Analysis: Formula 1 2013's winners and losers By Matt Beer and Edd Straw [HR][/HR] WINNER: Mercedes Ross Brawn's team's attentions were turned to 2013 long before last year's summer break, and despite winter turbulence and tyre dramas, that strategy has paid off. McLaren's slump also allowed Mercedes a clearer shot at the podium. LOSER: Fernando Alonso Despite a Ferrari that, until recent races, was clearly an improvement on the 2012 car, Alonso's score has dropped year-on-year, as has his finishing average. Whereas in 2012, he tigered to every available point, this season opportunities have been squandered in several races, and Mercedes has got between Alonso and Red Bull more often than McLaren did in early-2012. WINNER: Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull The RB9's pure speed advantage (certainly in race trim) has not seemed any bigger than a year ago, but this time Red Bull has avoided the mini-downturn it suffered while wrestling with tyres and the diffuser rule change last year. There are also fewer frontrunning rivals to capitalise on any off days. LOSER: McLaren The shock of early-2013. Major misjudgements in the car concept mean the team that ended 2012 as the benchmark is over 100 points down this year. WINNER: Felipe Massa A surprise statistic given that the pressure on his Ferrari seat has barely relented year-on-year. Yet both his qualifying pace and ability to gather points have clearly improved. Given the continuing disparity with Alonso, though, his 2013 improvement mainly underlines just how abject his start to 2012 was. LOSER: Williams A winner in early 2012 but this year it took 10 races to even scrape a point. Last season Williams's form fluctuated; this year its car is simply off the pace. Pastor Maldonado's tendency to try to over-drive amid the car's shortcomings has not helped, though recent changes should ease that. WINNER: Lotus The team still struggles in qualifying and flies in the races, Romain Grosjean still either shunts or stars. But the key change is that last year both the revitalised team and returnee driver Kimi Raikkonen needed a few races to find their feet, while in 2013 they were immediate winners. LOSER: Sauber Alongside a less effective aerodynamic package, Sauber has been unable to find the magic affinity that it and particularly Sergio Perez did when the 2012 Pirellis were most quirky. WINNER: Lewis Hamilton Few would have bet at the start of the season that Hamilton's mid-year statistics at Mercedes would be so much better than his first half of 2012 tally with McLaren. Despite his tyre woes and complaints about the car, Hamilton has churned out results more consistently this year, in a car at least as competitive as his previous mount. LOSER: Sergio Perez While Perez has far from crumpled under the pressure of joining McLaren, the difficult car package means he has had scant opportunity to repeat his underdog heroics of 2012. WINNER: Toro Rosso A fundamental rethink of the team's mechanical design concept has transformed Toro Rosso's competitiveness, with aero improvements still to come. While its average results are actually a little worse, last year's consistent mediocrity has been replaced by peaks and troughs, the former very fruitful. [HR][/HR] Theres some interesting thoughts there
Yep. Surely little to disagree over. At this stage in the season, Matt Beer and Edd Straw seem to have it pretty well summed up. I hope the amateur employed by the BBC has been made aware of it. I doubt Benson would find it himself, far less manage to arrive at such reasonable conclusions…
I agree for the most part, with a few queries: - Perez? Perez was good at the start of the season, was beating Button in that uncompetitive car, he's struggled in recent races because Button (a much more experienced former WDC) has got on top of the car. I'd say Hulkenberg's had worse luck going from Force India to Sauber myself. - Massa as a winner? Would agree based on the first three or four races of the season but he's been utterly abject more recently, to the extent that he's admitted he needs to pick up his form again in order to secure his drive for next season. - No mention of Grosjean or Lotus?
One thing that does concern me about Perez is that he developed a reputation as a tyre saver last year with his strategy based podiums, but this year like Malaysia, China, Germany and Hungary were McLaren have tried to stratagise there way up the field, Button has tended to end up some half a minute down the road. Overall though i would agree that he has impressed with his pace relative to Jenson for the most part once he settled in. The true test will come when/if McLaren sort themselves out. With Massa i think he's been placed as a winner purely because the list is only comparing the first half of this season to his truly dismal first half of last season. So Felipe is one of the most improved. Problem is when you look the second half of last season you can see that Massa is losing form again. I worked out the other day that on his current points per race he's set to hit a near enough identical points tally as last season. Which can't be good enough and it has to be time to go.
