Round 2: Malaysia 2013: Race

Greetings Internet,

Well, that was... interesting, we ended up with a race where we technically shouldn't have had on and a little further back we didn't have a race where perhaps we should have done. Last race we finished off with the mythical Kimi Happy Face, this time there was a wall of a mixture of grumpy faces, guilty faces, and uneasy faces up on the podium and some rather displeased radio transmissions from all down the field. Conflicts on the track, over the radio, on the podium and in the pit-lane. We might not have had a mass feast of racing action and were spared the bulk of the rain and monsoon conditions only drowning the opening sector of the warm-up lap to the grid. This is one race that will not be remembered specifically for it's content or the action it contained, but for the damming repercussions that will reverberate through the world of F1 for quite a long time. There was a time when these sorts of things were deservingly banned, but the defiance of the teams, determined to circumvent and disrupt any form of sporting agreements, concealing intentions inside coded communications ruined that. To find it taking such a dominating role at this exceptionally early age of the season is exceptionally irritating, Force India played that card last weekend, and it didn't make it onto the TV or into any post race analysis but the internet finds these things. Today, there is not need to dig up the hidden stories of the race, because everything was played out very publicly at the front of the field...

Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

The Race

The rain had begun to fall during the pre-race build up, but only during one sector of the track specifically through turn three which was causing all manner of hassle as drivers tried to get round to the grid. It became a long list of visitors to the gravel in that particular corner, started by Ricciardo but Chilton, Webber, Maldonado were among those going off, Bottas went closest to making the wall dislodging his front wing in the process. Another race where front wings were to be an endangered species, both Bottas and Ricciardo replaced theirs before the start.

With conditions virtually identical to the start of 2012, where part of the track was wet and the rest completely dry everyone started on the intermediate tyres. A start that went well for Webber this race and less well for Massa off the front row, allowing Fernando to challenge Vettel through the first corner. Unfortunately Alonso didn't notice that Sebastian wasn't obligated to move out of the way at the apex of turn two and bumped the rear of Vettel's Red Bull breaking another front wing in the process. The Ferrari dragged the car round fending off Webber while unleashing a shower of sparks from the damaged wing. Unfortunately Alonso preferred racing the Australian instead of pitting to fix the damage, as a result the wing folded underneath the car after Webber passed him at the start of the second lap sending the Spaniard off into the gravel and out of the race. Leaving a Red Bull one-two, something that should be safe and manageable because team-mates should be friends...

The opening laps were tentative as the intermediate tyres were useless for the majority of the lap, but slicks would put anyone in the fence through turn three, Raikkonen was not having a good time at the bottom of the top ten behind Hulkenberg and Grosjean - running off track at turn 12 as the tyres began to wear. Of the top contenders it was the leader Vettel who pitted first for slicks, and found himself in all kinds of traffic when rejoining, falling behind Sutil, Perez and Grosjean on the wettest part of the track. Hamilton tried pitting but forgot that he had moved to Mercedes over the winter and pulled into the McLaren pit stall... but things were even worse for Force India who staked cars in the lane only to have a delay on Sutils car removing both cars from the points positions. Further back Torro Rosso released Vergne into the side of Charles Pic's Caterham - more front wings ruined. Interestingly Webber stayed out setting quick laps so he cycled through to the lead... the concept of friend ship wasa stating to fade.

Formation flying for the top four in the middle section of the race, Red Bull followed by Mercedes, two sets of happy team-mates what could possibly go wrong there... With that sorted out the majority of the action was at the other end of the points where Lotus were reliving the days of being the Renault Squadron flanking Ricciardo through turn one/two and up through three, Grosjean made the pass and Kimi followed a few laps later. Because everyone was simply racing from one pit-stop to the next there was not too much going on trackside, so the TV crews actually picked up a battle between Van Der Garde and Chilton at the back of the field so it turns out they are part of the race. The Lotus train had caught up with Hulkenberg - not too much a problem for Grosjean but Kimi had more of a problem, running off at 12 again, and then spent a while shouting at the team about the German's defensive approach. On the exit of turn four Hulkenberg eased Kimi slightly towards the edge of the track. Following this the pair drove two wide down the pit-lane of which the Sauber came out on top of proceedings.

By the half way point there was some dissent brewing in the ranks up front, because the Mercedes pair were closing in Vettel was getting a little cross at being second, calling the team to demand that Webber move over... "Get him out of the way" were the terms used. He was reminded that is was only half way and to be patient, not sure Germans do patience... Elsewhere Force India were having a more torrid time in the pitlane - taking forever to change the front left wheels, I would not be surprised if Di Resta is not waiting in the pitbox now, several hours later. Neither car was safe from the tyre issues and were ultimately forced to retire due to a combination of overheating issues due to sitting in the pit for ages. Other pit lane problems affected McLaren, after almost adopting Hamilton again, they didn't quite fit a front wheel securely on Jenson's car dropping him out of the points and into a convenient retirement later on in the race. 

Front wings were in for a beating down at Williams as Malonado ran wide at turn 11 knocking half the wing off in the gravel. The team dutifully replaced the damaged section of the car, and to repay their hard work Pastor somehow managed to put the car in a different gravel trap, which might have been turn one. How the car got there is a complete mystery but it wasn't coming back out again. Before those at the top of the order became less friendly Hamilton managed to get his Mercedes between the two Red Bull drivers through the pit stops, of which there had been a few during the race once the track dried out. But sitting behind the McLaren seemed to make Vettel even more cross, and made it his mission to take the place back from Lewis and made the pass as the tyres on the Mercedes began to wear out and Lewis couldn't defend the attack from the Red Bull. 

Things were getting a little fractured at the front of the field following the final batch of pit-stops because Vettel emerged virtually alongside Webber, duelling through the opening sequence of corners by Webber held off the German bloke and defended a second attack in turn four. At this point the dreaded words 'team orders' came into effect as Horner instructed both drivers to stay in position, a call that Vettel must have missed out on... Strangely behind them a virtually identical situation was developing. Both Mercedes' were also in formation, but Hamilton was short on fuel so had to slow down to make it home, but that brought Rosberg right into position behind him. Nico repeatedly drafted past Lewis on the back straight with DRS but was repassed on the main straight, the German made several calls to HQ to be allowed to stay ahead of Hamilton but was severely instructed not to. It was becoming very, very silly...

