The Rest of the Grid and Jerez Testing

Greetings Internet,

Well I suppose this all means that the 2014 season is underway... sort of as we have now seen the first official test of the year completed with mixed results over in Spain. It was the first time we got to see the cars outside the image manipulated world of photoshop and into the brutal light of day - and with that several cars looked very different than their pre-test release photos. Toro Rosso for example released a couple of cleverly angled images of their car, concealing what they've done with the nose making it look like one of the better designs. But... in the real world their nose section definitely falls into the category of things which are reserved for late night television - so much so it was featured in a tweet by Ann Summers... Thanks to Lotus for spotting that one as it one part of the internet even I dare not tread. And remember that highly filtered shot of the side of the Force India - well the reality is nowhere near as fancy, the new aggressive paint scheme just looks like someone has forgotten to finish colouring it in. As for their nose - they've gone for a longer, more erect black appendage... F1 is definitely not child friendly any more. As of the last post several teams hadn't released their challenger - probably because it wasn't after the watershed hour at the time but now all 10 of the cars that attended the test (with Lotus MIA) have unveiled their designs to the world... with more interesting results.

Mercedes

After seeing some very odd interpretations of the regulations thus far and the resulting observations that the world has made - observations that found their way onto Top Gear last night - the Mercedes seemed miraculous. It looks considerably better than anything else we've seen, going for the same flat nose as the Ferrari but doing it right. When something like this was possible it makes you wonder why no-one else had opted for it, instead of going for the very phallic growth (and whatever Lotus finally come up with). But despite the sleeker more natural design, Hamilton still managed to crash the thing into a wall on the first day of testing making him one of only two drivers to hit anything across the four days. Yet the questions were raised against both Ferrari and Mercedes for their nose design on grounds of safety... thought that was the whole point of the regulations... but that debate will go on for a while I imagine. Can't we just congratulate the team for making a car in the current set of rules that looks nice...

Red Bull

Given the reputation that Adrian Newey has for designing cars to sit just inside the regulations with the narrowest of margins it was always going to be interesting to see what his 2014 car would look like. The results were not disappointing, even through Red Bull haven't gone the same way as Ferrari and Mercedes (and no-one has gone where Lotus have gone) they've made the protruded nose look acceptable. It files down to a very narrow and purposeful point at the end of the nose and the decrease in cross-sectional area is far more progressive than many others. Nothing unduly sticks out where it shouldn't and looks very tightly packaged. But testing has been difficult for Red Bull - it seems Newey may have pushed things a little close once more and the back of the car is wrapped up so tightly there are cooling issues and a series of mechanical failures. Yet somehow I can foresee the multiple-champions arriving in Melbourne after the Bahrain test with a very strong car.

Caterham 

Just when we thought we'd seen it all, Caterham came out with this... and it is very different and has created a myriad of different polarising reactions across the internet. It looks like the sort of thing you'd build when you've run out the type of lego bricks you needed to finish off and had to compromise with what was in the bottom of the box. Also the sidepods look very big and bulky, perhaps this has something to do with the cooling problem Renault are having with the power units making it one of the least cohesive designs on the grid. But Caterham have done something different with the nose - apart from the way it looks - they've attached the front wing to the underside of the... appendage. As a result it gives the prong a purpose so it isn't just waggling... exposed at the front. It is a novel design, whether it is a fast one remains to be seen because after all they'll probably still only be fighting Marussia for last place. However Caterham had an ace up their sleeve for 2014 - bringing fan favourite Kamui Kobayshi back to the sport to partner a rookie and GP2 graduate Marcus Eriksson in a refreshing line up. Although I probably would have kept Van Der Garde.

Marussia 

The final contenders rolled their car out later than the others and didn't take part in the first day of testing in Jerez, and seeing what Caterham - their immediate contender - had done there was some anticipation about the final car to be revealed. Even through Marussia have stepped away from their completely CFD designed car they entered in 2010, the team have always managed to engineer very elegant cars even if they are anchored at the back (retaining Chilton isn't going to help that and racing against Kamui). The 2014 car is no different - and even without sponsors the livery doesn't look dull or empty unlike Williams or Sauber thus far. Like Force India they've gone for a less subtle appendage on the front but painted it black to make it less visible - but the car is has much smoother lines than the Caterham and despite turning up late, still did more laps than Red Bull managed....

Can we learn anything from initial testing

This early phase of testing was all about making sure that the cars worked, rather than seeing what their ultimate pace was, therefore we can't say who has the fastest car - or we'd be claiming Williams have made an almighty recovery to be title contenders. While might be possible, we haven't seen anywhere near the full force of the cars, teams running turned down engines to max out the mileage and to see what falls off. For Mercedes it was a front wing that fell off and planted Hamilton in the wall for the second consecutive winter test. McLaren had a poor first day with mechanical issues but once it was fixed the car did seem to be an improvement on last years, as much as we can tell. Such is the nature of F1, as soon as they seem to be doing well the other teams start questioning the legality of their car - regarding a section of bodywork covering the central rear exhaust. Aside from the front wing failure and McLaren's issues, Mercedes powered cars seemed to be the most reliable and completed much more laps than the other engine manufacturers.

