Apparently it is another year, which means there is another season waiting gently in the wings for the curtain to open in Australia. So I suppose on that note this might be a good time to brush the dust away from this corner of the internet and re-open Blog HQ for 2013. There was a plan to release a series of posts over the off-season before now but I got distracted by video games and lines that needed learning - and some more of those have been added to the list. Is not written 'there is no time like the present' so on that note welcome to the first thing to grace the internet since the championship presentation post in the long forgotten past of 2012 - which oddly didn't end in the feared Apocalypse. So what am I doing here with a spontaneous release from my darkened corner - well the answer is simple, things are afoot on the grid, comings and goings and questionable decisions. There has been a tide turning in this transitioning period from one year to the next, where being able to drive a car at any decent speed has increasingly little to do with getting a spot on the grid. In fact, anywhere from the mid-field down being decent is almost detrimental to maintaining a career in the sport. Before preparations get underway for the year - painting up the new blogmobile and things, it is time for a general catch-up of goings on during the winter.
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| credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
One of the first signs that the development wheels are slowly starting to slide into motion is the release of the first 2013 competitor - last season we saw Caterham and McLaren opening the schedule of releases. However this season it is Lotus who open things with the E21 - which bears a lot a similarities to its predecessor. One of the few cars that made the questionable stepped nose design work, so we can expect it to be downhill from here when the other teams pull back the covers on their challengers. There is a slight change in the livery and some refinement of the shape but some consistency in the regulations has ensured that no radical designs have sprung forth, but there is time for that theory to be disproved.
Silly season driver markets
We left the 2012 season with a lot of people having their futures in doubt, and in many cases those doubts have been confirmed - Kamui Kobayashi, one of the blog favourites has been officially booted out. Replaced by a lot of money that happens to come in the shape of Mexican, Esteban Gutierrez, while Force India refugee Hulkenberg takes the other seat. At the front of the grid everything was sorted out long before the winter break, and Lotus sealed their line up after Grosjean avoided hitting anyone for once to win the race of champions. On the whole there are three seats remaining - or possibly five, but we'll get to that issue in a while.
- Seats 1 and 2: Force India
- As of yet Force India have yet to announce any of their drivers for the coming season, presently they have Paul Di Resta as a strong potential for one of those seats, but nothing is confirmed. Then there is the matter of a possible team-mate. Now that Ferrari have adopted former HRT driver De La Rosa, there is an hint that Ferrari development driver Jules Bianchi is being directed into the spare space. However there is the matter of Adrian Sutil as a possible name, along with the list of displaced drivers from the class of 2012.
- Seat 2: Caterham
- Having confirmed Charles Pic before the end of the season, there is one space still available, and a large list of people lining up to take the spot in the leading team in the bottom division. Strangely, none of the current drivers are at the top of the list, on account of their limited funding, Heikki wants a drive on merit alone - so he'll get thrown out for not being rich enough. Petrov is also rumoured to be down on funds so the Russian could be out too - which brings Giedo Van Der Garde into the frame, who ran Friday practice late in the year. The result of this can only serve to increase the amount of anger there is among the fans and media regarding 'pay drivers' defeating speed and ability.
- Seat 3: Marussia
- When we left Brazil it was assumed that this one was done and dusted, maintaining the experience of Glock and a new face of Max Chilton arriving with more money. The Briton has effectively bought his way all the way up the development ladder with a connection to AON insurance or whatever it is they do. His brother Tom has used the same funding to challenge for BTCC wins, but when he and his team couldn't get their way they buggered of to the world series to lose there. So there is not a lot of hope for Max other than being an obstacle at the back - amazing what money does.
Then the plot thickened recently when Timo Glock was removed from the team, another victim of the change in the way the series now operates. Glock now has a seat in DTM for BMW but no news as to who has bought the seat, there is an array of development drivers in the Manor squad but I can assume whoever has the biggest chequebook shall win the seat.
I mentioned the potential for two more seats and those could be in the reanimated HRT team, falling into liqudation at the end of the season amputated them from the 2013 grid, or so we thought. News has emerged that there is interest in buying the team and making a return to the grid, under the title 'Scorpion F1'. This sort of story has been doing the rounds before and came to absolutely nothing, after the demise of the Prost GP team in 2001, similar rumours suggested that they would be reborn under the slighly cliché name of 'Phoenix F1'. I've no idea whether the name had anything to do with the Opel Team Phoenix who competed in DTM at the time - with little success. So I can't imagine that we will see 'Scorpion F1' in 2013 - or 2014 but it is a nice idea, and potential for an awesome livery.
Calendar Madness
The 2013 schedule was initially released with 20 events planned to take place including a new street race in New Jersey, that particular venture was postponed until 2014 (but could go missing altogether) leaving us with 19. But Bernie wants 20 and opened the options up to the floor as who wants to join the calendar this season, the response was less than enthusiastic - the first candidate Istanbul doesn't have enough money to host the race. Then there was the idea of the Red Bull Ring (formerly the A1 Ring) in Austria, but that was merely an idea with no backing and real momentum, a similar situation with Paul Ricard in France. Then things got a little interesting as a new name was linked to the vacant space on the schedule - Portimao in Portugal, an impressive track with lots of undulation but Portugal isn't really rolling in spare cash to host a race either. In the end it is likely that the space held by Valencia in 2012 will stay empty leaving us with 19 races. One interesting tangent is that the timing equipment from the abandoned port circuit has been stolen... we're not seeing that again.
But 19 races was recently cut back to 18 as problems once more involving money mean that the German GP may be under threat, the race alternates between the Nurburgring and Hockkenheim, and it is the former's turn this time. However the Nurburgring can't afford the race, and if Hockenheim can't pick up the tab then we probably won't have a German GP either. So having an impeccable record in recent seasons for creating world champions doesn't mean you get to keep your race. An indication that older traditional nations are under threat, when the likes of Russia, Mexico and Thailand plotting races in the near Future. Sochi has even been handed a provisional November 2014 date for the first Russian GP - shame that the only Russian driver is on the verge of being booted out
And that is all
So we come to and end of the opening post of the year, of what promises to be a turbulent season full of complaints at the increasing wave of funded drivers replacing current proven talents. There is an argument brewing and with tracks and drivers falling by the wayside - it can't end well for all concerned. But as more cars are released and more of those seats are filled, and the theoretical Scorpion F1 bid unfurls or fades into nothingness - the bigger picture will become clear. So until then this is farewell from Blog HQ.