With only a few laps remaining Vettel decided that team orders are only recommendations, so while Webber had turned his car down to conserve components Sebastian went on the attack, on the inside of the main straight right up against the wall, centimetres from the team car. The battle raged trough the first two corners with Webber retaking the spot and blocking Vettel through turn three, but the German Bloke went would not take no for an answer and went round the outside of turn four. Rather than risk knocking wheels off in the fight with an angry German, Webber let him go. More anger seething through Rosbergs helmet who despite virtually having to avoid running into the back of Lewis due to the speed disparity was not allowed to pass the other Mercedes. More calls went to Ross Brawn, all of which were declined. Team mates rapidly not becoming buddies at the front of the field.

At the end Vettel crossed the line first, ahead of a very cross Mr Webber, Hamilton was allowed a podium followed by an equally angry Nico Rosberg. Of the people who were not especially angry was the remaining Ferrari of Massa who had a fairly dull, uneventful day, in front of the two Lotus cars including the moderately displeased Kimi Raikkonen. Despite duelling in the pit-lane and making Kimi a little cross in the process, Nico Hulkenberg finished his first race in the points in 8th, with One-Stop Perez (who stopped four times) finishing the race in 9th. Claiming the final point was Jean-Eric Vergne after recovering from ramming Pic in the opening round of stops, for which the team have been fined 10,000EUR for the shunt.

The Bonus Points Championship Winners

In a race where the negatives and anger have dominated it is time to hand out the positive side of todays events..

• 25pts -  Romain Grosjean - Passed people without hitting anyone, beat Kimi on pace in a car which is less developed good job all round - and pass of the day on Hulkenberg
• 18pts - Sebastian Vettel - Despite being a whiny prat, rejecting the irritating concept of team orders is a worth cause
• 15pts - Mark Webber - Lead most of the race until the team told him he was allowed to win wasn't going to win, but shoulnd't have been promised otherwise
• 12pts - Lewis Hamilton - Keeping up with Red Bull and was very accepting of the corrupting orders that kept Nico off the podium
• 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - First race he has been able to start and finished as the lead mid-field runners with Force India eliminated
• 8pts - Nico Rosberg - Should have easily been on the podium but the powers that be down at Mercedes are placing all the eggs in Hamilton's basket already.
• 6pts - Jules Bianchi - Dominating the bottom division once more, with Chilton in the other car a lap down on the entire division... oh dear 
• 4pts - Jenson Button - Finally found some pace in the McLaren before things went completely pear shaped.
• 2pts - Valtteri Bottas - When Maldonado binned the car again, Bottas almost made the points and didnt ruin the car.. after the grid lap at least
• 1pts - James Hinchcliffe - for winning the opening race of the Indycar series in St Petersberg Florida

The Penalties Championship

Only the team fine handed to Torro Rosso for the unsafe release into Pic's Caterham of 10,000EUR

The Penalty Points Championship

Here we go...

• Mercedes - For utterly meaningless team orders, you can trust the cars not to hit each other, and forcing Nico to stay behind a car that was clearly struggling with fuel shortages 
• Red Bull - More team orders a foot here, delaring a race over before the end at this early stage of the season is silly, both drivers want to win - trying to force a manufactured result is not cool
• Sebastian Vettel - Yes disobeying stupid team orders is rebellious, but blatantly demanding the team to move one car ahead of another is unacceptable arrogance - you want past get on with it  yourself as in the final phase.
• Force India - Systematically managed to ruin both drivers days at every single pit stop
• Rain - delivered so little today, and only really took Alonso out of the race
• Fernando Alonso - Staying out on the damaged wing, not entirely an act of genius there

Looking ahead to China 

Another early start, but the first one on the BBC this season which is always so much more of a relief, Sky are improving but it is still forced and about as awkward as the podium was today. Things might be significantly more temperamental in Shanghai because the team order debarcle will have had a fortnight to ferment and stew behind closed doors. The outpourings from this will flood the media and the internet for days to come, there are claims that team orders are a necessary evil in the sport... that doesn't sit all too well at Blog HQ hence penalty points. As for the actual race in China, there are many similarities with Malaysia in the configuration of the track, with a virtually identical flow of corners for the first half of the lap. It is another Tilke creation meaning it is part lunacy with the odd redeeming feature if you look hard enough for it, it takes a little more effort in China to find any. 

The main difference lies in the climate, as it is expected to be a lot cooler than the tropical heat of Sepang - which cars will that play to - Lotus perhaps who were quick in a colder Australia last weekend. Last season it was Mercedes and Rosberg, when he was allowed to be faster than his team-mate, who took a dominant victory in the colder conditions - and if the folk at Red Bull beat each other up Mercedes might be on course to repeat that. Not discounting Ferrari of course who didn't have the best of races today, so until next time this is farewell from me here at blog HQ.

Round 2: Malaysia Qualifying '

Greetings Internet,

This post is rather a little behind schedule as there was a slight interjection into my schedule on possibly the most unnecessarily long bus journey ever so long in fact the was a need for a Le Mans style driver change at the half way point. However it was far from slick, Audi would would have knocked several minutes off that. As a result I'll probably have to cut things down a little just to make sure this doesn't run easily into tomorrow and considering that the race is on in the morning as it is, it'll even further threaten the dwindling audience members considering everyone will be asleep. This thing as it is, already verges on pointlessness so for this race I'll try something a little different and run through the grid and the individual stories of the day, that started well over 12 hours ago.

Image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

The Grid

This morning session was threatened to be another replica of the washout suffered in Australia especially with a history of monsoons and tropical storms - which have caused mayhem in many a race over recent years. So when the skies appeared dry overhead and track temperatures remaining high, there were mixed feelings of both disappointment and relief because the powers that be have an overwhelming tendency to cancel and red flag everything at the first sign of moisture, crying off under the wide ranging excuse of 'health and safety' even on a track with run-off areas wider than the Atlantic ocean. There was some rain for the final phase of the event, coming in during the end of Q2 and up to the middle of Q3 - so this is how we will line up tomorrow morning.

Q1

• 22nd - Gierdo Van Der Garde - Caterham are at the very back of the grid after years dominating the division, but because Gierdo is not Kovalainen there is a performance difference and was three tenths off the nearest car.
• 21st - Max Chilton - Oh, dear, not going so well this time is it, the Marussia should be a little further forward, but at least he isn't last... somehow.
• 20th - Charles Pic - Getting a little more out of the Caterham, and placing it where roughly it should be on pace, considerably ahead of where Van Der Garde has placed his.
• 19th - Jules Bianchi - Completely hammered the entire third division, and anihilated Chilton's time, I'm not entirely sure the Marussia should be going this fast but Jules is re-writing the rules at the bottom end of the grid.
• 18th - Valtteri Bottas - More problems for Williams, the car is fundamentally slower than it's main rivals and drifting back towards Bianchi, the sole contender to escape the bottom division.
• 17th - Jean-Eric Vergne - Vergne has spent a lot of time being relegated from Q1 and this one adds to the list, Torro Rosso and Willams are are both on the backfoot in terms of pace and losing ground to the rest of the mid-field. 

