Well, that is all for 2013, the entirety of the season virtually identically represented by the events of a single race. We had a pro-active opening phase when no-one really knew what was going on which settled down for a bit before a brief period of action - and petered out towards the end as we all waited for something different to happen. It was a far cry of the final race we were treated to in 2012 with cars charging through the field, changeable weather, and even the lower teams battling tantalisingly close to the actual points. But the Brazilian GP has to be the highlight of the second half of the season not only because of the significance of this race for several key members of the F1 paddock but as a genuine race event. There were times when cars were three wide overtaking each other, and a brief threat of a safety car intervention, a threat which almost fooled the very best team in the heat of battle. On top of this there was the ever growing level of fog and cloud engulfing the circuit, blocking out the horizon as it closed in on the race track. Yet somehow despite a very ominous sky and a weekend completely doused in precipitation there was no real rain during the race. How on earth can this keep happening, for the most of the second half of the season we have been tormented with the offering of rain and then being left disappointed. This was the closest we've come to a rain interrupted race, since those two damp laps in Malaysia, but still nothing - a whole season without rainfall during a race despite having to cancel qualifying in Australia due to monsoon conditions...
In the end you tend to overlook these things because the end of the season has so many story lines, some coming to an end, and others diverting towards a new beginning, and many more yet to be written. It was a race making the end of Webber's time on the grid as he departs to join Porsche's LMP1 effort, we saw Massa making his final Ferrari start and Perez leaving McLaren. Yet there is still so much left to be decided - where does Maldonado take his grumpy, crash-prone bags of money, who gets Hulkenberg and are Di Resta and Perez going to Indycar over in America. But one thing remains constant, that German bloke is on unbeatable form, and in the face of uncertainty in Brazil - it was the same name on the top step of the podium.
The Race
The coverage opened to a scene blanketed in some very thick and angry looking clouds - which looked promising - but the ground on the other side looked very dry indeed, and of course we know now that balance wasn't set to change. Special tributes were made for Webber and Massa's final races with their respective teams - Red Bull were had supplied the team with some stereotypical Australian head-gear (minus the corks). Although I feel there is a missed opportunity for an inflatable Kangaroo somewhere in that equation.
When the lights went out all that special Australian support didn't get his car off the line particularly quickly, but neither did the leading Red Bull containing Mr Vettel - thus giving Rosberg the lead into turn one, as in Singapore. Alonso got boxed in by Hamilton and dropped to 4th ahead of Webber and a fast starting Felipe Massa. Everyone was well behaved this time and no damage was incurred on the opening lap - which meant Jenson got to keep all of his front wing for a first race in a long time. But the key point was that Vettel wasn't leading - perhaps we were in for a mega race after all... Well not for long because at the end of the opening lap the Red Bull just drafted past the lead Mercedes and vanished off into the distance. Shucks... Just behind them Alonso was performing the same move on Hamilton, Mercedes were lacking straight line speed for once, maybe someone was banking on a little moisture on the circuit perhaps... Having been compromised by losing a position to Fernando, Lewis found himself under attack from Webber, where the retiring Australian went round the outside of Hamilton in Ferra Durra... well done indeed.
Lotus' hopes of improving their constructors championship position went up in a significant plume of smoke as Romain Grosjean's engine detonated itself climbing the hill out of the final corner. Unleashing a vast cloud drifting across the circuit - this time it cleared without incident, in Monaco a few years pack a similar situation led to a Sauber being upside down against a wall. The end result was that Grosjean had to run alongside the wall down the pit-lane to get back to the garage - fortunately no-one needed use visit pit-lane in this early stage of the race. It was more bother for Mercedes, and this time for Nico Rosberg who was coming under pressure by those cars set up for the dry conditions first it was Alonso drafting past in a straight line, and then Webber round the outside of Nico in turn one. Speaking of cars making progress, for once it was a good news story for McLaren as both Button and Perez were making progress. More so for Perez, who had to replace a gearbox following the crash yesterday started 19th, had gained 6 positions inside of the opening 7 laps. Jenson was on the edge of the points as his strategy of starting on the harder compound tyres was starting to come to the fore.
A less than covert radio transmission was delivered to Rosberg informing him that he was not to hold up Hamilton - which is the moderately more subtle version of the message Lotus shouted at Raikkonen in India. Naturally Nico obeyed and didn't resist when Lewis placed the car on the inside coming down towards turn four. Webber also made more progress using DRS to deal with Alonso to take second place, to form a Red Bull 1-2... again. With that all sorted for the time being it was time to take a look at how the McLaren charge was coming along, and it seemed to be going rather well for once, Perez had taken the place from Valtteri Bottas to move into the final points paying position. Jenson was having a similar amount of success in a battle with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber - Nico fended off Jenson's first attack through the Senna-S but got a better exit to take the spot away in the second DRS zone.