Ferrari looked competitive too, with Alonso one of the few drivers to be pushing enough to get the car a little sideways on occasion. Teams with customer power units from Ferrari - Sauber and Marussia were also have a sufficiently reliable time, although Sutil did manage to knock the nose of his Sauber making it look much nicer for it. I think only Alonso was forced to stop out on track due as a result of the car breaking down of the Ferrari powered drivers.

But then we come to Renault who had a diabolical time in Jerez, Red Bull completed 21 laps over all four days most of which ended in Horner and Newey going home early to think about what they haven't done. Considering that Mercedes completed 309 laps it really didn't go well, Toro Rosso having switched to Renault power themselves only managed 46 laps. Of all the Renault powered teams Caterham did the most running mostly with Kobayashi at the wheel. Right now Red Bull are not happy with Renault and have announced to the world that the French manufacturer 'will have things sorted out before the Bahrain test' and that Caterham only managed to do so much running because their engines were turned down...

Whatever the actual form is - Magnussen and Massa set the top two testing times - one thing is for sure Australia is going to be a feast of unpredictability and unreliability with cars which are reportedly more 'interesting' to drive. The difficulties for Renault might mean that Lotus haven't lost out quite so much by not visiting the first test... possibly being all to aware of the issues Renault were facing and were doing their own work at home. 2014 should be a season with more competition and a closer field with Williams and McLaren getting closer. Bring it on.0

The 2014 cars look a little odd

Greetings Internet,

Here we are on the eve of the first test of the season, well at least it was when this document was started - actual release may vary. In the run up to this important milestone on the path towards Australia in March a few teams have released their new designs for 2014, and from those releases everything looks a little odd... It was to be expected that the re-profiled nose sections would dominate the shape of the grid but it has lead to some very interesting remarks across the internet. However one of the most promising things about this significant redesign is that it forces those designers and engineers to come up with new solutions and new interpretations. This means that there is going to be a lot of variation on the grid this year, especially given what we've seen so far - which is always a good thing, back in 2008 if the cars had no livery it would be very difficult to tell which one belonged to which team. Now this problem has been resolved - replaced by another one... the cars look weird... Two seasons ago we had the onset of the stepped nose, some teams were more subtle with it than others, Sauber and Ferrari had a very angular step, Force India and Mercedes had a platypus nose while McLaren had neither. All those designs seemed odd at first, but we got used to them over time, and some like the Lotus interpretation started to look alright. However I sense that the same process of acceptance regarding the newest nose designs is going to be a lot longer...

So here are the car release pictures so far... from those teams who have decided to unveil their designs before the first test begins tomorrow... ish.

Force India

Force India were the first team to unveil a picture of their car, and looking at the sole image which had clearly been photoshopped to within an inch of its life, things looked good. The most striking difference is that they had refreshed their livery after it had remained static for so long, paired with one of the strongest driver pairings on the grid and definitely in the mid-field seemed promising. What the team had done was to take their image directly from the side which meant their interpretation of the nose-cone design remained hidden. It can be seen from the profile of the nose that there is something going on there, but the angle of the shot and the after-effects put on the car make it difficult to discern what. On the surface it looks a lot more aggressive, but so did last years Sauber when those first images came out and the actual car didn't quite have the same amount of presence. So we shall have to wait and see if Force India follows that pattern when the trackside photos come out of Jerez.

Williams

After Force India released a photoshop special, Williams went one betted and released a sponsor free CGI rendering of their car. This time Williams decided to show their new nose design... and it was at this point in time that the internet erupted. Because it looks mismatched, an anomalous protrusion from the front of the car which looks out of place, the sort of thing you'd go to the doctor about and ask for a biopsy. But this is what the technical regulations promoted - a low narrow nose attached to a wider and higher section of the chassis responsible for housing the suspension. However this image may work in the opposite manner to the Force India release, because the actual car with sponsors if Williams still have any and a complete livery might highlight contours that the rendering doesn't show. Therefore the - protrusion - may blend in to the rest of the body better and look more purposeful when it is on track.

McLaren

McLaren were the first team to do a proper reveal, complete with drivers and without too much image manipulation. Before we get to the shape of the nose which again is another interpretation, the other talking point is the lack of any distinct livery, since Vodafone and McLaren parted ways over the winter the team don't have a title sponsor - or any sponsors on the car. This suggests that despite signing up drivers before the end of the 2013 season, there are still many business deals to be done. As a result the livery is rather plain - and just uses several shades of grey, making it similar in many respects to the factory Mercedes team cars. But as this may well just be a work in progress design, what they show up in Australia with may differ significantly. Onto the nose then, and this nodule seems a lot more purposeful than the Williams version, and the wing supports are quite nice - even if they look a little like nostrils from the front. But there is the problem that the end of the nose doesn't quite seem to match with the lines of the main chassis, and the edges don't line up. It is a minor detail but an ever so slightly irritating one - but as some third-party designs online demonstrate - a clever livery can sculpt the nose to look much sharper and blend in with the rest of the car.