Q2

• 16th - Pastor Maldonado - The bad times at Williams continue, Pastor was unable to set a time in Q2 because his run schedule happened to coincide with the shower at the end of the session and it was not feasible to complete a competitive time and would have ended up last in the group anyway.
• 15th - Paul Di Resta - Similar problems for the Force India driver, who was on a much better lap aiming for Q3, but caught the rain on entry to turn 7 and slid wide off the circuit. A second attempt immediately after saw him spin the car in the same corner and confirming the 15th place start position
• 14th - Esteban Gutierrez - A fairly anonymous session flying under the radar, being generally unspectacular throughout having got all the spinning and upsetting Ferrari out of the system in practice. 
• 13th - Daniel Ricciardo - A reasonable qualifying for the Torro Rosso who seem a little further off the mid-field than they were in Melbourne, but because times with Sauber are close the race could be rather close in the middle. Williams might even get to play, perhaps.
• 12th -Nico Hulkenberg - The second Sauber to be virtually unnoticed by the TV crews, but then again in the last race they failed to notice anyone outside the top 8... so that's where Nico needs to be to be more visible.
• 11th - Romain Grosjean - Slightly caught out by the rains too, lost the opportunity to make and gains in the latter part of the session, only just missing out on making it into Q3 by the smallest of margins

Q3

• 10th - Kimi Raikkonen - Actually qualified 7th, but somewhere along the line got in the way of Nico Rosberg, and as a result had been demoted down to 10th a three place grid drop penalty making the prospect for the race a little more interesting. But makes is more challenging for Raikkonen not that he particularly cares.
• 9th - One-Stop Perez - His first qualifying in the top 10, this season for McLaren and promoted due to Kimi's penalty, however this might be the highest this silver car will place over the weekend.
• 8th - Adrian Sutil - Continuing to make an impressive comeback and beating Di Resta into the top 10, and due to the wet Q3 has free reign on tyres for the start of the race.
• 7th - Jenson Button - Things are McLaren are not fixed but slowly getting a little better and potentially wet conditions may ease things on Button's side of the garage over the course of the race tomorrow morning.
• 6th - Nico Rosberg - Had a strong opening couple of phases of qualifying but after the apparent issue with Kimi ended up further back than his team-mate on the grid - but in the rain has been the fastest member of the team.
• 5th - Mark Webber - Made the wrong strategy call in Q3, not changing the intermediate tyres after they would have been damaged through the dry opening sector costing time and a chance to improve in the final moments of the session.
• 4th - Lewis Hamilton - The move to Mercedes seems to be more beneficial than it first seemed as the pace continues this weekend, ahead of Lotus in the pecking order for tomorrow's race, both wet or dry. 
• 3rd - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari remain quick, and consistently so and under race conditions Fernando could be considered to be one of the most threatening prospects for a race win
• 2nd - Felipe Massa - Beating the clear team favourite once again to start a run of 100% out-qualifying record in 2013, in the race however - a convenient strategy call might reverse those positions.
• 1st - That German Bloke - Well in many respects, we all saw that one coming, surprise surprise all round, but the race is a whole different game...

The Bonus Points Championship points winners

Here are the winners from the session all those hours ago in the middle of the morning:

• 10pts - Jules Bianchi - Completely blew the rest of the division away and was not too far away from making it out of Q1 on raw pace which is really impressive.
• 8pts - Felipe Massa - Is well on form at present and might threaten reversing the team order, nah just kidding anything barring an official decree from this new pope chap will alter that
• 6pts - Adrian Sutil - Still doing rather well for Force India, much to Di Resta's dismay 
• 5pts - Nico Rosberg - Performed really well up until the final phase, beating Hamilton up until that point in the session.
• 4pts - One-Stop Perez - Getting the challenged McLaren out of Q2 even if it was only in 10th
• 3pts - Esteban Gutierrez - The only one of the rookies to escape Q1 this time round
• 2pts - Paul Di Resta - For an epic drifting save through turn four when there was some rain through the second practice session
• 1pt - Fabio Leimer - For winning the first GP2 race of the season so here's a point.

The Penalty Points Series

Only one point is to be issued, and that it is not within the field and it goes to the GP2 division and Johnny Checotto  - who went for some Maldonado-esque vigilante justice on Sam Bird pushing him completely off the track because he felt aggrieved by the Brit earlier on. Illustrating that a lot of the madness that makes it into F1 does start in the lower formulae.

The Penalties Series

Two additions to this tally from the first part of the weekend, first is the grid drop handed to Raikkonen for blocking Rosberg, while the second is another speeding issue, this time for Bianchi handed 2,800 EUR in fines on Friday

Because it is really late now, and this post has already taken two hours to write as is, I shall bid whoever reads these things farewell until tomorrow afternoon, which should be closer to a representative schedule

Round 2: Malaysia 2013 - Preview

Greetings Internet,

Less than a week later here we are once more, setting the scene for another encounter in the quick-fire nature of this opening phase of the new season. As a result not too much has happened here in the realm of Blog HQ, apparently I aged again - a detail I neither approve of or recommend as a future course of action, but despite my objections it occurred. Moving on from that unfortunate event, I was almost cultured once more, but my lack of planning ability killed that idea off, initially my venture was planned for last weekend, but firstly I misread the listings. Doing that once is a little daft, but only mildly foolish, yet making a similar error twice is organisationally terminal my traditional precise clarity failed once again - plotting and planning for a Saturday night.... only to find the run concluded on the Friday. As a result trying to pull something together for that venture didn't allow for anyone else to react or fit into their schedules ruining everything I'd planned for. On the bright side I hadn't built the accompaniments and printed things so if there is ever a future opportunity, I shall need to be better prepared.

Back to the more important and vastly more interesting world of F1, a sense of deja-vu is building surrounding this weekend when we consult the weather forecast for the area and there is a lot of rain pending. The tropical climate of the region is famous for monsoon rains, rain that brought a halt to both the 2009 and 2012 races - the former having to be cancelled and half points awarded, and made the concept of a Kimi ice cream break infamous. While Webber was consulting other drivers on track conditions and the prospect of restarting the event Raikkonen sat in the garage in his shorts and had an ice cream... Even though the FIA have gotten increasingly soft whenever the rain begins to fall, a little bit of moisture might be needed to make the Sepang layout more interesting as a race, as the prospect of the dual DRS this time round has generated mixed feelings amongst spectators as to the impact it'll have come Sunday... if it stays dry.