It was around this time that the first messages about the rain were broadcast, and they were very contradictory - some drivers were warned that showers were on the way, but the official weather radar said no rain for the next half hour at least. We all know what actually transpired on the weather front, but at this stage in the race we didn't mind too much because things were pretty entertaining, McLaren as a team had moved up 17 places in total by 1/3rd distance. It was also time for the pit-stops which didn't work out too well for Bottas - firstly he lost a position in the pit-lane to the Force India pit crew because of Williams additional wheel procedures. As he rejoined he entered a battle with Jean-Eric Vergne - not quite in the same manner that Alonso and Vergne did in Abu-Dhabi. Bottas used DRS to pass the Toro Rosso into turn four, but drifted wide and got re-passed, and lost a further position to Heikki's Lotus - who despite complete anonymity was still in the race. Jenson's charge was briefly interrupted by his need to make a pit stop - but shortly after he rejoined the race he decided that is was a good idea to go three wide with Maldonado and Ricciardo on the main straight. It was a good idea and a well executed one to take both positions simultaneously.
With any talk of rain gone for a while things settled down throughout the stops, but through the strategies a couple of positions were swapped around - Massa jumped Hamilton and Alonso capitalised on a slow stop by Webber to re-take second place. The Australian was able to redress this change by passing Alonso again on the front straight, whereas Hamilton wasn't having quite the same success. But in the end it didn't really matter, because Massa was handed a drive through penalty for driving over the pit-entry line on more than one occasion. In reality is was a fair penalty as the rule was clearly stated before race, but why of all races decide to get tough on track limits when the decisions have been sporadic all year. Furthermore that line has been there for years and years and no-one cared before now, but these things happen and the penalty dropped Massa down towards the bottom of the top ten.
The rain conversation started up again, and various team principles were staring into the sky and wandering round the pit gantry to get a sense of what was going on, the occasional hopeful droplet landed on a camera lens but nothing more. Increasingly dark and ominous clouds smothering landmarks and the helicopter footage looked far too promising - but once again nothing materialised. Curse you weather, curse you.... All this confusion must have got to Vettel because for some completely unknown reason he started allowing lapped cars to overtake him, Adrian Sutil was the first car through and a lap later Jean-Eric Vergne also made the pass on our all dominant leader. I wonder if news of this phenomena filtered down the field and somehow made it's way to Valtteri Bottas in the Williams. Because he planned on unlapping himself by passing Hamilton's Mercedes, but this didn't work at all. Lewis defended against Valtteri but seemed to forget that the Williams existed and moved back across the track - where Bottas' car was positioned. Contact was made ripping the rear wheel off the hub on the Williams and causing floor and tyre damage to Hamilton's car. Bottas was out of the race but Lewis could limp back to the pits for a new wheel... only be handed a drive through penalty for the contact afterwards.
A disabled car sitting in the gravel sparked Red Bull's safety car paranoia and immediately called Vettel into the pits - seemingly forgetting they'd also asked Webber to pit. So Sebastian turned up and the Red Bull crew were waiting with Webber's tyres instead, forcing a rush to get the right set out of the garage and onto the car. To make matters worse Webber had to park in pit lane while all this was being sorted out - but in the end no positions were lost such was their advantage over Alonso in third place. Additionally there was visible rain settling on the camera lenses around the circuit not just a couple at turn four, but once again the volume and density of this precipitation was not strong enough to influence the track conditions never mind induce actual wet or intermediate conditions. At this point the clouds had merged into a thick veil of fog seemingly enclosing the circuit but failing to threaten the race. Reports from Ted Kravitz in the pit lane suggested that it was only a light misting rain which was borderline useless and was not intensifying.
This seemingly tentative situation with the rainfall - or lack thereof seemed to dilute the state of play for the final phase of the race, the majority of the positions seemed more spaced out - and the final positional change within the top ten happened with 13 laps still remaining. This change occurred as Lewis Hamilton, following his penalty took 9th place away from Webber's replacement - Daniel Ricciardo. But the moisture must have been doing something as we saw Gutierrez getting all kinds of sideways in turn 6 in his battle with Di Resta, and we also saw Charles Pic's rear suspension seemingly dissolve in turn four forcing the Caterham to retire on the climb up to turn six. The yellows stayed out for a while as the car threatened to emulate Bianchi's Marussia in Germany and roll down the hill - but with damaged rear suspension that was less of a threat. Elsewhere rounding his season off in traditional style by slamming the door on Jean-Eric Vergne and getting himself turned round in the process. A similar thing happened in Austin and Vergne was penalised, but no such lunacy this time around - whoever gets Pastor next season is going to have fun... and hefty repair bill(s).