Here are the mid season driver rankings for 2013 from F1Fanatic... 22. Max Chilton Beat team mate in qualifying 0/9 Beat team mate in race 0/8 Races finished 10/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 92/550 Itâs always difficult to develop an informed view about how two rookie drivers in the same team as both are unknown quantities. In Chiltonâs case he is yet to out-qualify Bianchi on merit in ten attempts. He caused a substantial accident in Monaco for which he received a surprisingly lenient given the nature of the error and the fact it caused a race-stopping crash. In his favour, heâs a consistent finisher and has clearly made progress since the beginning of the season, winning a couple of scraps with Van der Garde. 21. Giedo van der Garde Beat team mate in qualifying 3/10 Beat team mate in race 1/7 Races finished 8/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 179/471 The contest between the two Caterham drivers has been closer than some expected. Van der Garde is clearly trailing his more experienced team mate but at times heâs had to make do without the latest upgrades. Canada stands out as a particularly poor race as he tangled with both Webber and Hulkenberg while being lapped. However he ended the first half of the season with a decent performance in Hungary. 20. Esteban Gutierrez Beat team mate in qualifying 0/10 Beat team mate in race 1/6 Races finished 8/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 76/443 Gutierrez may have been pushed into F1 too soon but heâs here now and has to be judged on the strength of his performances thus far. Heâs been dealt a tough hand: the C32 is a disappointment after Sauberâs fine 2012 campaign, the team are short on cash and team mate Hulkenberg is a promising talent whoâs thrashed his rookie partner so far. While Gutierrez has failed to progress beyond Q1 more often than not, Hulkenberg has managed to drag the car into the top ten. However Gutierrez briefly led in Spain and was just a few seconds away from scoring his first point at the chequered flag. But he shunted at the pit exit in Canada and took Sutil out in China, showing he still needs quite a bit more polish. 19. Charles Pic Beat team mate in qualifying 7/10 Beat team mate in race 6/7 Races finished 9/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 292/471 Beating Grosjean during Q1 in Canada must stand out as his season highlight so far. Pic continues to show a flair for qualifying and has been a serious opponent to Bianchi in the races, though hasnât always been able to beat the Marussia. He even chased Bottas home in Spain, and in Malaysia he beat his team mate despite being hit by Vergne earlier in the race. 18. Jules Bianchi Beat team mate in qualifying 9/9 Beat team mate in race 8/8 Races finished 8/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 458/550 The size of the gap between the midfield and the two smallest teams frustrates efforts to understand how well the latterâs drivers are performing. So far Bianchi has finished ahead of his team mate in every qualifying session and race where both were able to participate: an enviable record, but hard to make much of when he shares a team with the un-rated Chilton. Making matters worse for Bianchi, Marussia seem to have been in decline since the season began. The days of him being able to get within a few tenths of a Williams and a Toro Rosso, as in Malaysia, seem a long time ago. 17. Pastor Maldonado Beat team mate in qualifying 4/10 Beat team mate in race 4/6 Races finished 7/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 271/512 Maldonadoâs third season has been a largely frustrating experience so far. The car has slumped back to a 2011-level performance at best, it isnât responding to his scruff-of-the-neck driving style, and thereâs a hot prospect on the other side of the garage showing him up. Maldonado has been a little more dependable than Bottas in the races, and with a dose of luck managed to snatch a point in Hungary, but until then it was his team mate who looked the most likely to get the job done. 16. Jean-Eric Vergne Beat team mate in qualifying 3/10 Beat team mate in race 3/4 Races finished 6/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 