The Track

We didn't get too far before we run smack into a dreary Tilke-drome this is only race two and here is the first of many, Sepang was the designer's first contribution to global frustrations - and I'd love to say things got better with time, but they didn't...cough, cough... Bahrain. But that might be a little harsh the track isn't all bad, there are some genuinely decent corners, not just in relative terms to some of the others on the lap. Than again in comparison to turn 1, the Valencian Street track seems like an immensely preferable concept, the first couple of corners beggars belief at how it was allowed into production. I'm fairly close to falling into insanity from time to time, but that sequence is almost the very definition of lunacy... seriously Mr Tilke, why...

After those insults the concept of corners, the rest of the track is a vast improvement, everything from turn three to the hairpin at 9 is enjoyably and almost flows, something that is continually missing from these modern efforts. Even though it does remain blighted by those health and safety tarmac run-off areas - although the one outside of turn 8 sent Petrov into the air in the Renault Squadron machine in 2011. I understand the point of these things, to allow people to rejoin after going off, but allowing people to gain an advantage by running off the track - in Fairness to Sepang there is an astroturf margin at the trackside to limit the effect.

The remainder of the lap used to be vilified here at Blog HQ, with its decreasing radius corners becoming irritating during filming of the track videos, but that has eased over time - not so much on the penultimate corner. Because the other blog cars have stuggled with understeer, a weakness that is exploited by those sorts of corners, now the new machine is much more elegant through the corners and makes driving them much more enjoyable, but then again that's Myria for you.... anyway while I extract my mind from that place again, all that remains of the lap are the two DRS zones thankfully with independent detection zones. Their placement seems foolish, bordering on pointless - stick the overtaking assistance where passing is already possible instead of opening up other opportunities... the mind boggles. As a result we might see people just drive past each other with ease, there may be some strategic use because the two zones are so close, and pack racing - if such a thing exists - could be very dynamic.

That only leaves one thing left to do - unleash the latest video from HQ, where I take Myria to two different Malaysian circuits - of course these are the only two Malaysian circuits I can load into rFactor to drive around. Adding to the developing feature of finding potential alternatives to the current designated venue.

The form guide

Erm... next question... with the changing conditions on a unique circuit the results and performances virtually mean nothing in preparation for this weekend, the track is wildly different and the climate is so much warmer. Cars of today are very temperature sensitive, so the tropical heat could really re-arrange the pecking order, last year high temperatures made Lotus really quick while the cold helped Sauber. Then of course there is the impending threat of monsoon rains - and in the wet first attempt at qualifying, McLaren were much less worse off and Rosberg was in a world of his own at the front. Torro Rosso also have a really quick car in questionable conditions - pace not win this weekend but adaptability to the rainfall. That is of course if the FIA allow racing to occur in anything other than faint drizzle before the increasingly heavy hand of health and safety gets in the way again.

In the middle of the pack lies the very definition of complete uncertainty, Force India and Sauber are the quickest of that division. Not that we've really seen anything of Hulkenberg after his car didn't make the start due to fuel issues, how that will turn out on a faster high downforce circuit, no one knows least of all me. Williams however probably have to deal with an increasingly displeased Maldonado who ranted at the team on Saturday, and then binned the car on Sunday, making all kinds of friends there, instead of trying to make some progress.

Back in division three Marussia have finally caught and passed Caterham - or more accurately Bianchi has caught and passed them... Chilton well less so. Both him and Van Der Garde are a long way off their respective team-mates and Jules is beating Pic at the front of the division. Should the conditions go a little bit mental for the race it would not be too much of a stretch to see Bianchi at the bottom of the points. It is nice to see things making progress at the bottom of the field, still it is a shame that the likes of Minardi and Super Aguri are no longer back there, oh well things change.

The 2013 Malaysian GP may be another rain soaked affair, where the safety car gets more miles than any of the grid, but in these early stages of a new season no-one can ever be completely sure what is going to happen. Unpredictability played a large part in the opening races of 2012, where One-stop Perez almost won this race last year, in the Sauber, so hopefully intrigue and insanity will take over, and who doesn't like a little madness in a Sunday afternoon.

Round 1: Australia 2013 - Race

Greetings Internet,

In some respects the opening race of the season has been a little bit of an anti-climax, all of the rain and questionable conditions appeared yesterday - and ever so slightly in the second part of qualifying at midnight over here in this part of the world. Something that was rather disorienting as it was just before Sunday afternoon in Australia while being Saturday night here - easily enough mess with the simplistic workings of my mind. It was in that midnight session, that a certain German Bloke took a seemingly inevitable dry pole from Webber, while McLaren had no idea what they were up too throwing wrong tyres at both cars at the wrong time - summing up a fairly dismal weekend which wasn't going to get too much better anytime soon. The other important pace setting cars were Ferrari and Mercedes closely followed by Lotus - in the midfield Force India and Sauber were slightly ahead of Torro Rosso while Williams struggled to stay ahead of Marussia and Caterham. But all of that was last night, and because not too much happened I can't see a second batch of bonus points for the session.

Today was raceday, well it was in the very small hours of the morning at Blog HQ, while I let the recorder take care of the footage and I'd catch up with it when I was bored of sleeping - or was awakened by some very confusing dreams where I was in CSI:NY... nope I don't understand that one either. I and several other people would have expected today to be a display of Red Bull dominance, a front row lockout in dry condition seemed almost inevitable. Now while the race was mildly subdued in terms of madness and action, to the extent that no-one made any contact with anyone else throughout the duration of the entire race, and only one non-mechanical retirement. Things were not dull, there was always the potential for things to change and change they did throughout the course of the race. So this is how things played out this morning.

image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

The Race

The footage opened on a disappointingly dry track - but in the present climate if any rain turned up the powers that be would probably red flag the whole thing and hide in the garages anyway... More disappointment was afoot in the Sauber garage, because Nico Hulkenberg's car didn't have an engine attached, I may not be an expert in automotive engineering but I assume that having an engine is fairly rudimentary to competing. However the fuel system problem could not be repaired before the start of the race leaving us with only 21 cars on the grid.

At the start of the race Webber was in a slightly different time zone than the rest of the grid and lost a lot of places, Hamilton didn't fair too much better loosing places to both Ferraris leaving him with the attentions of Raikkonen's Lotus. Confusingly no-one hit each other in the first corner or any other subsequent corner - Ricciardo was on the grass for a little bit, which was the dramatic high point of the opening corner. There was the briefest glimpse of a flapping front wing endplate on a Marussia but there is no evidence of how or where that happened, in fact if it wasn't for being caught in the corner of the odd camera angle we would have no idea the Marussia team even existed. The same could be said for Caterham - they are merely an enigma, I'm not convinced that Chilton is even on the grid at all....