With the rain more of an inactive backdrop to the event it was left to Vettel to claim a 9th straight victory in an excessively dominant season. Webber bid farewell to the sport with a strong second place and celebrated by removing his helmet on the cool down lap - the FIA will probably get him for that. Alonso rounded out the podium for Ferrari so the top three in the drivers championship finished the final race in the top three. Even if it was in a slightly different order. Jenson Button scored McLaren's highest position all season in 4th place, after starting 14th on the grid, ahead of Rosberg who once lead this race... well that went well.... Another very impressive performance for a McLaren today as Perez finished 6th after stating way back in 19th place. The drive through penalty dropped Massa down to 7th ahead of a rather anonymous drive from Hulkenberg in 8th position, and the points were concluded by Hamilton in 9th and Ricciardo in 10th.
So that was it, the end of the year - rounded off by more doughnuts from Vettel and an accompanying set performed by Felipe Massa, not that the TV camera director picked up on that one. It is a shame to see Webber at what seems his happiest on the very day he retires from the sport, falling down on the podium and merely springing back up to continue celebrating. I suppose this is the problem, all the layers of procedure and regulation prevent any form of real emotion at times, the sort of thing that forced Webber out in the first place. It was also nice to hear Alonso praising Massa on the podium - how he deals with Raikkonen in 2014 will be very interesting. In fact the entirety of 2014 does sound exciting with all the changes that are coming... even if it is to the soundtrack of a questionable V6 soundtrack.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
The final event of 2013 may not change the direction of the championship, but here are the points winners from the Brazillian GP.
- 25pts - Sergio Perez - 19th to 6th... why is he being fired again, including going round the outside of Gutierrez in turn 6.
- 18pts - Jenson Button - 14th to 4th, the best result for a McLaren all season and a three wide pass down the main straight, that'll do nicely
- 15pts - Mark Webber - Brilliant passes on Rosberg and Hamilton, why are you retiring there is plenty more pace left in there
- 12pts - Felipe Massa - Very good start and for some non Red Bull based doughnuts
- 10pts - Adrian Sutil/Jean Eric Vergne - definitely get bonus points for un-lapping themselves by passing Vettel
- 8pts - Max Chilton - Finished all 19 races this season, not bad for being considered the least qualified driver on the grid - and the only driver to do so...
- 6pts - Sebastian Vettel - Another win, and some more doughnuts
- 4pts - Nico Rosberg - For being someone other than Vettel legitimately in the lead... even if it was only for a single lap
- 2pts - Nico Hulkenberg - More points for Sauber, but not enough to catch Force India
- 1pt - Alexandre Premat - Major kudos for helping James Courtney out of the passenger side of his car following a severe shunt at Phillip Island
The Penalties Series
There were a few penalties issued in this our final chapter of 2013
- Felipe Massa - Drive Through Penalty - For crossing the line in pit-lane a few many times
- Lewis Hamilton - Drive Through Penalty - For biffing Bottas under braking for turn four
- Giedo Van Der Garde - Drive Through Penalty - For ignoring blue flags
The Penalty Points Series
In addition to the conventional offences there are a couple of other loose ends to tie up in the penalty points series
- Rain - Where the bloody hell did you go... all season long
- Pastor Maldonado - Does racing room apply in his corner of the world
- 2013 - Deservers a penalty point overall
- Red Bull - For making everything else look bad
- Porsche - For not giving us Webber back
Off into 2014
If this race was a step into the unknown then, the journey into 2014 will be a completely blind plunge into the endless abyss of confusion - and that sounds very promising. Regulation changes and a mass reconfiguration of the driver line ups is a cataclysmic recipe for inconsistency and reliability mishaps. We've got the enticing prospect of Raikkonen and Alonso in the same team - if he turns up - and some new faces looking to make a start in the form of Kvyat and Magnussen plus rumours of Ericksson from GP2 joining Caterham. It has to be better than this, let it be better because it needs to be, someone needs to stop Vettel before he evolves into an unstoppable, all powerful mutant. But we won't find out how things are going to sort themselves out until well into the middle of next season because right now nothing is clear. And that is exciting... bring it on....
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