So.. how did we do?
Well!
J i m Wrote:
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Quote
> Red Bull
>
> Adrian Newy admits that they had a slow start to
> 2012 and that some effort was diverted away from
> 2013 in their final big push in securing the
> championships. Don't believe a bit of it! I don't
> think there is any reason to not expect the RB9 to
> be anything other than every bit as good as any
> other car right from the word go and significantly
> better than most. No, they'll be in the thick of
> it and Seb has to be hot favourite to take a
> fourth consecutive title with Webber having his
> traditional mid season spurt of semi impressive
> wins.
Bang on about Newey, Vettel and the car... although Webber peaked at "semi impressive" podiums instead of wins.
Quote
> Ferrari
>
> You could give Alonso Fred Flintstone's car and
> he'd still drag it round to the podium.
> Operationally the Ferrari team is pretty slick, so
> even if the F138 isn't quite as quick as the
> Tifosi demand it'll still have a say in the
> general direction the championship falls in. The
> question is can Massa make good on his improved
> form? There's no Turkey this year so look to
> Bahrain for a Massa revival.
There's no question that Ferrari's early season form flattered to deceive.. I expected better of them... all of them, although in reality they basically followed the pattern that I knew they would.
Quote
> McLaren
>
> McLaren wasted what was commonly accepted to be
> the quickest car last year.. and so the MP4/28 has
> incorporated some of the fashionable bits which
> it's predecessors eschewed, such as a higher
> profile nose and Ferrari's pull rod front
> suspension. I'd hesitate to call this design
> "aggressive" but the likelihood is that this is
> going to be one quick car. Now then, Button needs
> to leave the "urgh the understeer!" Mentality at
> home, Perez needs to drop his "lets be the next
> Maldonaldo" aspirations and McLaren need less of
> the butter fingers in the pits. Manage that, and
> they might have a chance.
They managed pretty much none of what they needed to and to make matters worse the car wasn't even quick
(relatively speaking).
Quote
> Toleman
>
> The team are making (understandably) confident
> noises and the feel is that the E21 ought to be
> another perfectly decent enough car. Grosjean has
> been called down from the naughty step but he'll
> be under close scrutiny, so he'll have to behave
> himself else he might just wake one morning to
> find "Davide Valsecchi" stitched onto his
> overalls. Still, never mind though eh? At least
> Kimi knows what he's doing.
Kimi did know what he was doing
(sort of), Grosjean behaved himself and Valsecchi was mortified to find "Heikki Kovalainen" stitched across "Kimi Raikkonen" instead of "Davide Valsecchi".
But it certainly was a "decent enough" car.
Quote
> Mercedes
>
> There's not too much point in copy pasting the
> traditional "ooh they'll look good for a couple of
> races and then completely disappear" prediction
> here, still being on their quest to secure "as
> many technical directors as you can" I suspect
> they won't stop until every single one of them in
> F1 works for them. What of their chances on the
> track? Well I suspect a few decent results will be
> fuelled almost entirely by the size of Hamilton's
> ego resulting in a plucky win somewhere in random
> conditions. But Britney is definitely going to
> have to change his colours oftwise it'll get too
> confusing.
Well... they definitely exceeded my expectations, in that they managed to carry strong points scoring form right up to the end of the season. I offer them humble well done.
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> Sauber
>
> More of the same plucky punching above their
> weight in store for 2013, especially now they have
> the Incredible Hulk driving for them. Gutierrez?
> Well... Don't linger around any staircases with
> Robert Frijns, he's desperate for a go so I hear.
Well... Hulkenberg definitely pluckily punched above the natural weight of the Sauber as I expected he would, meanwhile Frijins was removed from lingering around any staircases nearby Gutierrez in favor of some supposed Russian money... I'll admit I didn't see that one coming.
Quote
> Findia
>
> They'll need to get out of the blocks faster this
> year and build up the momentum sooner. I fear Di
> Resta's progress is stalling a little but at least
> he's got a head start on his yet phantom
> team-mate. The sensible money says Bianchi or
> Sutil but an inadvertent tweet reportedly by Paul
> himself suggests that the big money says Bruno.
> But anyh00 podiums have to be the target.
Podiums
were the target, it was not hit, what more can you say except that Di Resta's progress probably hasn't simply "stalled" but seized up?
Quote
> Williams
>
> Well damn. Hopeful optimism is fast sliding back
> into hopeless despair. With Gillian and Wolf
> leaving in quick succession, suggestions are that
> instability has crept back past the sentries at
> grove. A late arrival of the FW35 will do little
> to steady these nerves. One can only hope it turns
> out to be a corker and the #BOTTAS turns out to be
> the breath of fresh air we all expect him to.
Oh deary me... oh deary deary me. My worst fears were realized x by infinity.
Quote
> Toro Rosso
>
> Another indifferent year with the same indifferent
> indentikit junior red bull drivers. Marko will
> give them maybe one more year to prove themselves
> to be the Vettel successors that they aren't.
> Shame really, this could still be a good little
> team if they were just allowed to be.
Yes... I was slightly wrong. Ricciardo actually convinced Marko that he is
(if not the next Vettel) then the next Webber whilst Vergne is getting another opportunity to re audition.
Quote
> Caterham
>
> Yeah.. Well they're still going to be stuck a good
> 0.5 to 1.0 seconds per lap away from threatening
> Toro Rosso. Especially now they lack an
> experienced driver to push development forward.
> Pic may have been surprisingly solid last year but
> he's still a generic GP2 also ran circulating at
> the back until the money runs out.
Erm yeah..
Quote
> Maurussia
>
> It's such a shame that my "Glock to DTM" prophecy
> came true because I fear Maurussia risk ruining a
> golden opportunity to conquer Caterham. Now it's
> all much of a muchness.
Well they did conquer Caterham in a fashion... but it
was much of a muchness.
Overall... I expected Red Bull to carry on from where they left of in 2012, I thought it likely that they'd again produce the combination of best car, best team, top driver. I did not expect Vettel to mop up the entire 2nd half of the season whilst barely breaking a sweat.
Taking into account the relative stability of the regulations from 2012 into 2013 I
am surprised at the level of dominance displayed by Red Bull and more significantly by how many
(and by how much) teams dropped the ball.
Mercedes did well, they were a definite improvement.
Ferrari's failure to develop the car and react to the tyre changes was disappointing.
Lotus were at about where I expected them to be, Grosjean definitely got his act together.
McLaren messed up big time by going from faster car of 2012 to 5th or 6th fastest car this year.
Force India looked good for a while and like Lotus were about as good as could be expected of them.
Sauber had a very weak car to begin with but the Hulk dragged some excellent results out of it and the team as a whole recovered well in the second half of the season.
Toro Rosso had some high peaks... otherwise they were as expected.
Williams were a complete disaster... as a Williams fan I am uttely exhausted.
Marussia took advantage of Caterhams shoddy start... but in reality still built the slowest car.