205/469 Red Bull came to a swift decision about which of the Toro Rosso drivers is the better prospect. And looking at their qualifying results thereâs no mistaking that Ricciardo is doing a far better job on Saturdays. But Vergne, despite the worst car reliability record of any driver, still has more points than Ricciardo. These came largely thanks to two excellent drives in Monaco and Canada which must be considered the equal of anything his team mate has produced this year. 15. Valtteri Bottas Beat team mate in qualifying 6/10 Beat team mate in race 2/6 Races finished 9/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 241/512 Itâs hard not to be impressed with how well Bottas has taken to F1 on his debut despite having spent last year out of a racing environment. To consistently be on Maldonadoâs pace in qualifying â let alone beating him on balance â deserves high praise. Claiming third on the grid during a wet qualifying session in Canada was real âstar of the futureâ stuff. He was always going to struggle come race day but he produced a mature drive, defending as well as he could in the circumstances, which was very much to his credit. 14. Felipe Massa Beat team mate in qualifying 3/9 Beat team mate in race 0/7 Races finished 8/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 49/460 After ending 2012 strongly and beginning this season similarly well, Massa has reverted to his post-2009 type: not quick enough and error-prone. He had at least one spin or crash per weekend for four events in a row from Monaco to Germany â imagine how a Chilton or Van der Garde would be pilloried for such a record. He can hold a candle to Alonso now and then but he once again has less than half his team mateâs points haul. Once again he heads into the second half of a season with doubt over his future at Ferrari. 13. Daniel Ricciardo Beat team mate in qualifying 7/10 Beat team mate in race 1/4 Races finished 8/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 264/469 Ricciardo has been strong in qualifying this year but blown hot and cold during the races. Among his less compelling performances were Bahrain (16th, struggling with tyre warm-up and braking) and Canada (15th, oversteer). On other days itâs all come together: he started and finished seventh in China, beating Grosjean. And he deserved a better result than eighth at Silverstone as his team didnât pit him under the late Safety Car period. But itâs hard to say conclusively that, on the strength of this, he deserves to drive an RB10 next year. 12. Adrian Sutil Beat team mate in qualifying 5/10 Beat team mate in race 3/7 Races finished 7/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 263/485 Sutilâs eye-catching return to F1 in Melbourne where he led for 11 laps was flattered somewhat by his tyre strategy and his team mate being ordered not to overtake him at the end. It raised expectations for his comeback which were soon frustrated by a series of misfortunes. He hit back with a battling drive to fifth in Monaco, the highlight of which were a pair of gutsy passes at the Fairmont hairpin on two world champions. He collected a needless penalty in Canada and got unlucky with the Safety Car in Britain. How well he and team mate Di Resta fare in the remaining races will depend on whether they can solve the VJM06′s problems on the revised tyres. 11. Paul di Resta Beat team mate in qualifying 5/10 Beat team mate in race 4/7 Races finished 9/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 222/485 Having compared favourably to Sutil in his rookie season Di Resta needed to be decisively ahead this year following his team mateâs return from sabbatical. But so far his edge over Sutil has been marginal at best. Fourth place in Bahrain, nursing his tyres on a two-stop strategy, suggested he could be on for a podium in the opening races. That it hasnât happened yet is partly due to him going out in Q1 on three occasions and being sent to the back of the grid in Britain. Though misfortune and human error explains a lot of those, his round one elimination in Hungary pointed to a sheer lack of pace â an alarming development for the team at this point in the season.
