For the last few years, the F1 calendar has been steadily adding new races. China, Abu Dhabi and Korea have all been added and this year sees the addition of India to the 20 race schedule. Next year a new US GP in Austin, Texas will be added too. Whilst this causes headaches and exhaustion for the teams, their staff and the travelling circus of media that follows them, for the fans it means more of what they love.
The headline stories as we enter the season will be:
- Who really is Lotus?
- Are pay-drivers a better option?
- Will Schumacher have a better car in order to have a decent season?
So team by team, what can we expect?
RedBull Renault
Drivers: Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber
For last years champions, it’s pretty much a case of evolution not revolution. The designer adrian Newey has stated that the new car won’t be a dramatic departure from the approach they’ve taken over the last few years. His record at his previous teams, McLaren and Williams, shows that once the car is in the sweet spot, it stays there for a few seasons. The teams performance only declining when Newey leaves for a new employer. So I’d expect Vettel and Webber to be right up there again this year.
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Drivers: Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button
After the innovation of the ‘F-Duct’ (so-called because the exit of the duct was next to the F of Vodafone on the rear wing) last year, the team seemed to wallow a bit. Lewis made several mistakes and Jenson couldn’t get the hang of qualifying, so some good potential championship points were lost. as with Brawn the season before, once the other teams had copied the new tech, they all caught up, so the early advantage was quickly lost and fighting harder for position became the norm.
The team are confident they’ll have a good car this year, but then if you ask any team before the start of the season, they’ll all have a good car ! If Jenson can qualify better and Lewis makes less mistakes they should be able to hold a sustained challenge against the RedBulls.
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Drivers: Fernando Alonso, Filipe Massa
A good start evaporated by the end of the first quarter in 2010. Massa looked like he’d lost something after his crash in Hungary 09 and Alonso made some mistakes. The team orders scandal of the German GP unsettled the team by at half way Alonso declared he would win the championship, which at the time looked unlikely. To his credit though, he gained more points than any other driver in the second half of the season and had it not been for the strategy error in Abu Dhabi, he may well have won the championship.
The fall out from that error has resulted in some changes on the pitwall and the abolition of the rule banning team orders will help Alonso as he seems to use the team as an extension of his drivers ‘toolkit’. Because of those two changes, if they have a decent car, I can’t see Ferrari being anything other than stronger this year.
Petronas Mercedes GP
Drivers: Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg
The 2010 car was designed for Jenson Button, so the drivers who prefers a car with more under steer had a struggle on their hands. Rosberg and especially Schumacher prefer a car with more over-steer. They like to turn intoa corner, point the front end where they want it to be and then deal with the back end as they go round. Rosberg made a better attempt at adapting to the car whereas Schumacher struggled and it wasn’t until the last four races that he finally seemed to get a grip on the situation.
This years car will be designed as an oversteer machine, so I would expect the pairing to go a lot better than this year. That said in his previous stint in F1 when pre-season testing was allowed, Schumacher had always done 1,000′s of kilometers testing, so at the first race he was always prepared. According to Anthony Davidson, Mercedes test driver, Schumacher gets sick when using the simulator, so his mileage in that is limited. Even so I’d expect a far stronger year for the German team.
Lotus Renault
Drivers: Robert Kubica, Vitally Petrov
Despite a shortage of funds in 2010 which resulted in the team asking Bernie for an advance, (he refused) the team did well. A lot of that was due to Kubica deciding that you can overtake in F1 and despite his reputation as an accident prone pay driver, Petrov came into his own during the Abu Dhabi race when he was fast and skilled enough to keep Alonso behind him.
This year, they are sure to be distracted by the ongoing dispute over the Lotus name and the team bosses will find themselves dealing with media attention about that rather than what’s going on in the races. Unless there’s a significant break through in their car design, I can’t see them moving up the grid and at best they’ll have occasional successes when the other higher ranking teams fail.