Lotus

More CGI again, and in the alternative world of Lotus' twitter use - they twitter-bombed McLaren (if that is indeed such a term). Because as McLaren were doing a big online video reveal - Lotus posted their rendering on twitter... very sneaky. The world then stared at this image for quite a while, questioning whether Lotus were having another laugh, or whether the rendering was pushed through to spoil McLaren's parade leaving some of the details a little rough. But when further images were released it became clear that Lotus were serious and had gone in a very different direction with the design. The car has two noses... one of which is longer than the other - which is going to irritate me and anyone with an OCD complex all season long. This has been done because you can only have one designated nose, and any other chassis bodywork must be at least 500mm back from this point. Therefore one prong is the nose, and the other has to be 500mm shorted - it's a very clever interpretation of the rules, one which may force a re-write for 2015 so the innovation should be applauded. And if those noses were allowed to be equal it would be the best looking design so far.

Ferrari

With arguably the most powerful driver pairing and a huge amount of resources, big things were expected from Ferrari - they have something to prove in 2014, that they can really challenge for the big prize at the end. So when this design filtered through the media we were all very surprised with what was in front of us all - like the Lotus it took some time to sink in because it is quite different. In some respects the sloped nose without the strange protrusion is a much smoother design but the slope angle seems very disjointed from the rest of the car. Almost as if it has melted or someone really fat fell on the wax wind-tunnel model before it was scanned into the computer - but the design is quite deliberate, and I can see this being one of those that we get used to faster than the others... Even if it looks strange to us all now. Because a static car can look different to one travelling at speed even if they are intrinsically the same thing, so I shall withhold all criticism until the images from Jerez come through.

Sauber

Sauber only released their design yesterday, and is the most recent of the car releases immediately before the start of testing tomorrow when the rest of the field will be unveiled. Like Force India some clever photography and image filters make the car look more aggressive than it really is, while concealing the complete nose profile which has been a sticking point among fans. From the angle available the nose does look to be one of the better interpretations of the rule - aesthetically speaking - performance is another matter. As with the majority of the other designs thus far, the rest of the car remains largely unchanged with the exception of the airbox shapes above the driver. Sauber have come into some criticism for their driver choices by the folk of the internet mainly because Gutierrez can be erratic at times and Sutil has become boring in recent seasons - but their least inspired decision so far is the livery. All the others so far have at least made some updates and improvements to the design but Sauber haven't - barring sponsors it is borderline identical to the 2013 car. There is a sense that the mid-field balance of power might have been passed back to Force India... or maybe even Williams.

Torro Rosso

This release literally occurred minutes ago and unlike some of the other designs, toro-rosso have gone with a much sharper shape to the main chassis leading up to the nosecone which descends smoother than the likes of Ferrari or Williams. It does seem to bear a much greater resemblance to the Sauber design where the overhanging sections of the nose at the sides form the supporting struts for the front wing. Which makes the whole thing look tidier than the front of the Williams without the flaring nostril look of the McLaren. It seems that of those running the single pointed nose Toro Rosso and Sauber have come up with the prettier solutions - even if their liveries remain largely unchanged by it all. Of course we don't really know what Force India have done or the others that are yet to unveil what they have done, but those fears of 2014 cars being hideous has been dispelled in several cases. The jury is still out on others...


Overall the new cars are very different, and the picture will be a lot clearer over the coming days when testing gets underway in Spain. Of course between initial release and the start of the season in Melbourne it is entirely possible the there will be some significant changes to the shape, style and overall approach to the front nose design. Teams will learn from each other in Jerez, they will learn from the telemetry data and relative pace whether their design is any good. Naturally that relative pace doesn't mean too much at this stage, but it helps teams shape and reshape the cars to extract more downforce and tyre life from the cars. It is a very important test, which may cause problems who like me, are not heading off to Spain because it is well out of both out budgets.

2014 - A Step Into the Unknown

Greetings Internet,

As some of you may have noticed we have inadvertently stumbled into a new year, and by this point in time you, the people of the internet and potentially the real world (where ever that is...) have discovered that the novelty has worn off. Leaving you with the cold realisation that this new year is just as dull as the last 12 months we were all forced to endure - it's the same old routines and tedium merely branded with a different date. I know what both of you audience members are thinking (even that is probably an exaggeration and I am probably only talking to a list of web-crawlers and search engines.... in that case Hello Google) the last thing that you want in that world of disappointment is another rant from this point of the internet... But I was never particularly good at giving people what they want. Or caring too much about that predicament...

