I know it has been a while, and so, so much has happened in that time drivers being passed about, the FIA making up the rules as they go along and throwing some mental new ones for good measure - but that is a more than significant rant for another time. Given how up to date this corner of the internet has been of late, who knows when that shall be - because it is a rant worth having. Originally this post was to be timed with the grand finale of the motorsport calendar - the annual Race of Champions in Thailand - however protests in that part of the world have forced a cancellation and postponement of the 2013 event. That and several other things seemed to get in the way of this post actually making into the world, so much so that several people out there may have dismissed the 2013 season as a bad memory, watered down with some hysterical ideas from the powers that be. So I'm going to bring it back, in all it's reanimated glory by going through the final standings in the bonus points championship - of course it was all wrapped up at the end of the race in Texas.... But like the official championship, the ceremony is handled a while after the final race, and is held in Paris. Due to some form of budgetary issues, this post is not held in Paris - because in reality all that would mean is that I'd be sitting in France staring at a computer instead of here... with a croissant or two.
People who scored seemingly random bonus without doing too much...section
Anyway onto business, and this season's end of term results/unveiling ceremony will examine the whole list (just drivers or we'd be here all week discussing the overall ranking of rain and Wales) that said there are a fair few non-F1 entries at the bottom of the table and in reverse order that is where we shall begin.
=30th Place - 1pt: Adderly Fong At the very bottom of the table is Adderly Fong who scored a single bonus point for getting the most air over the curbs in the first chicane at Monza - but it's still a point
=30th Place - 1pt: Tony Kanaan - Scored his solitary point by winning the Indy 500, even though the race ended under caution and was a bit of a let down
=30th Place - 1pt: Scott McGlaughlin - This point was awarded for being the first rookie to win a race of the 2013 V8 supercar season during the Pukekohe race in New Zealand
=30th Place - 1pt: Alexander Rossi - Received a point for jumping into the GP2 season late and immediately placing the car on the podium
=30th Place - 1pt: James Hinchcliffe - Scored his first victory at the opening race of the 2013 Indycar season - should have scored another point for a last corner pass for the win in Brazil... but preventing Sato from winning prevented James getting that point.
=30th Place - 1pt: Alexandre Premat - Received a point for sportsmanship when helping an injured James Courtney out of his car following a massive accident at Phillip Island.
29th Place - 1.5pts: Alan Van Der Merwe - Completed the most laps in the drowned Australian Qualifying session and then came back for some more in damp conditions in Brazil
28th Place - 2pts: Daniil Kyvat - Scored two points and 28th place for winning the GP3 series title and landing the second Toro Rosso drive close succession
27th Place - 3pts: Fabio Leimer - Victor of the 2013 GP2 championship... but doesn't at this moment in time have a route into the main game....
26th Place - 4pts: Tom Dillman - Had a hilarious GP2 race in Barcelona where he hit and was hit by virtually everyone, doubled his points haul by lifting a car off his head in Abu Dhabi
25th Place - 5pts: Dario Franchitti - Scored his points by surviving a monumental accident in the Indycar race in Houston, unfortunately the accident was severe enough to cut short his racing career and forcing retirement from the sport.
24th Place - 13pts: Heikki Kovalainen - Was handed the metaphorical keys to Raikkonen's car and didn't do too much with it. In Austin the car had brake issues and in Interlagos he wasn't all to fast - much to Valsecchi's displeasure
23rd Place - 20pts: Takuma Sato - Long time favourite Sato scored his first Indycar victory at Long Beach and then followed that up with pole position later in the season to be crowned victor of the list of people who scored points but didn't actually appear in F1 (much) section.
The People who actually competed in the championship standings... Pt 1
Now that we have covered those drivers who scored points without actually setting foot in an F1 car this season - and Heikki who did a bit towards the end after Raikkonen went home, it is time to run down the final standings for the rest of the grid - building up to our 2013 champion. Starting with the bottom six and continuing in reverse order.
