On 15th Mar 2013 the Formula ONE season for 2013 would officially begin in Melbourne, Australia. The series of tests the teams carried out this year ended in Barcelona last week. Mercedes appear to be poised for a surprise with Nico and Lewis trading fastest times. Ferrari appear to be in better shape when compared to the year before with Fernando setting times that were closer to the fastest time for a particular day. They’ve also done long runs with heavy fuel loads with considerable success though many would still insist they’d have sandbagged through the runs to mask real performance.
Lotuses have done some good running, they’ve surprised everyone with their sturdy car and clever aero package last year, and they appear to be continuing a similar streak this year. McLaren, after showing some brilliant times on the timesheet in Jerez seem to have struggled with the car in Barcelona if we have to take what Jenson says at face value. I doubt if he’s really playing it safe and bucking expectation or a genuine worry that got Jenson to comment that the car still has a long way to go before it can be understood completely.
Red Bull, as they always do, haven’t given any clue as to where they stand, both drivers did their regular setup and test work without making it to the headlines all through practice. If there is one team on the grid that doesn’t need to worry about being in the headlines it has to be Red Bull. The three world championships would have brought them considerable number of sponsors thereby providing enough financial liquidity that would be stuff of dreams for many others teams on the grid. A sizeable amount of money from Bernie’s coffer, which they’d have rightfully won as prize money, can be kept as reserve.
Despite how gung-ho some teams are, Domenicali being an example, or how tight lipped some others appear to be, the real measure of a car’s performance will be seen only during the race in Melbourne. Until then we can speculate as much as we’d want to, come up with a prediction of our own and substantiate it with data from the tests. That’d be an exercise in fallacy.
A few rules have changes from last year, here are two significant ones that’d be obvious during the race. DRS can be used only in the DRS zones during qualifying unlike last year. There is no “force majeure” in the rule book on qualifying and race day. This means teams like Red Bull, who allegedly stopped their car in the grid last year after winning because there wasn’t going to be enough fuel sample to give the FIA for tests, won’t be able to switch off their cars on the grid after finish citing technical reasons. All cars should be driven back to the FIA designated area and there should be the minimum amount of fuel available for testing at that point.
Lewis names Sebastian and Fernando as the people to beat, virtually writing Jenson off which is probably part of a larger mind game. In a few days the season resumes and this year appears to hold a lot of promise with the cars not very far from each other in terms of pace.
May the best team win!