So what is the purpose of this specific digital outburst, well I wanted to go over the plethora of changes we've got coming in the new season with the first official test in three weeks time. A test that might be a little problematic considering that none of the teams have actually released their new car, so I can foresee everyone turning up to see Alonso and Hamilton just running around Jerez instead. Caterham don't even have any drivers at the moment officially contracted to drive, and they seem the closest to having something to test. All of this is a repercussion of firstly the utterly desperate state of funding within the sport, and the rather significant technical and sporting regulations we are going to be encountering this season.

The Engines

As it has been known for a while, the change to the engine regulations are touted as the most significant change from 2013 to now. It was decided that having big angry V10's was a bad idea, so they were downgraded to V8's - and now even that has been deemed excessive, replaced with 1.5L V6's. On the surface that seems like a puny amount of power to be placing in the highest discipline of single seater motorsport, considering there is a 2.5L V6 sitting on the drive of Blog HQ - and although watching Raikkonen start the season in 4WD truck with only 149hp might be... different, it seems wrong. But these engines will be turbocharged which adds a very interesting dynamic to power delivery, producing a hell of a lot more torque (and that is a hell of a lot in metric units). This will make the cars more difficult to drive - or so we are told, but come Australia the engineers will have fixed that, they always do - because of huge amounts of potential wheelspin even in third and maybe fourth gear (allegedly). The more cynical among you may suggest that all these added details may be exaggerations made by drivers and teams based on estimations ran through their simulators, we won't really know how the powertrain will influence driving stability until the first car starts testing.

However all this doomsaying about impossibly difficult cars might prove to be very interesting, because if the cars are much more challenging to drive then it will backfire dramatically on the teams who have brought in drivers for money. You see, hopefully weaknesses in driving ability will be exacerbated by this development and make them more error-prone, thus forcing teams to re-think the decision making process in driver selection. Perhaps this is why Sirotkin hasn't been shoehorned into Sauber with quite the same amount of haste as it was promised mid season... or why Chilton hasn't been immediately confirmed at Marussia. The knock on effect of this might be that the teams have to pay more attention to talent, and give them the kick up the proverbial backside they need to sort out the insane budget escalations.

The V6 isn' the only alteration to the powertrain of the 2014 grid, KERs has been given a complete overhaul making it much more powerful than it ever has been. The allocation has also been significantly increased - from 6s per lap to 30 seconds (so the majority of the A1 Ring when we get there...). All of this has meant that the system needed to be renamed, several highly techincal boffins went into a room for many, many hours (some may not have made it out) and in the end KERs has been changed to ERS... genius. I wonder how long that meeting went on for.

Tyres

Ah yes, the source of so much controversy in 2013, the tyres are also up for renewal in 2014 which is another influence of the redevelopment of engine regulations. Any of the incarnations of tyre that were dished out in the previous year are apparently going to disintegrate under the higher torque loads delivered by the turbo-charged power units (although they did that before anyway). Therefore Pirelli - probably sick of being complained at - have made the compounds more durable to compensate, so tyre conservation should be less of a problem and by more down to chassis design and driver style to limit wheelspin in preserving the rubber. The actual tyre rules seem not to have changed from last season to this one,  where two compounds will be brought to each race and in the dry both must be used on a Sunday afternoon, and the top 10 start on the set they set their fastest Q3 time on.

Aerodynamic Changes

Every now and again the aerodynamic design limits get modified slightly, generally around the front of the car - after 2008 these limits were modified with a machete - but this latest set is a lot more subtle. Since that monumental reconfiguration in 2009, the height of the nose-cone has been under constant scrutiny - and in 2012 we ended up with some strange stepped nose designs. In 2014 the maximum height of the nose is being lowered, primarily for safety, because a low nose has a smaller chance of riding over a wheel and ending on top of the car in front. A primary example was the 2011 Abu-Dhabi GP when Liuzzi parked his Force India on top of Schumacher's Mercedes, and a similar incident occurred in this year's GP2 race. Naturally this causes the problem of risking a driver taking a car to the head - which is not ideal. Initial concept drawings of what this would look like looked ... different, shall we say - but other artisitic impressions make the nose sections look more like those we saw on the 2009 Brawn GP car.

The front and rear wing dimensions are also up for modification, which is about time really - the amount of endplates causing punctures has been to high, and the slightest of contact can destroy a race. A recent example being Hamilton squeezing between two cars at the Japanses GP off the line, and brushing Vettel's front wing - ultimately leading to him retiring the car. A similar thing happened to Vettel in Malaysia with Karthekeyan's HRT resulting in the German calling the Indian a cucumber... so in essence narrower front wings should prevent salad vegetables from encroaching on the sport. But the idea is once more to remove downforce, by narrowing the front wing and taking out a beam from a shallower rear wing the cars should be harder to drive. Additionally it theoretically helps to minimised the aero wake problem prevent cars following closely without destroying their tyres in the process.