10. Romain Grosjean Beat team mate in qualifying 2/10 Beat team mate in race 1/8 Races finished 8/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 163/548 Having acquired a reputation for being accident-prone last year Grosjean has not yet done enough to shake it off. The nadir of his first half of the season was in Monaco where he seemed to either be setting purple sector times or climbing from the steaming wreck of his Lotus. Moments like these inevitably stand out more clearly in the memory when looking back on his season so far. It began with some promise: in Malaysia, despite lacking the team’s latest upgrades for the second race in a row and missing Q3 due to a weather radar problem, he got ahead of Raikkonen early on and finished in front. In Bahrain he bounced back from another Q2 elimination to finish on the podium. He’s looked happier in the Lotus since Silverstone, although it turned out to be the first of two races in which he was told to let his team mate past. A shot at victory in Germany was denied when the Safety Car ruined his strategy. Hungary reinforced the view that he’s on an upward swing at the moment, out-qualifying Raikkonen for the second time in three races and pushing Vettel hard in his pursuit of victory. But carelessness got the better of him again, collecting a penalty after blundering into the side of Button. His team must despair that he’s never going to shake off these mistakes and become the driver he’s capable of being. 9. Sergio Perez Beat team mate in qualifying 4/10 Beat team mate in race 3/10 Races finished 10/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 245/606 Perez went into the season expecting to have to deal with the pressures of getting his chance in a front-running car. It must come as a shock to him that neither he nor his team mate have come close to finishing on the podium yet – this time last year he’d done so twice for Sauber. Despite the McLaren’s shortcomings Perez has shown some of the qualities which McLaren hired him for in the first place: he has out-qualified Button several times, been classified in every race and proven a fierce competitor in wheel-to-wheel combat. He’s pushed the latter to the limit at times, making contact with his team mate in Bahrain and risking a fifty-fifty (at best) move on Raikkonen in Monaco. The latter came after a pair of excellent moves on his team mate and Alonso. His attempts to get around McLaren’s problems using the ‘Sauber solution’ of trying to complete the race with one fewer pit stop than his rivals has often let him down. That left him vulnerable to pursuers in the closing stages (as in Germany) or having to make a late stop for more tyres (as in Malaysia). 8. Nico Hulkenberg Beat team mate in qualifying 10/10 Beat team mate in race 5/6 Races finished 8/9 Laps spent ahead of team mate 367/443 Another driver who has good cause to feel disappointed with the car he’s driving this year. The C32 has lacked pace and hammered its rear tyres, giving us only the occasional glimpse of the form Hulkenberg demonstrated in the second half of last season. Malaysia was one such example, Hulkenberg wringing the most out of the car on a slippery track to claim eighth place, and with it more than half of his (and the team’s) points haul thus far. In China he dragged the car into Q3 and, realising the futility of trying to compete on raw pace, started the race on medium tyres. After picking off Vettel, Button and Ricciardo in a single lap he led the race, but his car chewed its tyres in the final stint and he finished tenth. On other days he might as well have stayed at home. Like in Australia, where he didn’t even make it as far as the grid due to a fuel system problem. Rear tyre degradation was the story of several races, notably in Monaco where he discovered his rears were worn down to the steel belt after the race. The Sauber seems happier on the Kevlar-belted tyres which has given Hulkenberg and the team some optimism. But for a drive-through penalty in Hungary (a gearbox glitch put him over the pit lane speed limit) he’d have been in the points for the last three races. 7. Mark Webber Beat team mate in qualifying 0/10 Beat team mate in race 0/8 Races finished 9/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 63/571 The numbers tell the tale of a very one-sided contest at Red Bull. But given how the cards have fallen for Webber this year, he is actually doing rather well against a driver who is one of the best in the business. Malaysia was, of course, the pivotal moment of Webber’s season so far. He took after timing his switch to slick tyres better than Vettel did and he was right to feel aggrieved after his team mate defied the “multi 21″ instruction to hold position. But Webber was perhaps being a little naive if he thought Vettel would pay any more attention to such orders than Webber himself has in the past. Poor luck dogged several of Webber’s other races. Pit stop errors ruined his races in China and Germany – the former coming after he had run out of fuel during qualifying, sending him to the back of the grid. In Canada a podium was in the offing until a careless Van der Garde damaged his front wing. On other occasions he’s demonstrated superb composure in recovering from setbacks: in Spain he finished fourth having almost been last at one point and he was a close second to Rosberg at Silverstone after damaging his front wing on the first lap. In Hungary he dragged his car into Q3 without KERS and claimed an impressive fourth in the race. 6. Nico Rosberg Beat team mate in qualifying 3/10 Beat team mate in race 3/8 Races finished 8/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 240/549 For the last three years evaluating Rosberg’s performance was bound up in questions over just how well Michael Schumacher was driving after his comeback. On the strength of this year so far, we should perhaps give Schumacher more credit, as Rosberg has been close to new team mate Hamilton and sometimes ahead of him. Rosberg’s record might be rather better were it not for a trio of race-ending car problems, though all of them occurred while he was behind his team mate. He also finished in Hamilton’s wheel tracks in Malaysia while under orders from the team not to overtake him. However he deserves credit for his Monaco win after beating Hamilton to pole position, his third in a row. His Silverstone victory was somewhat fortuitous, aided by Hamilton’s puncture and Vettel’s gearbox failure. Like Hamilton he has at times struggled with the Mercedes’ harshness on its tyres but that increasingly seems to be a thing of the past. But as Hamilton becomes increasingly comfortable with the W04, Rosberg may find it gets harder to keep him in range.
