So the 2012 F1 season is over and once again Sebastian Vettel is champion, a predictable outcome perhaps, but in reality this season was anything but. With eight different winners (seven of them in the first seven races) the season was certainly tumultuous, particularly at the start of the season with the performances of cars oscillating wildly from circuit to circuit. It was certainly exciting and refreshing to see Mercedes, Sauber, Williams and Lotus fighting with the ‘big three’ teams for race wins. In the end the performance differences between the cars seemed to even out somewhat with the Red Bull’s, McLaren’s and Ferrari’s becoming the class of the field and as the season progressed it became increasingly obvious that the title would be decided between two two time world champions Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
The battle between the two drivers, seen by many to be the two best in the sport, went down to the final race in a tense and exciting fashion in Brazil when on a treacherously wet track Vettel hauled himself from the back to sixth place. It was enough to give him his third title in succession and he is in exulted company as only the third driver in history after the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher to achieve such a feat. However despite this, some such as three-time world champion Jackie Stewart have suggested that Vettel has yet to truly prove himself amongst the sport’s elite, citing the excellent Red Bull car that has taken him to the championship for the last three years. However it must be remembered that for much of this year the Red Bull was anything but the class of the field, often struggling particularly on qualifying pace. It was only in the final third of the season when Red Bull seemed to finally get a handle on the car that Vettel started to dominate again, yet despite this he was in championship contention throughout the season.
Moreover Vettel shattered the perception that he was only fast from the front as he completed the most successful overtakes of any driver this season and put on many fighting drives through the field notably in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. The scary thing for his rivals is that he is only 25 years old and probably not even at his peak yet; he could easily go on for the next 15 years and may even challenge Michael Schumacher’s records. You can debate whether he’s the best or the fastest driver on the grid, but the Vettel-Red Bull combo at the moment is the best package, and that’s what F1’s really about.
We also cannot forget the runner up, Fernando Alonso. Alonso drove a simply stunning season. He consistently seemed to put the car into positions it shouldn’t really be in, although it must be noted that the Ferrari had significantly better race pace than qualifying pace, and developed quickly as the season progressed. His wins in Malaysia and Valencia were phenomenal, coming from far down the grid combining all of the Spaniard’s speed, experience and guile. The sheer magnitude of his performance is summed up by the fact that he beat his teammate Felipe Massa by 156 points. He can also consider himself unfortunate in the sense that his two retirements came from two first corner accidents which were largely out of his control; without these he probably would have been champion. There is no doubt that Alonso is currently at the peak of his driving career and will challenge for the title for many years to come, it seems odd however that the man seen by many to be the best driver in the sport hasn’t actually won the title for six years.
Perhaps the most disappointed team, though, is McLaren. For much of the season, they had the fastest car but through a combination of bad luck, mechanical failures and operational incompetence they were nowhere near contention at the end. In the early part of the season it seemed that during every pit stop their cars made suffered some sort of problem. When they sorted that out there reliability evaporated, with Hamilton retiring from the lead due to mechanical failures in Abu Dhabi and Singapore, not to mention many unfortunate collisions such as with Maldonado in Valencia and with Hulkenburg in Brazil, while being caught up in the first lap carnage in Belgium. Without this he would have no doubt challenged for the championship, but F1 isn’t about ifs or buts but about results and once again for the Woking team it didn’t happen. With Hamilton going to Mercedes next season one has to be concerned whether the team’s fortunes will continue to drift downwards.
Other stars of the season include Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 World Champion who made a comeback after a two-year hiatus with Lotus. The Finn drove an excellent, consistent season showing little ring rustiness coming third in the championship and winning a grand prix, finishing every race in the process. In stark contrast, his young team mate Romain Grosjean seemed to suffer incident after incident culminating in him precipitating a mega crash at the Belgian Grand Prix nearly decapitating Fernando Alonso in the process, earning him a one race ban. It’s a shame as the Frenchman enjoys considerable talent and raw speed and was often a match for Raikkonen in terms of pace but his race craft has some way to go.
Sergio Perez also showed great promise, finishing second in his Sauber in Malaysia and Italy. His performances have earned him a place at McLaren next season but once again it’s clear his racecraft need work, as he suffered from numerous incidents alongside some excellent drives. Surely the most popular victory was the return of the Williams team to the top step of the podium for the first time in seven years with Pastor Maldonado. However, this must be tinged with some disappointment as despite producing a very quick car they simply didn’t have the drivers to regularly capitalise on it. Maldonado although quick was horribly erratic crashing out from numerous Grand Prix’s and Bruno Senna simply wasn’t good enough, in the end they came 15th and 16th in the championship.
This year also sees the final retirement of Michael Schumacher from the sport. Sadly the seven-time world champion’s comeback must be considered a failure with only one podium to his name. Although it should be remembered that although Schumacher wasn’t the driver he was there was little he could do with a Mercedes car that was poor in race trim with the exception of China and got progressively worse throughout the season, and not to mention was very unreliable. Schumacher himself drove creditably and occasionally brilliantly as his pole lap at Monaco, the driver’s circuit attests, but it’s a stern reminder that without a good car there is little the driver can do. It was a sad way for the most successful driver the sport has ever seen to bow out.
So onto 2013. We’ve lost Schumacher and apparently the HRT team (oh no I hear you cry!) but we’ve also got new faces coming in such as Valtterri Bottas as Williams and some familiar faces moving teams, notably Hamilton to Mercedes. No doubt some teams will fall back, others will rise to the fore and they’ll no doubt be controversy. But who would bet against Vettel winning for a fourth time in a row?