A Double Points Finale

There are times when you wonder what on earth the people in the FIA have been smoking... this is certainly one of them - Martin Brundle summed up the reaction to this most unusual ruling perfectly saying that it fixes a problem which doesn't exist. It is such a stupid idea - effectively devaluing every other race of the season saying it isn't as important as the final round... which conveniently has been passed back to the very rich venue of Abu Dhabi (obviously a coincidence). Drivers don't like the idea, the internet was all but ready to start burning effigies at the idea, because it is nonsensical. Then race promoters started pitching in, and rightly so, because the FIA is effectively placing their race at a lower significance... yet as of this point in time the decision has not been reversed. If the rule was in place for all of the previous championship seasons it was calculated that very little would have changed... Vettel would still be infuriatingly dominant, as would have Schumacher. The only recent championship that would have been affected is 2008, where Massa would be champion instead of Hamilton (at which point the BBC would start throwing bricks through Bernie's windows due to their Lewis worship at the time). So that begs the question, why? It wouldn't change anything in a season where one driver is dominant, which is one of the things people don't like at the moment, and it would distort a close, competitive year. It fails on all counts.

But... varied points do exist in other championships, categories like the WEC and V8 Supercars (at least it used to) have certain races where a larger number of points are on offer. This is because these races are longer and have special significance, like the Le Mans 24hrs or the Bathurst 1000 - and therefore are a greater challenge to win or at least finish. So if F1 want's to justify the ludicrous points change then the format of the final race needs to be changed to make it worth those extra points. One slightly mental idea (may as well since the FIA have already lost the plot on this one) is that this double score event should be twice as long - up to 4hrs (or 8 with red flags) - with a driver change to place test drivers in the car for at least 40 minutes. Yes there are logistical problems with that - i.e. how many points do test drivers score and does that affect championship places, and fuel and tyre resources would need to be extended but those are only minor problems. However the Indy 500 can last around 4hrs (with a lot of safety cars and only four corners per lap...) so one driver might be able to manage.... just.

Individual Driver Numbers

Unlike the frankly stupid double points rule - this seems like a much better idea, it's something that exists in NASCAR and some types of bike racing (whatever that is) where a driver picks a number and effectively owns it for his or her F1 career. It should make drivers more identifiable (if unique helmets weren't enough) especially when those stewards message banners come up: "car 12 under investigation for something" because we'd all know which driver took number 12. There is some opposition to this on the internet, citing the fact that those of us who've seen every race since some arbitrary time in history know who is who already - even if Vettel tries to conceal his identity with a different hat every other day - so why bother. Well the thing is why not, I like the idea it almost injects some personality into a very anaesthetised sport where press conferences are scripted by PR agents and drivers and burned at the stake for having an opinion (although Di Resta and Maldonado were well out of line on more than one occasion in their interviews and thus deserved criticism). Besides there is an automatic bonus point waiting for any driver who turns up in Melbourne with the number 42 emblazoned on their car.

The process of assigning these numbers works in the following manner, each driver picks three numbers in order of preference from 2-99 (#1 is reserved for the champion if he wants it) i.e. Bottas has already lay claim to 77 with 17 or 11 as backups. Numbers are then assigned based on championship position and preference, so if someone further up the table also wanted #77 then Bottas would have to settle for his second or third options. The allocations thus far can be found Here (still no #42 yet - A Kobayashi return with #42 would result in so many points).

Limited Fuel

We're back on the strange ideas list with this one, the intentions behind it are very valid and reasonable but I think the actual consequences of it might be less than ideal. Like so many of the other adjustments it is a legacy of the engine regulations, in an attempt to make the new generation of engines more efficient and less thirsty. Each car will only be permitted to carry a certain amount of fuel - an amount that may not be sufficient to complete the race completely flat out... and this is where the problem comes in. If a car can't finish the race then it will be forced into a fuel conservation mode, so instead of saving tyres throughout the race it will be fuel instead.

But is 2014 still worth waiting for...

Well it better be, if at the end of the first race we are all throwing various objects at the television in frustration then the plans would have all failed. But in the intervening period it is worth looking forward two because anything can happen, there is always the chance that someone could do a 'Brawn GP' and come up with the ultimate solution to the regulations and dominate the series. It that happens to be a lesser team from the mid-field there development pace could make the second half of the year very interesting as everyone else catches up. If it is Red Bull who draw the trump card then we will see nothing of them all season long such are the resources they have to continually gain pace. Several drivers have been pointing out the potential for reduced reliability, due to the lack of testing on the new engines, Sutil in particular has said it would 'damage' sport. However I think it adds even more unpredictability to the series, having a week long lead doesn't automatically mean a win and huge haul of points 50 laps later. More accidents, retirements and huge plumes of smoke from detonated engines sounds beautiful. After the final part of 2013 we need some action and dynamism in the sport where strategy isn't decided three weeks earlier in a dark computer room. Constantly changing on track events force reactions and creativity on the pit wall, not to mention how the drivers will cope. Naturally I shall keep my expectations high for this season, and hope not to see them dashed once more. Even if they are the BTCC and V8 Supercars look mightily brilliant in their pre-season updates, so there will be brilliant racing somewhere.