22nd Place 27pts: Pastor Maldonado - Pastor has had a less evenful season, not crashing into quite so many people - despite single handedly mauling both Force Indias in Spa. But it has also been a very unimpressive season resulting in a single championship point - admittedly the car has been pretty woeful - but complaints of sabotage and generally being mean to the team in the latter races consigned Maldonado to the bottom of the table. Yet despite all this, financial backing means he is now Lotus' problem alongside Grosjean... a potentially very calamitous partnership
21st Place 28pts: Charles Pic - If Charles didn't show up on the timing screen from time to time no-one would even know if he'd arrived at the track or not, enduring a spectacularly anonymous season at the back end of the grid. At least when Alguersuari has completely anonymous races he appeared magically in the points at the end of it, even in Belgium when all the lower teams made it into Q2 Charles was the one left out. Pic jumped ship from Marussia as Caterham were doing well only to find that his former team took the 10th place in the constructors back again. The jury is still out as to whether Mr Pic will be joining us for another season in 2014.
20th Place 36pts: Max Chilton - What can be said about Max, it has been a very contradictory season for Chilton, while he may have spend the entire year circulating around at the back of the field on a leisurely Sunday drive; only pausing to put Maldonado into his Monaco fort. The rookie managed to finish every race of the season, no mistakes, no planting it into the barrier and no getting involved in silly little incidents (except those first corner events with Van Der Garde in Japan and India....) The only thing Chilton is missing is speed, and if he is here again next year with his funding finding some with cars that are supposedly harder to drive is going to be a challenge.
19th Place 60pts: Jules Bianchi - If there was any pace in that Marussia Jules found it, despite being all the way down here at the lower end of the rankings Bianchi has had an impressive season even if the car was too slow to demonstrate it. Jules bore the brunt of the reliability issues within the Marussia team and scored the all important 13th place in Malaysia that secured their personal victory over the Caterham team in a season where there were no completely mad races to fight for actual championship points.
18th Place 63pts: Giedo Van Der Garde - When Giedo was announced in the Caterham everyone assumed he'd be another useless pay driver, and did spend the earliest races only duelling with Chilton. But as the season progressed it became more often the case when Van Der Garde was leading the entire bottom set of teams - some of that can be attributed to Marussia losing a lot of pace after the tyres were changed, yet beating an experienced team-mate and the rising talent of Bianchi deserves recognition. Topping that off with reaching 3rd place in the manic rain affected Q1 phase of Spa qualifying.
17th Place 67pts: Valtteri Bottas - The fact that Bottas is this far down the spectrum is a clear illustration of how poor the Williams car has been this season, yet Valterri more than doubled Maldonado's points haul and put in some exceptionally impressive performances in such a poor car. Canada qualifying was the initial sign of greatness, qualifying the car in an outright 3rd position in the damp conditions. But the highlight of the Finn's season has to be the US GP, where weather conditions were not part of the equation, which Valtteri scored the majority of the bonus points before ending the season in Brazil minus a rear wheel (which unusually for Williams required Hamilton to remove instead of fleeing itself)
Those who managed to score a few more bonus points this season...
16th Place 74pts: Jean-Eric Vergne - Much like Charles Pic, Vergne has had a very anonymous season and was looked over by Red Bull for the promotion up to the main team in Webber's place. But his performances have been average overall, as well as being blighted by a disproportionate amount of technical failures and retirements. Partnered up with Kvyat in 2014 will be an interesting combination for the Frenchman which may result in some more screen time.
15th Place 77pts: Esteban Gutierrez - Had a very poor opening few races and seemed like a complete liability, wiping Sutil out of the Chinese GP was a particular example of his questionable driving. As Sauber improved, so did Esteban making significant progress and even scoring points in the latter stages of the championship. Potentially he was brought into the sport a little too quickly and spent the first half of the season learning and acclimatising to the car, but his evolution as of yet hasn't been awarded with a 2014 drive in the remaining space at Sauber.