Anyway with the cars that the TV cameras have heard of, Vettel was not escaping from the Ferrari armada - Massa leading Alonso, something so unnatural in the mindset of the team that Domincali was probably immediately onto the Pope personally to organise some divine intervention. But there was another threat - Raikkonen, with or without a supplimentry ice cream had dealt with the struggling Hamilton and joined the queue behind the German bloke. On the other side of the Red Bull garage Helmut Marko's favourite driver was not having a good day, at the bottom of the top ten with Button - also not having a good day - and Di Resta having a distinctly indifferent day. Mark started the first round of pit-stops as those from Q3 shed their ruined softer tyres, one by one the remainder of the top ten followed suit. The last team to pit were the Mercedes team, compensating a lack of early pace with lower tyre degradation - did that plan help, well frankly no, no it didn't. Leaving a German bloke out front, just not the same one we'd expect as it was Adrian Sutil in the Force India staying out on the medium tyres.

In this middle phase of the race there was a bit of queue forming behind Sutil lead Vettel and the two Ferrari's while Raikkonen lurked just outside of the turbulent air flowing off the surface of Alonso's car. This line of cars went on for quite a while just being orderly and ever so slightly cautious in the opening race of the season. Fernando got bored with this train of cars, and pitted off sequence to get out of line - much to Massa's displeasure who demanded a two stop strategy to counteract Fernando's earlier stop. Sutil pitted next followed in by Vettel only to rejoin to find Alonso had taken a net lead as everyone was now forming up behind Rosberg. At this stage we had no retirements, things were more cagey than a picture of aggression and crazed manoeuvres -  that would be where Maldonado came into the equation. Having called the car rubbish after qualifying, Pastor span the thing into the gravel in turn one. While the Williams was being craned away, the second retirement of the day fell to Rosberg, pulling the Mercedes over with some terminal mechanical issue in turn four.

Nothing too much happened after that especially for Ricciardo who was also removed by mechanical failure from the race, as the focus turned to tyre management and the different strategies - and while everyone was opting for 3 stops, there was one exception. For once it was a Mexican now in a McLaren - in fact One-Stop Perez was three stopping and also not having a good day outside the points. This was Raikkonen lurking behind the top three cars with Sutil dropping to 5th, the Finn had been there all race putting in quick laps and maintaining a subtle difference, but staying within on pitstop of Alonso out front put him in a race winning position. When the Ferrari's and Vettel stopped the Lotus inevitably went to the front - well almost the front Sutil had stayed out once more and lead the race. Until Kimi hunted the Force India down and took the position. 

Raikkonen was gone - no-one could catch him, Alonso closed the gap in traffic despite almost wiping Charles Pic's Caterham out in the penultimate corner. Because the front of the race had finally been settled the TV people finally acknowledged that there were some other cars in the race - and found where Webber had gone to find he was at the bottom end of the points with Button. Both of which were not having a good day - still. But in the process of not having a good day, he was able to pass Di Resta round the outside of turn nine, going round the outside of people seemed to be theme of the day as a lot of the passes were less than conventional in that manner - albeit DRS assisted. After having a mostly good day so far, Sutil was about to have a very bad day as he switched to the softer compound tyres as per the regulations - the new tyres were blatantly awful. He suffered from severe graining and lost places to Button and Webber - all three not having a good day.

At the end of 58 laps, Kimi Raikkonen stealthed the car to victory - such a covert operation that Vettel didn't even notice that the Lotus had out-stratigised everyone and worked the tyres well. As a result we were all treated to Kimi's happy face, which is not too dissimilar to his other faces - I assume the lack of ice cream may have something to do with that. Fernando drove his Ferrari to second, with a confused Vettel third. Some divine strategical intervention dropped Massa down to fourth followed by Hamilton's Mercedes - the driver move not sounding too bad now. Webber made the most of not having a good day in 6th ahead of both Force India drivers - of which Di Resta was complaining about not having a good day. Speaking of not having a good day, Button picked up 9th - apparently a reflection of their net pace, and Grosjean took the final point.

The Bonus points championship points winners

Despite the race being more of a strategic event than one based on raw speed and overtaking prowess points need to be awarded and are as follows:

• 25pts - Adrian Sutil - I think that counts as a decent comeback and the second consecutive race lead by a Force India, until the tyres disintegrated in the final stint.
• 18pts - Kimi Raikkonen - A very stealthy race, sneaking the race away from Alonso on strategy
• 15pts - Fernando Alonso - Dug himself out of a train of cars and won the three stopper race
• 12pts - Felipe Massa - For beating Fernando on pace most of the time, but lost out on strategy 
• 10pts - Lewis Hamilton - Turns out the Mercedes is rather quick after all, just not quick enough
• 8pts - Sebastian Vettel - Suppose the German bloke should have some points
• 6pts - Mark Webber - For the best overtaking move of the race on Di Resta
• 4pts - Esteban Gutierrez - For being the lead rookie, who occupied 5 of the bottom 6 cars 
• 2pts - Max Chilton - For not being last, and not hitting Van Der Garde when racing the Caterham
• 1pt -  Nico Hulkenberg - Of all the people having a bad day Nico deserves a consolation point

The penalty points championship

Because everyone was being very sensible today, and there was no contact whatsoever between everyone - a couple came close at the start, and Alonso nearly attacked a Caterham, there are no official penalties to add. So we move swiftly on to the penalty points series, which also has limited additions.

• Blue flags - They were out of order today, continually waving them at Sutil, who was racing Red Bull and Ferrari for position - Force India lead most of Brazil last season why is this so unusual
• McLaren - Made a bit of a mess of this haven't we
• Maldonado - Ranting about the team after 20 minutes of compromised running on Saturday is a little harsh frankly

Onto Malaysia

Next up is the first of the Tilke-dromes of the season as we head to Sepang, to a climate of tropical monsoons and elongated red flag periods in the middle of a race, and the very inception of the concept of Kimi's ice cream breaks. Australia is traditionally a hot and dry weekend - and that failed to materialise so who knows what the Malaysian climate has on offer for us next time. There is very little in terms of form that can be carried forward from one race to the next at this stage, because the tracks are so different in configurations. Albert Park is a narrower temporary track, while Sepang is insanely wide, with acres of run-off space to play with. On top of that the temperature change will affect different teams in different ways, because the cars are increasingly temperature sensitive in this era.