The 2013 End of Season Belated Bonus Points Championship Unveiling Ceremonial Post...

Greetings Internet,

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.

Round 19: Brazil - The Grand Finale of 2013

Greetings Internet,

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....

Round 19: Brazil - The Grand Finale Qualiftying

Greetings Internet,

Well that took a little longer than expected as the tropical climate produced some rainfall this afternoon, enough rainfall to force a mid-session delay one that was typically over cautious. So it is a little odd that in all of the changing conditions that we've seen in the past couple of hours we've ended up with an identical front row that we've seen on other occasions this season, in fact the grid doesn't look particularly too rearranged. Normally when we have a fluctuating session like that you can see cars well out of position which would set up the race for a plethora of excitement... remember those days.. Well not anymore unlike Australia where the session was characterised by people bouncing off the scenery folks were relatively well behaved and only one car ended up with damage in fact we didn't see to many drivers getting spectacularly sideways. What on earth has happened such that even challenging conditions such as those seem to be well within the stability of the current generation of race cars. To rub salt into those wounds we were even reminded about tyre conservation when the cars were over 20s off the actual dry pace... will those complaints ever end. Considering there is only one event left of the season, probably.

However if these conditions continue onto raceday, things could finally be entertaining because there has been a lack of that recently...

Qualifying 

For the first part of the session the rain was predicted to intensify which forced a queue of cars to form at the end of the pit lane a queue which Marussia missed and thus forced themselves in - did seem a little impatient. And on top of that what would be the benefit of a Marussia leaving the garage ahead of a faster car - they tend to get penalties for not being as fast as the others in qualifying and thus being in the way. Hamilton was at the front of the queue ahead of Charles Pic and it was the Mercedes driver who took an initial top time - ahead of Vettel and the two Nicos. Traffic was becoming a problem for the Lotus team firstly Grosjean came upon Chilton in the technical phase of the middle sector to which Romain was not entirely pleased about. Kovalainen was having similar difficulties with the two Caterham team, first having to pass Van Der Garde and then Pic.

As predicted the rain started to intensify which became a problem for Vergne and Gutierrez who wew in the relegation zone as track grip decreased. It was at this time that we saw the Force India team host their own intra-team drifting competition - Di Resta's effort was a little slide around the turn 8 hairpin after putting a wheel on the painted lines. Sutil however was much more proficient, selecting the fast turn three to get sideways, destabilised by the infamous river that caused a lot of accidents in 2003. As times were getting progressively slower it was a major surprise to see Heikki find enough time to put his Lotus up into 5th place. This gave hope to the likes of Vergne and Maldonado, and Gutierrez just on the safe side of relegation. Of the three it was only Vergne who made and significant time and dumped Esteban out of qualifying along with Maldonado. It rarely seems like Pastor is giving it a go at the moment.

Off into Q2, and the forecast suggested that the rain was coming and thus the best times were only available at the start of the session - so we had another queue, again headed by the Mercedes team, and as a result it was the silver cars that set the inial pace. Ferrari went third and fourth with Alonso ahead of his outgoing team mate. But naturally it wasn't long before the two Red Bull cars found themselves at the front, and there is no points for guessing that it was indeed Vettel who was at the very front.  Things were very close for making out of the relegation zone, both McLarens, Force Indias, Hulkenberg and Bottas were presently outside the top 10. But just like in Q1 the amount of time open for competition was curtailed by the presence of some more rain, preventing drivers from improving their times. Therefore certain competitors who would conventionally be highly praised in the wet were not able to show any pace.

To counter the worsening conditions several drivers opted for a new set of intermediate tyres to recover some of the grip. It worked really well for Grosjean in the Lotus who went fastest of all at the time. Contrasting fortunes at Lotus because it also coincided with Hulkenberg improving to progress into the top ten at the expense of Kovalainen. Alonso had moved into second place ahead of Vettel but the rain was considerably intensifying snuffing out any further improvements. Sergio Perez tried to find a little more pace, but ran wide onto the run-off on the exit of turn four and span the car back across the track into the wall damaging both the front and rear of the car.

As the rain got rather heavy, qualifying as an entity was delayed to allow the storm to pass over and to give the medical car plenty of time to have some laps negotiating the puddles and rivers that had formed across the track. In total we had forty-seven minutes of rain induced suspension before Q3 could get underway.

