I know articles like this are normally left to better posters, such as Cosicave or Sportydan, but i'll give it a go. Just like HRT gave F1 a go. The season is halfway done, and now all the children have some time off to go on holiday, and be away from their cars. Who has done best this year in Form F1. Here is a leaked copy of the teachers report. Starting from the rear of the grid (the educationally challenged children) Virgin - Another poor showing this year. Decided to try and stick with CFD, which hasn't worked, and then fired Nick Wirth, and thn bought Nick Wirth's company. The car is likely to get worse as the season progresses. Must try harder. 3/10 HRT - Started off badly (pathetically), but now beginning to eat into the Virgin advantage. With some new owners, maybe they have some money to update the car, and try and make headway on lotus. Great young prospect in Ricciardo, who's already living up to his hype. 5/10 Team Lotus - Not made as big an improvement as they'd hoped. Caught in no mans land, too fast for the newbies, too slow for the midfield. Car is improving a bit though, and should be able to catch Williams by seasons end. 5/10 Williams - One word. Dreadful. 1/10 Toro Rosso - Better season from the RBR B-team. Spurred on by a maturing Jaime Alguersuari, more points finishes beckon. Buemi still up and down in the form department. 7/10 Force India - Started off well enough, despite pre season fears that the car would be uncompetitive. Becoming the best of the rest as the season wears on, probably the 4th best team currently. 2 Tracks coming up that suit their car, should mean a good haul of points. Di Resta has hit the ground running, and sutil is returning to form. 8/10 Renault - Bright start, with 2 consecutive podiums, but no more joy since then. A car that is rapidly falling back through the field, and trying to kill Nick Heidfeld, and a team boss who doesn't know when to shut his mouth. They must be praying for Kubica to return. 4/10 Sauber - 2 exciting drivers, 1 boring strategy. Not maximising the potential of Perez and Kobayashi. Decent car, but need to change their endurance racing mentality. Where's Tom Kristensen when you need him? 7/10 Mercedes - Another poor season. Car has struggled with tyre degredation, and lacks downforce. Now being beaten by the customer Force India team. 2 tracks that should suit their car coming up though. If they don't get a podium at monza, their design team should be fired. 6/10 Ferrari - Started sluggishly, but under the guidance of Pat Fry and Fernando Alonso, they have turned their season around. Alonso has been a great motivator, and is driving as well as ever (but looks like a wannabe 80's popstar). Massa may need a kick up the backside though. 8/10 McLaren - Preseason was woeful, but since Spain, they've probably had the best car. Which forces people to ask the question. Why can't they start with a good car? Great driving from Button (in amongst equal lashings of bad luck) and Hamilton (in amongst equal lashings of bad judgement) has put them back in the hunt for the constructors title. 8/10 Red Bull - Hit the ground running. Despite using a car that is technically a year older than their opponents, they put it to good use, easily winning the first few races, only a bad strategy call prevented them winning in china. Since GB, they seem to have come unstuck. Bad driving, by their wunderkid, poor strategy calls etc, and generous dollops of bad luck. This is possibly turning into a repeat of 09, but then it was Brawn. 8/10 So we can see that Force India, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren are in the best shape, as they await their exam marks. I wonder how they will fare after the holidays, will they still be teachers pet, or will they have resorted to throwing pencil's at each other? Time will tell, for the class of 2011.
Good article cowboy. Your Williams assessment is dead on. They've had some dodgy years the past decade but this year has really taken the biscuit. Truly abysmal. You picked up on what I said on another thread in that Adam Parr is clearly not doing a good job with that team and is taking them backwards. Yes things haven't gone great under Sam Michael as technical director but it would be very harsh to blame him solely. Hiring pay drivers (Parr says otherwise but he's a bull****ter) like Maldonado has not worked. Parr has reacted slowly to the slide in William's fortunes and like Michael should take a large share of the responsibility. He should do the decent thing and resign. The man is not cut out for Formula One management. What can they do next year? Mike Coughlan who is talented returns to the fold, an ex engineer who worked with them in the golden period of the 90s comes back (forgot his name though - any ideas?) as does the link up to Renault engines. Next year can only be an improvement. The team can't afford to have another one quite like this.
As always in F1, at the half way point some teams are going forward whilst others are going backwards. Ferrari and McLaren are doing well to catch and stay with Red Bull, whilst Renault have gone seriously backwards. Williams have dissapointed again, but after last year they've not gone backwards lots. Its just that they're called Williams, and so have a huge name to live up to
Laat year they were a half decent team, who scored a bizzare pole position, and numerous points finishes. This season they are a joke, almost being beaten by lotus.
69 points last year, about 3.6points a race (on average). They have 4 points this season, so I guess it is a huge step backwards in retrospect.
It's due to the management. Anyone with half a brain could see that bringing in a pay driver was a bad move. Hulkenberg had really settled in to F1 as well, and to have the carpet yanked from under his feet must have hurt.
Thanks for the compliment Cowboy !, but i wouldnt call myself that good As for team performances, Renault and Williams have gone backwards, and as mentioned above Williams are in serious disarray. I thought they would be regular point scorers, because of pre season hype about their tight rear packaging, next year cant come much quicker for them.
Good article bud, haha your Mercedes viewpoint is clear and straight to the point, what most of us Mercedes fans are thinking.
Yes, a good article Cowboy; a pretty fair assessment mixed in with a healthy dose of opinion, although I think your reference to some teams as "educationally challenged children" is a bit unfair: they have a tough job and are financially challenged by comparison to the more successful teams. Like Sporty, I also appreciate your compliment but I believe you both do a better job than me with this sort of thing. Well done.