AT&T Williams Cosworth
Drivers: Rubens Barrichello, Pastor Maldonado
Last year, Williams were where they’ve been for the past few years – just about in the middle. The highlight was the Pole Position that Hulkenberg gained so brilliantly in Brazil, however for 2011 he’s been ousted for Maldonado who has done well but not really impressed in other formulas. Where he has impressed is in the cash department. His native Venezuela is providing funds for his drive.
Although Williams need the cash due to three of their major sponsors departing at the end of 2010, I can’t see it helping them up the grid and they will merely stay in the middle, maybe even being threatened by Force India or Team Lotus.
Force India Mercedes
Drivers: Adrian Sutil, Paul Di Resta (both unconfirmed)
For the second year running, this years car will have the back end of a McLaren and a lot of technical help from Woking as well. At the time of writing though, they don’t have any drivers. Or rather, they have too many. Mercedes is keen for 2010 DTM champion and Force India reserve driver Paul DiResta to be in the car and the sponsors would like Adrian Sutil, however, Tonio Liuzzi has a contract that needs buying out and the team haven’t the funds.
Liuzzi did a competent job last year, but like Sutil was involved in too many incidents, admittedly not all of their own making. Given the money situation though, I think that whoever drives, they’ll be battling Williams this year.
Sauber Ferrari
Drivers: Kamui Kobayashi, Sergio Perez
Entering 2011, the team have more funding, so should have more branding on the car than the predominantly blank car of last year. This has come from pay-driver Sergio Perez, who brings funds from Telmex. This has promted the team to dispense with Nick Heidfeld and promote Kobayashi to team leader.
Some say Kamui isn’t up to it, but for a smaller team I don’t think it’ll matter too much, however there will be limited development of the car due to the inexperience of the drivers. The rumour is that the cash being brought in is still not enough though, so I can’t see them moving up the grid.
Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari
Drivers: Jamie Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi
Now that the team have to make their own car, and not simply use a RedBull chassis and fit a Ferrari engine, they’ve lost the advantage that helped Vettel win the 2008 Italian GP. The drivers they have are competent but not spectacular, so the team will probably stay where it ended up last year – near the back of the grid. The young driver programme is less important to RedBull now, so I can see them selling the Toro Rosso in the near future.
Perhaps VW will buy it. They’ve been rumoured to be entering F1 when the new engine regulations come into force in 2012. Renaming the team Lamborghini would create another team the Italians can take to heart and bring that car company into the same promotional circle as it’s rivals.
Team Lotus Renault
Drivers: Heikki Kovalinen, Jarno Trulli
Easily the best organised and successful of the new teams last year, Team Lotus (formally Lotus Racing and not to be confused with Lotus Renault) should be able to push into regular Q2 appearances. The back end of the car will be the similar to the RedBull and some technical help will flow their way too, this will stop the hydraulics failures they were plagued with last season and help them get some points. As with Lotus Renault though, the dispute over the name will be the main story for the year.
HRT Cosworth
Drivers: Narain Karthikeyan, TBA
In many ways HRT was the wonder of 2010. They hadn’t run at all until the practice session at the first race in Bahrain, money woes made them change drivers frequently and they spent the year running at the back with the same aero package at every race. In fact, the wing angles stayed the same too because they weren’t designed to be adjusted ! they finished ahead of Virgin due to fewer crashes and a better reliability record.
They say things will be better for 2011 though, Williams gearbox and hydraulics mated to the Cosworth engine will prove reliable but rumour is the chassis is the same as last years, except not the wings move. Disturbingly though, stories are still coming through that they haven’t been paying their bills, most recently they haven’t been paying the subs to the teams association FOTA, so have been kicked out. To survive they need to find cash and quick.
Marussia Virgin Cosworth
Drivers: Timo Glock, Jerome D’Ambrosio
A big fuss was made last year about the Virgin team not using wind tunnels and relying on CFD to design the cars. However, the amount Virgin spends on it’s entire CFD/design efforts is less than what McLaren spend on CFD alone. So it’s difficult to see the team making great strides until more funds come in.
Early season mistakes like wheels coming off will have been ironed out but whether D’Ambrosio will be any better at finishing than the departed DiGrassi remains to be seen, however they should do better than HRT.