5. Jenson Button Beat team mate in qualifying 6/10 Beat team mate in race 7/10 Races finished 10/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 361/606 The MP4-28 has proven an embarrassing step backwards for McLaren: having had the fastest car last year they find themselves languishing behind five other teams on pure pace. That has left Button with the unenviable task of trying to drag the car towards respectability. He’s usually done this by relying on his knack for making tyres last, allowing him to make fewer pit stops than his rivals. In China he exercised considerable self-discipline to make a two-stop strategy work, yielding a fifth-place finish. In Spain he used a three-stopper on a day most drivers opted for four, climbing nine places from lap one to finish eighth. Button has suffered some ill-timed misfortune. In Malaysia his two-stop strategy had him on course to challenge the Mercedes for the final podium place until the team botched his pit stop. In Monaco a chance of a better qualifying position was wrecked by a faulty fuel pump, though he stayed out of trouble in the race to finish a useful sixth. And inattentive backmarkers cost him fifth in Germany. Button has usually succeeded in wringing the most from his unco-operative chassis. But as we’ve seen before the very trait that helps him keep his tyres alive in the race can work against him in qualifying. Canada and Britain yielded little, but Hungary gave some cause for optimism about the second half of the season. 4. Fernando Alonso Beat team mate in qualifying 6/9 Beat team mate in race 7/7 Races finished 9/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 411/460 Separating the top four drivers was not easy: all have performed consistently well and made few mistakes. Having Alonso, who headed this list at the end of last year, down in fourth seems harsh. But he must be marked down for that double-fault in Malaysia, where he compounded his error of hitting Vettel on the first lap by failing to pit for a new front wing, with predictable and disastrous consequences. Compounding one error with another was unusual for a driver who seldom lets an opportunity slip through his fingers. Victory on home ground in Spain was Alonso at his best: a superb triumph which began with him picking off Hamilton and Raikkonen at the start then piling the pressure on Vettel and even coping with a slow puncture as if it were a minor hiccup. Alonso’s other win came in China, where it was not so much the straightforward DRS pass on Hamilton that secured the victory as his rapid progress through traffic during his second stint. Unfortunately in the next race a DRS glitch cost him a likely podium finish. He bolstered his points haul with second places in Canada, which was the best he could realistically get on the day, and Australia, where he might have had the beating of Raikkonen. Once again Ferrari are not making the progress with the car they envisaged. Alonso has found it increasingly difficult to qualify ahead of the Lotuses, reducing his strategic options which has made life more difficult in recent races. 3. Lewis Hamilton Beat team mate in qualifying 7/10 Beat team mate in race 5/8 Races finished 10/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 309/549 Hamilton’s move to Mercedes set tongues wagging when it was announce but the move seems to have reinvigorated him, despite some teething troubles with the W04. Much as Raikkonen never really got comfortable with his Lotus’s steering last year, Hamilton has been unhappy with the braking on his car. While he grappled with that we had the unusual sight of him being beaten to pole position by his team mate on three occasions. However Hamilton is now winning the qualifying battle at Mercedes and has racked up more pole positions than anyone else. That only one of those resulted in a win can largely be put down to the rough treatment the Mercedes gave to its tyres earlier in the season. This was particularly extreme in Spain, where a bewildered Hamilton plummeted ten places and finished twelfth. That was the only race this year he didn’t finish in the top five. Hamilton had the good grace to admit that his first podium for Mercedes in Malaysia would not have happened had Rosberg not obeyed orders not to overtake him – something other team mates would not have done, as events in the same race made clear. His first Mercedes win might have come at home had he not been one of the drivers to be struck by tyre failure. His subsequent fight back to fourth was highly impressive. With three pole positions in a row and the W04 looking stronger than ever in race conditions, the second half of the year looks very promising for him. 2. Kimi Raikkonen Beat team mate in qualifying 8/10 Beat team mate in race 7/8 Races finished 10/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 385/548 Thanks partly to his car’s reliability but also to his own consistency, Raikkonen has finished every race in the points so far this year and is currently Vettel’s closest challenger in the championship. Although