Red Bull might have single lap qualifying pace, but Ferrari and Lotus are much better over a race distance, Mercedes also have single lap pace but fade away too over the course of the race. Force India are the leaders of the mid-field, even ahead of McLaren who are not going to have a good time for a while. Perhaps Malaysia will be better for them as the car struggles more in slower speed corners with a short radius - there are not too many of those in Sepang so who knows what is going to happen. Until next time this is farewell from blog HQ.

Round 1: Australia Qualifying... sort of

Greetings Internet,

We have spent all winter waiting for some competitive track action, where everyone has the same goal, the same objectives and roughly the same configuration - in testing they all have individual programs to run to. But today, in the small hours of the morning while we were all asleep as I was qualifying got underway, more on how that played out later on - today's post may be a little shorter than it traditionally is. This is the first time we've seen all the new cars in the same place at the same time in nice and shiny HD, and for the most part, the updated liveries look brilliant - if only McLaren and Force India bothered refining there designs over the winter. Even the seemingly questionable colour Caterham have painted their car in looks really good - even after it kept getting reshaped during the session. Staying at the back of the grid, the Marussia  also looks great in its simplicity - with a design not interrupted with aerodynamic fins, and devices. One of the slight let-downs in the livery market, is that the Sauber doesn't look as evil and dark as it did in the initial press photos, there is a hint of deviance but not as edgy as it could have been.

The most confusing thing of a new season is having to learn all the new helmet designs and remind myself who is in which car - not entirely helpful at Mercedes where both Nico and Lewis are wearing virtually identical hats. If that wasn't enough One-Stop Perez at McLaren has come up with something exceedingly similar to the driver he is replacing. It is going to take several races to assimilate everything, so lets start with almost qualifying.

credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

There was the threat of rain before the start of the weekend, focussed qualifying and those forecasts were far from wrong - as the rainstorms knocked the power to the TV broadcasting centre for most of the pre-show. Not really going to complain there because SKY's presenting team are less than impressive... so that kept them off screen for a while, but the rain started to affect the session which is not entirely helpful. The medical car was the only thing on track, because although most of the track was fine and drivable - but there were some large rivers and patches of standing water, posing a threat of aquaplaning on the exit of the fastest sequence of the circuit. So we waited. And waited some more, until I went and grabbed a toastie, because all that waiting makes me hungry.

Some considerable time later Q1 was officially started while a long queue was forming in the pit lane headed by the Mercedes clones where Hamilton may or may not be first in line - who can tell. Fortunately the timing system could and it was Hamilton leading Nico, to investigate the challenging conditions. Rosberg didn't have a problem with it and went fastest, but Hamilton was caught out by the water and span into the barrier ever so gently and reversed away from scene of the crime with a missing wing endplate. Wings fast become an endangered species as everyone spent some time a little close to the walls - and it was one of the newest drivers first to hit the wall properly, Gierdo Van Der Garde took the front wing off on his first lap in turn 6.

There was spray and cars everywhere, complete disorganised confusion - brilliant - drivers racing each other down the front straight Bottas had Raikkonen for company - and oddly Kimi didn't have his traditional rain ice-cream. Lotus need to sort that out pronto. Somewhere in the madness times were being set and Nico and unusually Vergne were towards the top of the timings - Torro Rosso seem to go very well in the wet. The population of front wings was lowered once more as Massa placed his Ferrari into the barrier - it was a substantial hit out of turn 12 decimating the wing but miraculously causing no other damage when spinning down the track before being able to replace the nose and carry on. 

It was time to change onto intermediate tyres, and it was the british drivers who went first because rain is pretty much a state of fact here - as Jenson, and Di Resta experimented. Button went fastest and Di Resta went across the grass at the chicane, not be out-done Maldonado went for a bigger slide and remained in relegation. Without HRT, two mid-field cars will be demoted with Marussia and Caterham and both those places belonged to Williams, well they did until Bottas relegated Gutierrez's Sauber. If front wings though they were safe they was to be a last minute cull on carbon fibre, Perez and Van Der Garde came close, missing the inside wall in the fast chicane, but Pic in the other Caterham completed a clean sweep of smashing up nosecones. Those green walls were well camouflaged today as lots people ran into them, and the final laps of the session were compromised by some more damage - Esteban Gutierrez in an effort to make it out of Q1 replicated Massa's accident with the one slight exception was that the car was rather more ruined than the Ferrari was.

This is where Q2 would traditionally have been... but there was some more rain, and then there was the mere threat of rain which apparently is enough to keep adding delays to the proceedings. There was only a few rivers in place on track, and the odd puddle but no-one was allowed out - a little bit overly health and safety once more. So after missing a complete rain-free window to get through at least Q2 the rain and clouds intensified, making the combination of fading light, spray and the slippery conditions unsuitable to continue. So there was no more qualifying until midnight tonight - safe to say there will not be a second post for qualifying, audiences are thin on the ground as is so there is no real worth to a post at two in the morning. Especially as that is only four hours from the start of the race anyway...

The bonus points championship points winners

Because we haven't had a complete session today, the blog will only offer half points, as is the case in incomplete races. I don't know if the other half points will be added at the end of the race tomorrow, haven't decided on that yet. But here are the half-winners from today.

• 5pts - Jean Eric Vergne - Holding the car in the top three in the wettest part of the session and still competitive on the intermediates
• 3pts - Nico Rosberg - Was penned as being beaten by Hamilton in the press, but destroyed that claim in conditions you'd expect Lewis to do well - and for not crashing the Mercedes considering Hamilton is on his third accident already.
• 2pts - Valtteri Bottas - The only rookie to escape Q1 beating his team-mate in the process, well done there
• 1.5pts - Felipe Massa - How that car still works remains a mystery it was a major hit and it drove away easily.
• 1pt - Max Chilton - For not being as crap as we all expected beating both Caterhams today
• 0.5pt - Alan Van Der Merwe - For completing so many laps in the Medical Car which sounded fantastic driving round.

On top of that there has to be honourable mentions for Maldonado's save on turn in to turn 11, Van Der Garde for leading the entire relegation zone in the heaviest of the rains, and finally for the rain that made things interesting.

The Penalty Points championship

Even though there was very little of anything going on, the management of the conditions was once more a little over-cautions and that might explain why we have to wait until midnight to actually solve this session. So the first penalty point of the season goes to health and safety - you'd expect the theoretically best drivers in the entire world being able to understand where they can push harder and when to look out for puddles and rivers.