Eventually it was time for Q3 and breaking Mercedes' streak of leading the pit lane queue were all four Red Bull branded cars since they all made it into the top ten. While the top four cars in track positions continued onto their flying lap -  Grosjean brought the car back in for intermediate tyres. This in itself demonstrates that the session could have started much sooner, maybe we've reached the point where even using the wet tyres signifies that there is too much water on the circuit. Which also defeats the very purpose of having those tyres delivered to the track. Anyway rant aside it was Vettel who set the initial top time again, followed home by Rosberg and Alonso - but after their banker lap this set of drivers also went back to the pits for some new intermediates, realising it wasn't quite wet enough for the actual wet tyres.

This fact was confirmed when Grosjean went a second faster than Vettel on the intermediate tyres to claim provisional pole from the German bloke.Webber in the second Red Bull found a tenth over Romain to steal the pole position - but Sebastian took pole by 1.1s over his team-mate. That pretty much ended any challenge for pole position and meant we'd end the season with all qualifying sessions being won by either a Red Bull or a Mercedes, and only four different drivers. Rosberg put his Mercedes onto the front row ahead of Fernando Alonso. Webber joins Fernando on the second row with Hamilton and Grosjean sitting on row three. Behind them it is an all Toro Rosso row four with Ricciardo leading his team-mate by mere fractions of a tenth, rounding out the top ten is Felipe Massa for Ferrari and Hulkenberg in the Sauber.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Conventionally in a session like this we have some stand-out performances that belay the generally accepted pace of the car, this didn't quite happen in any consistent sense. There sporadic moments throughout the disjointed event, and such here are the points from the first part of the Brazilian GP weekend.

• 10pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - One of the few drivers to make time when the rain increased in Q1 and then made it through into the top ten.
• 8pts - Heikki - Kovalainen - How that car ended up in the top five in the increasing rain in the first part of qualifying is mysterious.
• 6pts - Nico Rosberg - The only car within second of Vettel's excessively quick pole time
• 5pts - Valtteri Bottas - Another strong showing for Bottas, while Maldonado barely turned up
• 4pts - Adrian Sutil - Brilliant save of that slide through turn three as the rain increased 
• 3pts - Romain Grosjean - Won Q2 and was the first to move onto the intermediates
• 2pts - Paul Di Resta - Gets a couple of points for his drifting attempt in turn 
• 1pt - Van Der Merwe - Powersliding the medical car on the sighting laps at either end of the season

The Penalties Series

A couple of reprimands were handed to Gutierrez and Chilton following final practice, but the only punishment was handed to Marussia in a 5,000 EUR fine for releasing their cars in the side of the queue at Q1, forcing other cars to take avoiding action.

The Penalty Points Series

In the uncertain conditions there are a few points to hand out:

• Kimi Raikkonen - gets two penalty points for not turning up to qualifying both at this race and in Austin because he hasn't been paid
• The FIA - what is the point of the wet tyres if the paddock is forbidden to use them any more
• Romain Grosjean - Complaining at slower cars far too easily again
• The invited class of cars at the final WTCC race in Macau - Although it is a weekend late that batch of cars behaved terribly causing an immense accident under yellow flags and almost murdering a marshal - shame on you all.

Looking to Tomorrow

This is it, one race left in the V8 era, one race left in this twisted mess of a season, plagued by tyre difficulties, an abuse of the DRS system to excess, conservation based events all boiling down to the same conclusion. Rain is threatened for this final chapter in this story, rain that could end 2013 with something special, something worth remembering this championship for, before we venture off into the uncharted territory of the 2014 regulations. This is our last stand to make something of this year... The grid suggests that Vettel will scamper off into the mildly damp distance leaving the rest of the field to fight it out amongst themselves. And I hope that it shall be the greatest fight we will have seen this year bring it on...

Round 19 - Brazil 2013 - The Grand Finale

Greetings Internet,

It has been a long season, one which has had it's ups and then plummeted over the latter course of the year. Things transpired, other round things exploded and the entire universe seemed to implode from that point onward really. It has not been the most enthralling of seasons, the art of racing has been foregone for the pursuit of tyre management and painful conservation. A season which many teams, drivers and people at home perched far from the edges of their sofas, will not be displeased to see end. Of course no one really knows what lies on the other side of the oncoming off season, a plethora of rule and design changes are afoot which could considerably adjust the balance of power. Of course the lack of energy present in these final few races, means there is already a strong focus on the 2014 productions. And of course, with Red Bull having won everything in India they too have been able to work on the next all conquering vehicle.

But what does that leave us with this weekend in the grand finale of the 2013 season, unfortunately not a lot really - pretty much all of the championship positions have been settled in both the constructors and in the drivers titles. Instead we shall have to sit back and enjoy the show where no-one has anything really to lose and nothing to gain, there is only pride and personal aims at stake. For those still looking for a secured 2014 drive this race is the last chance to offer themselves to potential employment. Those like Perez who had the rug at McLaren pulled out from under him in the dying phase of the season, and then there is Kovalainen who has been given a chance to throw his name into the hat. On top of this there is the issue of drivers with financial support earning priority over arguably better drivers without those bags of cash. It is this very problem that cause all kinds of bother down at Lotus where financial deals define who gets the free place instead of pace and ability. Luckily that is all played out on one of the better tracks we get to visit - instead of another dreary generic Tilke-drome it is traditional, flowing and brilliant. One that has favoured the likes of Webber, Massa and Hulkenberg in the past... especially considering that there might be some rain... allegedly.