he is yet to repeat the victory he opened his season with, five second place finishes have kept him in the thick of the championship chase. As with Alonso at Ferrari, Raikkonen has a car which is stronger on Sundays than Saturdays – he’s only qualified inside the top three once so far. But by exploiting the strengths of his car over a race stint and making the passes he needs to, Raikkonen has often made big gains when it matters: he climbed from seventh to first in Australia and eighth to second in Bahrain. In Monaco he salvaged a point by picking off three cars in the last two laps – yes, he had the benefit of fresher tyres, but still this was Monaco, not the easiest place to make such gains. There’s not much you can take away from Raikkonen’s efforts this year. He was a little careless in Malaysia and Canada where he picked up minor qualifying penalties, and he had an odd collision with Perez in China where he seemed to expect the McLaren driver to move off the racing line for his benefit. But usually when points have been left on the table it’s been due to circumstances beyond his control – as in Canada where he was delayed by brake problems, high fuel consumption and a slow pit stop. 1. Sebastian Vettel Beat team mate in qualifying 10/10 Beat team mate in race 8/8 Races finished 9/10 Laps spent ahead of team mate 508/571 This has the makings of Vettel’s best championship campaign so far. He’s consistently been in the hunt for victory and with Mercedes now the team to beat on Saturdays he’s not always been able to rely on qualifying on pole position and staying there. Early in the season Red Bull had similar concerns about tyre life as Mercedes’, though not as serious. Vettel gambled on an alternative strategy in China, opting not setting a time in Q3 and start on the medium tyres, and fought his way up from ninth to fourth. In Bahrain he passed Alonso and Rosberg before DRS was activated to get himself into the clear air he needed, securing his second win of the year. Germany saw potentially his best drive so far this year, as he weathered severe pressure from both Lotus drivers despite a temporary KERS glitch. His controversial move in Malaysia provoked howls of criticism from some, but from the point of view of a racing driver it was perfectly justifiable. Vettel has won two of his three world championships by less than the seven points he gained by defying team orders. And even if that weren’t true, expecting him to extend to Webber the same courtesy his team mate denied him at Silverstone two years ago is completely unreasonable. Vettel’s position in the championship would be even stronger had he enjoyed the kind of reliability some of his competitors had. Had his gearbox not failed while leading at Silverstone his points lead now would be equal to more than three race wins – a sobering thought for his rivals. That race aside, he’s finished in the top four at every grand prix, and dominated a team mate who is much more of a threat than a Grosjean or a Massa.
World at the turning point: the technical review of mid-season http://www.blogf1.it/2013/08/18/mondiale-2013-al-giro-di-boa-ecco-la-review-di-meta-stagione/ I only posted this because I enjoyed reading what they had to say about Marussia, but anyway it's a good article.
Formula 1 2013: Mid-term report card Team: Red Bull Score: A Through regulation changes, tyre troubles and intra-team battles, the 2013 season has seen the continuation of one constant: Red Bull at the top of the championship standings. Nevertheless, for the first time since 2010, the squad has found themselves in the unfamiliar situation of no longer possessing the fastest car over one lap, with that honour instead falling to Mercedes. What they do have in the RB9 is a relentlessly quick machine that can compete for victories anywhere on the calendar, and in Sebastian Vettel, a driver who has finished outside of the top four on just one occasion. As their rivals conspire to take points away from each other, the Milton Keynes-based outfit always emerges amongst the front-runners. Putting controversy aside, without their customary devasting dominance, the team have conducted themselves as well as could be expected in the first ten races; minimising errors, maximising points, and marching onwards to a potential fourth successive title. Team: Mercedes Score: A After three below-par seasons in the top echelon, Mercedes had earmarked 2014 as the year they would finally become consistent front runners and challengers for the title. Whether heralded by the arrival of Lewis Hamilton, or simply the result of impressive work back in Brackley, the team has brought that benchmark forward, securing a clutch of pole positions and clinching three victories in 2013. The legacy of previous development philosophies has meant that excessive rear tyre-wear problems have so far prevented the squad from translating its one-lap speed into consistent race pace, holding back their title charge. Despite drawing ire from rival teams for a 'secret' Pirelli test after the Spanish