14th Place 80pts: Daniel Ricciardo - His final season lingering around the mid-field has been nothing spectacular, especially on Sundays. Dan's prowess comes more in qualifying dragging the Toro Rosso up into the top ten when it probably shouldn't have been there on raw pace - and leaving Vergne far behind in the process. Toro Rosso have had this habit of employing overwhelmingly anonymous drivers most of the time no-one knew Alguersuari was on the grid until he turned up on the list of points finishers. This often prevents them from scoring bonus points for being interesting, because their not - maybe I'm still grumpy about them not being Minardi any more and mentally erase them from the universe, but in the Red Bull in 2014 Ricciardo will be very visible both good and bad....
13th Place 119pts: Jenson Button - This sum's up McLaren's season perfectly, a driver who won the very first bonus points championship in 2011 (and still hasn't acknowledged his victory tweet) is now outside the top ten. Jenson made do with a fairly terrible car that seemed to always have understeer - even though Button would complain about understeer on the commute to the track before even getting in the car, but those efforts couldn't make it go any faster. A couple of strong races in Singapore and in Brazil attempted to redeem the ill-fated chassis but here we are with Jenson Button in 13th place.... maybe 2014 will be kinder to our 2011 champion
12th Place 131pts: Sergio Perez - The 2013 McLaren didn't fair too well in the hands of the Mexican driver either, the new tyres prevented Sergio from using his special one-stop powers to sneak up on to the podium like he could in the Sauber. But his performances were certainly not poor enough to warrant being fired, yet McLaren wanted Magnussen in the team so Sergio had to go. Perez had some rather entertaining races, irritating Button in Bahrain and then having a similar effect on Raikkonen in Monaco and China - and has been awarded with another drive for 2014 in a completely regenerated Force India line up.
11th Place 135pts: Lewis Hamilton - At the start of the season it was assumed across the internet that the McLaren refugee would arrive at Mercedes and defeat Rosberg on a regular basis - which didn't happen. That said Hamilton did a very respectable job at the team, scoring pole positions and a win in Hungary, most race performances were strongly hampered by tyre degradations - most notably in the Spanish GP where all manner of complaints were erred on the radio. Next season could be a different story where Mercedes could be a lot closer to those blue cars at the front of the field.
The final top ten standings of 2013
10th Place 144pts: Mark Webber - In his final season in the championship Mark had a fairly average run of form and was comprehensively beaten by Vettel - but everyone in the end was comprehensively beaten by the German bloke. Webber was able to salvage pole positions including one at his favourite circuit in Suzuka... which Vettel also won. Surviving through an array of mechanical difficulties and successive fires in Singapore and Korea summed the year up really which ended winless. But despite all the challenges Mark scored several podium positions and finished the year looking happier than he had since opening the season on home turf at Melbourne. 2014 looks to be an interesting voyage in the LMP1 Porsche.
9th Place 148.5pts: Felipe Massa - Our 2012 champion had a slightly disappointing season, a season which saw his position at Ferrari terminated and he left for new pastures at Williams. Felipe repeated his 2012 approach of having a defiant turn of pace in the latter stages of the season, but it was too little to late to move further up the standings. The fact that he only made one visit to the podium and scored less than half the points of Fernando in the same car brought about his demise, but several good qualifying results, including a front row start earned Felipe enough bonus points to make it into the top ten.
8pts Place 149pts: Adrian Sutil - Took 8th place by half a point from Massa, Adrian had a strong opening half of the season, leading the race in Australia and an array of overtaking manoeuvres at Monaco's grand hotel hairpin on world champions. The opening half of the season was also rather unlucky, taken out of the Chinese GP by Gutierrez, and hit again in Malaysia by Massa on the opening lap. The latter half however was less successful, after the tyre change and lost a lot of ground to Di Resta in relative pace. Despite being defined as been distinctly average Sutil has found a new drive at Sauber after Force India replaced all of their drivers.
7th Place 157pts: Fernando Alonso - If there was any speed in the Ferrari, Fernando was able find it, accompanied by the ability to scythe through the field on the opening lap to make up for a lack of qualifying pace. This season Fernando's sharpness seems to have been blunted a little, there wasn't the inspired overtaking we saw in Valencia and other times Alonso seemed completely absent. Yet nothing can question the ability that Alonso has and has shown at times throughout the championship and in the end has achieved second place in the drivers standings in a car which shouldn't be that far up the table.
