for 2012 hasn’t he! Vettel will be fired up and ready to go and all through last year he wasn’t found wanting, he did a brilliant job and so will he in 2012. Naturally before a wheel is turned he will start 2012 as the title favourite. Statistically beside his team mate Webber had a horrible year in 2011. However he just seemed to drop the ball in qualifying and at the starts, while for the most part he was right there for race pace. He’ll need to improve this year otherwise one of the long list of potential drivers knocking on the door will be slotted in for 2013...
McLaren – Jenson button and Lewis Hamilton
McLaren have rarely made a shocking car and I think they will come out shooting this year. Beating Newey (‘er Red Bull) will be the main objective. They have two world champions on board, one totally at peace with himself and the other trying desperately to secure his place in the world. If McLaren has built a winning car Jenson will be able to deliver. It’s obvious that Hamilton is an excellent racer but he was over driving the thing all last year but there were occasional flashes of brilliance. Everyone knows he made a stuff up concerning his management but whether he can swallow his pride and show them the door....
Ferrari – Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa
Ferrari has been much more stable since the beginning of the Brawn/Schumacher era so there’s no reason to believe they will produce a duck of a car. Allegedly they have however – an ugly duckling....if it is fast then no problem and you know Alonso will produce the goods. I think they will come out somewhere behind Red Bull and McLaren on initial pace but it’s a hard one to pick. Their performance needs to pick up mainly on the tyre warming area, an area where Massa had a big problem. Felipe will have a better year than 2011, he’s not a bad driver, he’s just not the same one that was fighting for the title against Lewis. He needs more confidence and if manages to build that he will give Alonso a good battle unless of course the title becomes an issue...
Mercedes – Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher
It all promised so much after Brawn Mercedes stole the march on everyone and won the title with Jenson. It turns out Jenson made a spectacular choice to move teams otherwise he would still be winless after his title...Mercedes have to raise the bar this year, they will have thrown everything at it over the winter but the gap they have to make seems too large for me. Nico is a superb driver as Michael Schumacher can no doubt confirm. I’m a big Schuey fan and was excited to see him back in the sport but only because I thought he would battling for wins. He still has a march on most of the field though and if Mercedes produce a winning car the rivalry between him and Rosberg is going to be seriously interesting to watch.
Lotus – Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean
This is an interesting one this pairing and team. Lotus in it’s current disguise have been nearly as innovative as it forebears. Mass dampers a few years ago, exhausts exiting from the front of the side pods last year and now they are at the forefront of the reactive suspension. They seem pretty determined to succeed and they had a car that very nearly worked well last year. Romain Grosjean gets his 2nd chance at F1 and so does Kimi Raikkonen. If the Lotus is a dud I can’t see Kimi dragging them to the front of the pack. Romain? Well he has more recent experience with the current F1 machinery so I would expect him to go very well against Kimi but his status is yet to be established and Kimi has to re-establish his.
Force India – Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenburg
Force India did a brilliant job last year and so did both Sutil and Di Resta. It’s a good little team and the car was more balanced, performing at more places than the previous versions. I’m not expecting them to jump any of the top four but let’s hope they produce another decent car and the two drivers get to show their talent. Sutil was booted in favour for Hulkenburg who everyone seems to agree has great potential. Di Resta did a good job for his first season and these two will be interesting to watch in what could be a career damaging year for either.
Sauber – Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi
Sauber retains the reliable Ferrari package for another year and both drivers stay on as well. I expect Perez to gain in stature and to outclass Kobiyashi. Perez is super smooth and I think he can be a race winner in the right machinery. As to whether Sauber can ever provide such a thing is another question.
STR - Jean Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo
STR was a bit disappointing during the year, sometimes the car flew and at others it was nowhere. Everyone was expecting one of either Beumi or Alguersuari to make way for Ricciardo but when they both got booted it came as a total surprise. Jean Eric Vergne gets the other seat beside Ricciardo who has the edge on the Frenchman in terms of F1 experience but once again another fascinating combination to watch.
Williams – Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado
Williams will make a better car than they did last year. The only way is up. Hopefully they will be playing up in the top ten a bit more often. The new Renault engine deal adds confidence. Maldonado was a bit rough in first season but probably surprised Barrichello more than he should have. Senna will have to beat him more often than not to be taken seriously. This isyet another interesting combination for us to watch. Sutil was a strong candidate for the drive but with his pending court case probably ruined his chances. Williams also probably feel a bit of debt towards the Brazilian family and fans....
Caterham - Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli
This team (I am not going to go through the naming game here...) did a great job last year and so did Kova. Trulli kept on whinging about the power steering and kept on getting blown away by Kova. Sure Trulli is spectacular over one lap if every star in the universe is alignment but I think Caterham made a mistake to keep him on this year. They spent 3 months trying to personalise the power steering for him while Kova just got on with it. Heikki has great experience now, why not get a young gun in there? Editors note: Trulli was replaced by the Russian Vitali Petrov at the eleventh hour .
Marussia – Timo Glock and Charles Pic
So Virgin is now Marussia and poor Timo Glock, seemingly so highly rated is stuck at the back of the grid once again battling with HRT (if they make it to the grid this year). I can’t see too much progress here. Maybe they should try some Vodka in the tank. I don’t follow any other form of motorsport other than karting so Charles Pic sort of arrived on the scene as a surprise. He’ll have to collect his wits early on to impress in what will one of the slowest cars on the grid partnered by one of the fastest team mates on the grid. Plus they are not using a brake recovery system (KERS) so they will not be moving up from the last two rows of the grid.
HRT – Pedro de la Rosa and some other unlucky pay driver or maybe Luizzi
It doesn’t look like too many people were interested in “your logo here” on the HRT’s last year cars and it showed. They are allegedly building a new chassis for this season so that’s a good start. I presume Pedro is bringing in some money otherwise why would you go for him? Why not keep Luizzi unless of course Pedro is bringing in more geld and as the 2nd seat whoever that poor pay driver turns out to be will be taking a massive risk with his or her career. note: since this was written Karthikenyan has come in as the 2nd driver, pretty "experienced" line up for HRT with Pedro at 40 and Karthy at 35 years....
THERAT
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