Grand Prix, the Silver Arrows have undoubtedly made a significant step up. In Hungary, many were waiting for Hamilton's performance to fall off as the race wore on, but the scenario that played out was vastly different, with the commanding win almost Red-Bullian in its nature. Next weekend's race at Spa-Franchorchamps will provide a better clue as to whether a title challenge is truly on the cards, but the team is now finally where they were expected to be when they first entered the sport in 2010. Team: Ferrari Score: B 2012 saw Fernando Alonso haul an inferior car to the head of the championship standings, the Spaniard staying there right up until the final race of the season. After securing two wins in the first quarter of 2013, the Scuderia had seemed set to become a prominent part of the 2013 title fight, with Alonso again leading the charge, but this time able to utilise a vastly improved machine. Early signs of encouragement have now given way to disappointment however, with the team enduring mixed results from Monaco onwards. Rumours of discontent in the Alonso camp have begun to surface, and after a false dawn the vultures have resumed their endless circle above the head of Felipe Massa. Chairman Luca di Montezemolo will be hoping that he has given his squad the shot in the arm they sorely need, but 2013 is quickly becoming a forgettable chapter in the annals of Ferrari history. Team: Lotus Score: B+ Having started 2013 in outstanding fashion with victory in Australia, Lotus' campaign has ultimately developed into one characterised by frustration. Although the E21 chassis treats its Pirelli rubber far better than any other car on the grid, the team has been hampered in race trim by below-par qualifying results. Lead driver Kimi Räikkönen has finished as runner-up on five occasions, and the form of Romain Grosjean has again proved susceptible to fluctuations from the brilliant to the bad from race to race. An alarming dip in form from Monaco to Silverstone harmed the team's title hopes, and allowed Vettel to pull out a comfortable points lead. With Red Bull guaranteed to be consistent across all circuits, and Mercedes striving to resolve their tyre-wear issues, Lotus may now have missed their chance to capitalise. On top of that, funding issues appear to be emerging in Enstone, and the team will have to make a difficult choice as to how best to allocate their limited resources as 2014 approaches. Somewhat reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote chasing Road Runner, the squad remains so close yet so far away from tasting that elusive elixir of victory champagne on a regular basis. Team: Force India Score: A- Force India is currently on target to secure its highest ever championship position, and has firmly established itself as the best of the midfield runners in 2013. The Silverstone-based squad has failed to finish inside the top ten just three times, and occupies fifth place in the standings, sitting two points ahead of the much better-funded McLaren team. Despite this, potential podium positions have been squandered by pitstop errors, with a forced double retirement in Malaysia representing the season's low point. Mistakes in qualifying have also proved costly, and the team will be hoping that off-colour results in Germany and Hungary are not the signs of a developing pattern. With a comfortable gap back to Toro Rosso, it will take a dramatic drop-off in performance to stop them bettering their most successful points scoring season of 2011, when they finished with a total of 69. Team: McLaren Score: D McLaren's 2013 woes have been much documented, with their poor performances compounded by the stark reality that they ended last season with the best car. The result of a revolutionary rather than evolutionary development approach over the winter, the MP4-28 chassis has yielded a best result of fifth, with Jenson Button rather accurately describing the team's performances as “a bit embarrassing”. Even the reintroduction of 2012 aero concepts has done little to stem the pace deficit to the front runners. Sergio Perez has raised eyebrows with some robust overtaking maneouvres, on occasion even riling his team-mate, but the absence of a truly world class driver has been sorely felt. Supposedly enjoying a mini resurgence of form in the last two races, it says much that an outfit of McLaren's stature would cherish a podium result. Team boss Martin Whitmarsh continues to operate with a glass half full approach, perhaps to satisfy sponsors, but the squad now surely has to be focussing much of its resources on 2014. Team: Toro Rosso Score: B Overall, the sister Red Bull squad has had a decent year, already close to equalling its entire 2012 points haul. With improvement continuing under the direction of Technical Director James Key, the team has been able to challenge well within the top ten on several occasions. While Jean-Ãric Vergne sits ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the Drivers' Championship by virtue of his impressive sixth place at the