The Penalties Series

We haven't done too much this season and have only completed 20 minutes in a competitive session all weekend there have several fines already:

• Bottas - 2,800 EUR
• Gutierrez - 800 EUR
• Massa - 1,400 EUR
• Hulkenberg - 1,000 EUR

So there we have it, the end of the first Saturday of the season and it is completely inconclusive - Hulkenberg leads but Red Bull and that German bloke have been dominant in the dry practice sessions. McLaren are a lot further off the pace than they intended - trapped in the mid-field, while Mercedes and Lotus make significant strides. Williams have been another loser in the off-season falling to the back of the grid - except the bit where Marussia and Caterham live in a reversed order this year. We still don't have a pole-sitter and there this still a threat of rain for the continuation of the session and the race after that, drawing out the anticipation even further so until tomorrow this is a confused farewell from me here are Blog HQ.

Round 1: Australia Preview 2013

Greetings Internet,

Finally this moment has come, after the cold empty weeks of the winter off-season - although the concept of winter has not actually left this part of the world - the north is a frozen wasteland. As ice and snow plague the lands outside Blog HQ, but I do enjoy the cold more than the heat of summer - whatever that is. Anyway the wait is over, it has been so long since the safety car brought the Brazilian GP to a close, following Di Resta's season ending accident - at least he finally has a friend for the incoming season. Over the break, I've designed a whole field of cars, to pretend I have some form of friends when it comes to filming day, and I've carefully crafted and developed the graceful chariot for the season christened 'Myria' all that was missing was some actual on track action.

This weekend the final component falls into place, over there on the other side of the world, in the realm of kangaroos, koalas and cork hats - as we come striding out of the winter into the bright Australian sun. Whatever sun is anyway, I'm sure there are historical records of such an object. However there are some initial reports coming out of Melbourne claiming that there might be some rain over the course of the weekend. Start where we left off last season in that case - and if we get a race that is entertaining as it was in Sau Paolo then things are going to be epic, a prospect that is not dampened by the rumours and thoughts bubbling to the surface throughout testing. It has been a long time since the start of a new season has been so widely anticipated.

The Track

There was a time when Bahrain opened the season, where everyone turned up from winter testing and arrived in the middle of nowhere, taking all that energy and anticipation and cast it into the wilderness of the desert. Fortunately those times did not last too long and normality was resumed, hosting the first race in the vibrancy and energy of the city of Melbourne - holding the race in the centre of that just adds to the atmosphere and stokes up the anticipation. Few tracks would be more of a fitting venue than the Albert Park Circuit.

Albert park is a temporary circuit, which is only put into place for the grand prix weekend which also plays host to a myriad of support events, including the brilliant V8 Supercar series which started its calendar on the streets of Adelaide two weeks ago. It lacks the insane run-off areas that those generic Tilke abominations are cursed with everywhere - instead there are walls, lots and lots of walls, walls which for some reason over the past few years have been painted green. I am going to assume the organisers decided not enough people had crashed so took it upon themselves to disguise them to taunt more drivers into the barriers. Not that in reality we need to give the likes of Grosjean and Maldonado any more encouragement to crash and generally smash things up - after all neither of them finished this race in 2012.

The layout is a simple one, no complex and over-engineered corners and no monolithic trackside architecture - this is the very essence of competition without the fabricated overtaking zones a certain designer is all to fond of. Yet no-one seems to learn from this, and the likes of Korea and Abu-Dhabi continue to pepper the calendar. Albert Park harnesses a fine balance through the nature of the corner, from the fast chicane through turns 11 and 12, and the kink under the trees and shadows of turn 6. To add to that this season there are two DRS sections, perhaps milking the life out of the concept a little too much, after limiting is usage to the designated areas in practice in qualifying. Add into that the tyres of questionable durability which no-one has any idea about once more, and madness is going to ensue.

Now to the highlight of the event, as it is time to unleash the first track video of 2013, from Albert Park - well a virtual version thereof, where Myria was escorted to Australia not only for a tour of the grand prix venue... As there is a little extra feature to the videos this season... for now... where me and Myria investigate where else the event could go if Bernie ever got bored of Melbourne.

What to expect

Last season we threw the form book out the window, and there is no reason to let it back in, so many conflicting opinions and reports have been circulating in the run up to this event, because there are very few certainties. The only thing that seems to be emerging is that there is a three division structure as it had done in 2011 - but this time the divisions are constructed a little differently, and with a much narrower margin in between.

1. Division 1: Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Lotus - all five of these teams have been tipped for wins this season on a regular basis. With some untested driver combinations in that mix like Hamilton vs Rosberg, and One-Stop Perez vs Button make the development of this group very interesting.
2. Division 2: The Sauber Empire, Williams, Force India, Torro Rosso - if the first group had some unknowns in it then this batch is the very definition of a mystery - with Gutierrez and Bottas being complete rookies to the sport in quick cars there is a risk of some opening lap carnage in the middle of the pack. The suggestion is that Force India and Torro Rosso are the weaker teams but that only seems to mean that they are less likely to get involved with division one
3. Division 3: Also know as the zone of utter hopelessness, these teams have had to sell of their key drivers in source of money - it is a sad state of affairs when Charles Pic is the most experienced driver back here for Caterham. This season the dominance of the green cars looks to be over, as Bianchi's Marussia could be a threat, Chiltons on the other hand... nothing much is expected there other than incompetence having used family money to buy his way up every rung on the development ladder

The weather and the tyres are going to be the other two critical variables, with predicted rainfall, mainly threatened for qualifying on Saturday and potentially for the race.  Every little piece of news is tainted with the energy of anticipation and excitement - and with the start of free practice one is only five hours away. 2013 has finally arrived and it promises to be brilliant - and frankly I need all the distractions from reality I can get, so until Saturday, this is farewell from me at blog HQ..

Pre-Season Update 4: Di Resta has a friend

Greetings Internet,

How have things been here at Blog HQ over the intervening time, well, interesting to say the least - I for one have been on a cultural bender as it were. If I was to take in any more culture I think I'd overdose on the stuff - I imagine it would be a wonderful way to die, that and after consumption of a significant amount of chocolate. Although that particular thought is now much darker than it once would have seemed. Anyway back to the culture - the Blog went to a musical, I know that doesn't make sense, the blog does not do musicals. If you can't beat them, and certainly can't join them, the next best option is to disregard their very existence. But this one was rather good, it was about an alternate reality where in 2057, the world is a nuclear wasteland - basically Fallout the musical. However that was not all, the musical was followed up by another cultural venture, I was honoured to be invited along to a session of African drumming and choral singing - not really my thing either but it was also rather good. Almost made me want to find my African drum and have a go, well perhaps it might work out...

