The Fast Lane
After the dramatic start to the season with the Australian Formula1 Grand Prix, one can conclude that the 2013 season championship can be won by any of the top five manufacturers; Lotus, Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Force India.The drivers of the above F1 racing teams are current and previous world champions.
Sebastian Vettel for Red Bull in 2010, 2011 and is the current champion. Fernando Alonso for Ferrari won in 2005 and 2006, Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes won 2008 champion, Kimi Riakkonen was 2007 champion and Jenson Button racing for McLaren, won 2009 champion. All these drivers, as well as their team mate, have a high probability of winning the 2013 World Formula1 Championship.
Force India was very competitive in the Australian Grand Prix even though they do not have any champions driving for them. The three teams that are very competitive are McLaren, Force India and Lotus even though they still require speed. However, they cannot be ignored because Ferrari was not among the fastest cars last year yet managed to finish 2nd on the championship table with only 3 points behind Vettel (Redbull). Which means that it takes more than speed and good driving skills to win F1 races, car set ups and strategies all contribute to winning or losing races.
Tyre choices, coming into the pits for fresh tyres and not being economical on tyres also plays a huge role in winning races as seen last week in the Australian Grand Prix.
Riakkonen was not the fastest but was clued up on the use of his tyres, which made his tyres last longer. Due to his tyres lasting longer he was able to make one less pit stop which saved him 30 seconds, enabling him to win the race. Alonso placed 2nd, Vettel 3rd, Massa 4th and Hamilton placed 5th.
Lots of development and improvements to the cars took place during the off season of Formula1 racing. Mercedes and Ferrari are the main manufacturers that have been able to develop and improve their cars. Mercedes have also sorted out their reliability issues that have inflicted their loss last year.
There are only 3 different engine manufacturers in the top 6 car manufacturers,
That is 1) Mercedes engine used by – Mercedes , McLaren and Force India
2) Ferrari- used by Ferrari
3) Renault- used by Red Bull Racing and Lotus .
It is only obvious that the competition is going to be fierce since the car set up is dependent on driver’s ability, weather condition and being on the correct tyre choice at the appropriate time.
The following races in Malaysia and China are going to be the kind of races where tyre choice is going to be critical due to the unpredictable monsoon weather experienced in these countries.
image: http://www.crash.net/f1/picturearchive/186361/13/photos
TheFastLane 