Canadian Grand Prix, the Australian has been the one turning heads with his qualifying performances. Racking up four Q3 appearances in the last four races, the 24 year-old has brought himself into contention to replace compatriot Mark Webber at Red Bull. Still, a failure to translate his one-lap pace into consistent top ten finishes leaves his credentials for a promotion to the senior squad in question. Ultimately, in providing both its drivers with capable machinery, the Faenza-based outfit is allowing them an opportunity to effectively demonstrate their talents. Asking for much else from the junior team would perhaps be an unreasonable demand. Team: Sauber Score: D In a statement that seemed a much better fit for the situation of the Sauber team, McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh claimed last week that his squad's comparatively disappointing 2013 campaign was in part due to the 'overperformance' of the 2012 chassis. Indeed, at this same point a year ago, the Hinwil-based outfit had achieved numerous points finishes, and made two visits to the rostrum thanks to inventive strategy calls. The current campaign has seen the Swiss team entrenched towards the back of the pack, with rookie Esteban Gutiérrez failing to register in the standings, and Nico Hülkenberg notching up just seven points. To add further insult to injury, on-track setbacks have been compounded by off-track misfortune, and although CEO Monisha Kaltenborn has strenuously denied rumours of the squad's demise, there are still lingering doubts over the mooted Russian rescue package. There is truth in Kaltenborn's words, but all things considered, it is difficult to garner much positivity from Sauber's season thus far. Team: Williams Score: E+ To the dismay of fans of this historic privateer outfit, Williams remain impotent, seemingly stuck in a rut, and are displaying no obviously apparent signs of improvement. Unfortunately, much like a certain proportion of middle-aged men that find themselves afflicted with similar problems, encouraging performances from last year have only served to accentuate the disappointment associated with what now seems to have been a flash in the pan. Pastor Maldonado has gone from a Grand Prix winner to a man struggling to keep in touch with the top ten, striving to eek out any semblence of pace from his FW35 chassis. Ross Brawn, hired by Sir Frank Williams way back in 1978, showed his suprise at the Grove-based outfit's solitary points finish in Hungary, but undoubtedly also shared the opinion of many in the Formula 1 fraternity that a team with nine Constructors' Championships to its name should be fighting for higher honours. A technical reshuffle may prove to be the required antidote, but it is likley that the fruits of new Technical Director Pat Symonds' labor will not be seen until 2014.
Team: Marussia Score: C+ Marussia were initially slated to receive a 'C' on this report card. Although occupying that vital tenth place slot in the Constructors' Standings as a result of Jules Bianchi's 13th place finish at Sepang, an early-season performance advantage over key rivals Caterham has now been eroded. However, a close examination of our 'Half-Term Stats' feature casts the Banbury-based squad's season in a mildly improved light. They have a reliability record on-par with that of championship leaders Red Bull, despite having the youngest combined aged of any team on the grid (45). Rookie Bianchi has also made a significant impression in his first year at the top as he auditions for a seat higher up the grid. Alongside providing one of the season's more bizarre moments when his retired car rolled down the back straight at the German Grand Prix, he has consistently outperformed team-mate Max Chilton, finishing ahead of the Briton on every occasion that the pair have been classified. Team: Caterham Score: C- Being comfortably outpaced by cash-strapped Marussia at the start of the season must have been a bitter pill to swallow for Caterham. Yet, as would be expected from a team with a larger budget, extensive development work conducted at the squad's Leafield headquarters has pushed them back ahead of their Anglo-Russian rivals in recent races. However, in the race that really matters - the battle for tenth place in the Constructors' Championship - the outfit is running out of time. Ex-driver Vitaly Petrov secured tenth in the standings with an 11th place finish at Interlagos in last season's finale, providing a glimmer of hope on the horizon. The perennial backmarkers will be praying for a Grand Prix with a similarly high attrition rate before the 2013 campaign comes to a close. Always aiming for the midfield but never making real progress, Giedo van der Garde provided a seasonal high point by recording the team's highest ever qualifying position of 15th in Monaco, but more often than not Charles Pic has been the man pushing the performance of the CT03.
The biggest losers are Marussia, they sold a stake to Chilton and now HAVE to have his son drive, for a few years probably.