All the specifics of the realm of blog HQ aside, that is not the reason why this part of the internet exists, I just like to inject something a little different into the proceedings, after all I am mainly talking to myself here anyway. But because the first race of another very highly anticipated season is less than a fortnight away, if I was capable of excitement I would be completely inundated with the stuff, it is time for another update. The final testing session in Barcelona has been completed and looking at the times and reports, it turns out absolutely no-one knows what is going on...

I have slightly updated the car's livery as the season approaches, adding a slight purple gradient to the back edge of the main chassis and the side of the nose section. Also a texture has been draped along the sidepod and onto the rear wing endplate, considering that the car is no longer a mere 'Blogmobile' a more personal touch was added, because I can, and because I am a sad person.

Back to testing

All of the testing has been completed, and as I stated earlier it has not been too revealing, because if the times are to be believed Red Bull will be in the middle of the pack, Mercedes and Lotus will be winning everything and Ferrari will be somewhere in between - if they can manage to keep their wheels attached. The only thing we can roughly be sure of is that Marussia and Caterham will be at the back of the field and will only be able to see those in front with a long range telescope.

This confusion is being blamed on the tyres once more, because no-one has any idea how they work - except for the fact that they stick the car to the track - even I can manage to figure that stuff out. But the complaint lies in the compounds and how they react to changes in temperature - so on that basis the first few races of the season are going to be as chaotic as they were last time. From this position sitting here in my corner, that sounds like a wonderful idea, handing a bunch of rookies tyres they can't understand and a team who is no further forward is a recipe for complete and utter mayhem. And who doesn't like mayhem.

The mid-field battles between Force India, The Sauber Empire, Torro Rosso and Williams is going to be fascinating - and probably very destructive - considering there may not be too much of a margin to the faster teams, some collateral damage too. On the whole, the start of a new season is full of unknowns and questions but very few actual answers, and Melbourne probably not going to help in clarifying things.

Di Resta has a friend

Up until this point life in the Force India garage was starting to get a little lonely for the Scott, because the team hadn't given him a team-mate. A short shortlist of drivers was taken out to the testing session and finally after much deliberation Adrian Sutil has been announced to return to the team after having beaten up some bloke from the team formerly known as the Renault Squadron in China. The decision was much to the disappointment of the other contender Jules Bianchi, who was beaten to the role.

Interestingly the story doesn't quite finish there, oh no, because at the back of the field trouble had been brewing. Because in the Marussia team, who had become infamous for binning Glock for not being rich enough and hiring a large amount of money under the name of Chilton, had played that card again. In the second seat they had initially released that they would be placing Luis Razia from the GP2 series, because he had some sponsors that had some money Marussia wanted. Unfortunately there was a bit of bother with that in the sense that Razia's sponsors hadn't paid the team and as a result Luis was conveniently not available for testing - and suddenly not available... ever. Leading to one of the shortest careers in recent history. The decision came at a similar time to, Force India making their announcement that left Bianchi without a drive, and probably some money. At the merest hint of money being mentioned every ear on the Marussia pitwall pricked up, and within a matter of days Bianchi was confirmed as a Razia's replacement. What a cruel world we live in.

The final line-up

It has taken a while before I was able to post a final - as it stands now - list of everyone who is going to take part in the first race next weekend:

• Red Bull
• Sebastian Vettel - well considering the German bloke keeps winning so often, it stands to reason to keep him in the team, I suppose.
• Mark Webber - despite not being Helmut Marko's favourite, there is no reason to replace the Australian either.
• McLaren
• Jenson Button - Assumes the effective time lead in a car which has looked quick so far, could be on for a decent season
• One-Stop Perez - In for a significant upgrade from last year's Sauber and in some reports has been tipped as an optimistic title contender... not too sure on that
• Ferrari
• Fernando Alonso - Effectively Ferrari's only driver as the team sees it, but if the car is as fast as it seems, could be a strong title condender instead of Perez.
• Felipe Massa - Despite Ferrari's ideas, does still exist and out of nowhere took the bonus points championship in 2012, can't really do better than that.
• Lotus
• Kimi Raikkonen - Fuelled by ice cream and with the power of not needing to be told all the time, still got lost in Brazil however, Kimi could contend the bonus point title of 2013
• Romain Grosjean - After hitting pretty much everything last season, the frenchman should hope for a less destructive campain this season.
• Mercedes
• Nico Rosberg - The only remaining German in Mercedes as they plan for a slightly less mediocre season and possibly a less flukey win
• Lewis Hamilton - In a move that still makes no sense, has dropped down the field and will probably spend the season frustrated and then hiting people
• Sauber
• Nico Hulkenberg - Following on from an impressive final few races of the season and almost winning the finale - Nico could be in for an interesting season.
• Esteban Gutierrez - You sir are not Kobayashi and the blog is not amused and will enjoy you crashing into things 
• Force India
• Paul Di Resta - Had an average season last time concluded the entire season with a crash, but with another strong team-mate, will be in for a challenge
• Adrian Sutil - Verging on the completely erratic from time to time, Sutil has been quick in the past, when not hitting things - the midfield is going to be fun...
• Williams
• Pastor Maldonado - With Pastor, Romain, and Sutil I can foresee many, many safety car interventions and some angry post race ranting.
• Valtteri Bottas - Bottas has been hyped up for some time now, so it will be interesting to see if the Finn is as quick as everyone else from his country.
• Torro Rosso
• Daniel Ricciardo - Aims this season to do something memorable because not too much in Torro Rosso sticks into my failing memory
• Jean-Eric Vergne - With an extra free space in Q1 relegation, might have someone else to get relegated with, probably his team-mate in all reality
• Caterham
• Charles Pic - Almost claimed 10th in the constructors for rivals Marussia, yet replaces the driver who claimed it back for Caterham... take that logic
• Giedo Van Der Garde - You sir are not Kovalainen, the blog is not amused at you either 
• Marussia
• Jules Bianchi - Managed to sneak into the last seat on the grid after Razia joined the list of people who are not rich enough, after replacing Glock, who wasn't rich enough either..
• Max Chilton - Only here because he does have money, money his family have used to effectively buy his way all the way up the ladder and onto the F1 grid, I despair... again...

So that pretty much sums it all up, and means I have to start preparations for the first race of the season in Melbourne, not that I shall be going along, or waking up at the unnatural hour of the morning. I have a video to consider working on, with Myria's newest incarnation... not that sort of video... sadly, and that wouldn't be the car either. But before I get lynched, because knowing my luck people will start paying attention to the nonsense I rant on about - I shall reset the points table for the new season and therefore that means this is farewell until next time, a time which is fortunately not too far away...