And the 2012 F1 Season…

2011 was a good year for F1, the stats are excelent, more over taking thanks to a combination of aero changes, the Drag-Reduction-System (DRS), the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and the tires that gave tremendous grip, for a while.

But it could have been more competitive. Perhaps we were just spoiled by maybe the best championship in the history of the sport in 2010. With Kimi Raikkonon returning for 2012 (admittedly with Lotus) there are 6 world champions on the grid, and that’s got to be good.

Lets be clear, Vettel won his second world championship in style. It became little predicable and was wrapped up with four races to go. But such was the speed of Vettel and the Red Bull that there was little real doubt after Valencia. The constructor’s championship (which is what the teams get paid by) was tied up one race later.

Vettels ability in the first couple of laps to pull out a significant lead over everyone was astounding. That first lap was critical and made it clear that baring a mistake, everyone else was running for second.

Red Bull did a tremendous job, they hardly put a wheel wrong all season. They built the quickest car and backed it with a great team. McLaren were second quickest, with very little to choose between their two drivers with very different styles.

Hamilton is probably the most important driver in Formula One, this year he had a lot of issues off the grid to deal with if those distractions are sorted it is then up to the team to give him the car. But he needs to get the manager/agent/personal life, working in a way that will allow him to be back to his aggressive best that makes him so compelling to watch.

Button had a great year, did the best job at staying with Vettel and not outclassed by Hamilton (both won three races). Over the year Button was a little more consistent in picking up points, but silly errors by the team (Silverstone) and a number of poor starts (Germany, Korea and so on) cost him.

There was a big gap to the third constructor, Ferrari. Alonso may be the quickest driver in the sport, but he never had the equipment to show it consistently. When he was on it all went well, while he took the win at the British GP, Japan was probably his best drive of the year.

For 2012 it’s time for Ferrari and Mercedes came to make an impact at the party and we are back to the big four constructors. Ferrari has a year with the new tires and hopefully understand how they work. Alonso made comments about the car struggling in the new Pirellis through out the year. Ferrari have the resources to get it right, they have few excuses and it’s time for them (and Massa) to challenge the incumbents.

Last year Mercedes were poor, Ross Brawn has brought in some help to replace Pat Fry and make 2012 a more competitive year.  Schumacher had 5 DNF’s and was out scored (and out qualified) by Rosberg over the season. Despite being 42 Schumacher wants to drive and compete, if Mercedes can give him a car that can do the job it will be interesting to see how good he can be.

One of the most compelling parts of the race weekend was Saturday qualifying. I love the format, but have issues with drivers not running during the Q3 session in order to save tires for the race and taking the top 10 place on the grid.

Yes, it adds another dimension to race tactics, but I’d rather see everyone out doing fast laps in the final 10 car shoot out. Pirelli may be working on qualifying only tires for 2012, I hope so as seeing everyone fight for position would make it even better.

The teams seem to largely have a handle on how to preserve and work with the new softer tires that quickly go off, change it up a bit. So if every car goes into Sunday with a full set of tires lets see how they deal with having more options for race day rather than less.

There is a lot to look forward to in 2012, while we may not see the fight we got two years ago, we could have a real challenger to Vettel, and then we’ll see how good he really is. I think he’s the real thing, but to have Hamilton, Button, Alonso or a rejuvenated Schumacher really pushing him would be fun to watch.

Related articles

• Alonso – Time on my side (skysports.com)
• Alonso excited by F1 golden era (news.bbc.co.uk)