The Track

It is a good things that we have the opportunity to end this season on a high, something that will make us - the general public look back favourably on the year. In 2013 the Brazilian GP was utterly fantastic it had rain, incidents and  brilliant racing - even without the increasingly dynamic championship battle between Alonso and Vettel it would have been a highlight of the season. After the season we have just witnessed we all need something like that to round it off. Sao Paulo is the perfect place to host such a event, like India the culture is so vibrant and colourful, full of energy and life - and has delivered many races to match that temperament.

The opening phase of the lap is wonderful, a powerful blast right in front of the fans ends in a cascading, descending chicane where the apex is ever so slightly after the turn in point. The descent is not as extreme as Laguna Seca's infamous corkscrew chicane (why we don't go there instead of a multi-million dollar new circuit is beyond comprehension) but provides a brilliant overtaking opportunity. A corner which was used to effect one of the cleverest teamplay overtaking moves in recent times as Massa passed Webber but allowed space for Alonso to pass the pair of them... yet Ferrari fired him still. What is the most irritating about this is that the FIA have decided that this conventional overtaking zone needs DRS... for gods sake why. This what is annoying the folks at the moment, diluting any opportunity for actual racing with gizmos - and this is why people are just looking forward to 2014...

After the opening sequence the track exits onto the back straight, which is also another DRS zone heading towards turn four. But once you escape the clutches of DRS turn four is rather good, simple but effective as it opens out so you can carry more speed through the exit. But if T4 is enjoyable then it's successor is even better, Ferra Durra which is a high speed positively cambered climbing corner which feeds into the technical phase of the lap. Now if we were presented with a series of hairpins like this in any new track and we'd complain. In fact when a similar concept was trialled in Indianapolis and it did not go down well - although that particular implementation was a complete abomination. Yet here in Interlagos we're fine with it, because it works - the track is cambered to ease the inherent understeer, that and the fact the at the corner radii seem well judged as well.  At track which flows with the contours of the land is all too often steps ahead of one developed artificially.

At the end of the technical section which is concluded by the brilliantly named 'Bico de Pato' hairpin the speed starts to build back up again towards the end of the lap. Starting with the tricky downhill corner at Mergulho which has seen several cars end up in the barrier over the years as it attracts a very inconvenient river of water in the rain. At the very foot of the hill is Juncao corner, where Raikkonen decided to get quite lost in last season's race, venturing off into the support paddock roads which were not open at the time. But Raikkonen is further afield this time round - and I don't see Heikki making the same detour. After Juncao there is a steep high speed climb between some high and imposing concrete walls. A series of very fast kinks with very little run-off space bring the track back to the start line... even if it is now disgraced by more DRS

What to Expect

There are already forecasts for rain over the course of the weekend, now I know what you're thinking we've had that message before... Spa, Monza, Korea, Japan all had some threat of rain but absolutely nothing happened. So the cynical among us would assume that the same is going to happen again, showers in practice and maybe even in qualifying but nothing on race day. Of course we all want some rain, to drown the DRS out and to inject any form of randomness and chaos into this final race of the season. In any event it can only be assumed that Red Bull will once more be a dominant force and one of the pair will go on to win the race, will Vettel allow Webber to win the final race of his F1 career - nope, not by any means. If the previous races are anything to go by then Grosjean will be the nearest contender and wrap up the bonus points championship which is also all but decided. Somewhere in the middle of all that there will be the local specialist Massa and the Mercedes drivers.

If the conditions do get a little dodgy then you'd have to guess that Hulkenberg, Button and Bottas could be in for a very good weekend, and of course Nico needs to reinforce his reputation as a very promising talent without a major drive in his future. However the people at Sauber have said that if no deals come through he is welcome to stay with the team - well done Sauber - because Lotus are looking at money and the lunacy of Maldonado it comes with as a potential solution. The other option of Force India would not be helpful frankly for Nico, it would cost continuity and have no performance gains. It is also a part of the grid Perez could be looking at, and none of the Force India are confirmed. There is much to play for in that respect, some of which lead to desperation and craziness and whoever falls out of the series might consider looking to Indycar in replacement of Dario Franchitti who can no longer compete through injuries sustained in that Houston accident.

We can only hope that this final event offers everything that we have been missing over the course of this year - because we are leaving the ear of V8 engines behind it would be unfair for things to peter out with a whimper. It is also the final race for Mark Webber before he goes over to Porsche in their new Le Mans program. It could also be the last time we see several other members of the current grid, the likes of Perez, Gutierrez,  Sutil and Di Resta are in a very uncertain position without any security moving into the next season. Lets end 2013 with the best race of the year....please...