6th Place 159pts: Nico Rosberg - Was saddled with a new team-mate in 2013, one that was expected to get the upper hand, but Nico was more than up to the challenge taking a dominant victory in a chaotic Monaco GP. Rosberg seemed at times more able to handle the degrading tyres than Hamilton while still having the qualifying pace to put the car high up the grid. Nico was also one of the few drivers who was able to defeat Vettel off the line when sharing the front row with the German Bloke... even through in both cases neither pass lasted more than a lap. It has been a strong season for Nico, and 2014 looks like a very strong season for the Mercedes team.
5th Place 160pts: Paul Di Resta - It has been a very strong season for Di Resta, especially in the opening few races before the tyre change when Force India were at their strongest, almost fighting his way onto the podium in Bahrain. Even after the changes Paul still managed some memorable performances - a brilliant team strategy call in Spa qualifying almost saw Paul take pole position in the damp conditions. But these performances have been blighted by a severe attitude problem, a string of mid-season retirements were constantly the team's fault, and qualifying struggles (while lead to miraculous recovery drives) were another excuse to complain about the very people who help him onto the grid. As of yet Di Resta does not have a 2014 seat, and will be highest place bonus points driver not to be coming back... at the moment.
4th Place 164pts: Nico Hulkenberg - Hulkenberg had a season which almost exactly mirrored that of Paul Di Resta, the opening races were curtailed by lack of speed in the Sauber, and points were few and far between. It was that all important tyre change that proved to be catalyst for Nico's pace giving him a car to work with - a legitimate 3rd place on the grid in Monza was a strong illustration of Nico's abilities once the car could facilitate them. This was backed up with a defensive driving masterclass in Korea to hold off both Alonso and Hamilton to secure 4th place. A podium place was not to be, and financial difficulties prevented an upgrade to Lotus for the coming campaign, but a reunion at Force India might be fractional step forward.
3rd Place 169pts: Kimi Raikkonen - Kimi kicked the season off with a win and a brief use of the very rare 'Kimi's happy face' but more financial issues at Lotus meant he wasn't paid, and probably meant the ice-cream freezer was empty. As a result Raikkonen vanished after a poor Abu Dhabi GP for 'back surgery', before his downfall and disappearance Kimi was having a very strong season, multiple visits to the podium and keeping pace with a pre-tyre change Red Bull. It was a season which saw Raikkonen's streak of impervious reliability come to an end with brake failure in Spa and contact in Abu Dhabi, after the pay issue came to the fore the Finn seemed to give up completely, but a return to Ferrari alongside Alonso is nothing other than exciting.
2nd Place 189pts: Sebastian Vettel - What can be said about what Sebastian has done this season, it has been utterly devastating, winning races by over half a minute including Safety Car interruptions, ending the season with nine consecutive victories. Even against Webber in an identical car he has been totally dominant, relentlessly so - you can say that the car allowed Vettel to be champion for the fourth season in a row, or that it was all Newey's doing. But that amount of pace can not be down to a single variable, he has just been on unbeatable form and no-one could stop it. Will 2014 be any different, who knows.
1st Place 217pts: Romain Grosjean - It may seem odd not to have Vettel here at the top of the list, considering he was the driver of the season, but that's not what the bonus points championship is all about. Romain has delivered a remarkable improvement over his 2012 performance, he used to be an erratic, destructive and uncontrollable lunatic with no spacial awareness and precision. But this season that latent pace has come forwards, scoring consistant podiums and a brilliant final few races, barring a mechanical failure in Brazil. Romain was on target to take a first victory in Suzuka after leading the first half of the race - but the Red Bulls were unstoppably fast once more. Grosjean takes the 2013 bonus points championship through being consistent, fast and monumentally better than 2012. Makes you wonder if Lotus can fix Romain, can they cure their 2014 charge of Maldonado as well... but that is a tougher challenge.
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