2013 Season Review

[eytl]

Hi everyone,

Hot on the heels of the Season Review podcast comes our written review as well - including our comments on the season as a whole, and our rankings, ratings and comments for each team and driver on the grid ... and our crystal-ball gazing for what lies ahead for them in 2014.

http://www.f1rejects.com/centrale/2013/review/index.html

Hope you enjoy the holiday reading! Feel free to leave your comments (and your vehement disagreement about our rankings) below!

Cheers,
Enoch

[Yannick]

Thank you Enoch for all the hard work you put into yet another season review.

You must have had higher expectations of Esteban Gutierrez Gutierrez than I had so you ranked him in a way that I cannot reveal here due to a spoiler alert. Or was it the teammate comparison that got him in? What did Max Chilton do, apart from lower expectations, to not be ranked in Gutierrez Gutierrez's position instead?

Or maybe it's just me not being content with the way you ranked him because I have been a longtime Sauber supporter?

On another note, may I ask you what Jamie has said of your rankings, especially as far as the former SuperAguri test driver Giedo VanDerGarde and the reject podium winners are concerned. Thanks for letting us know.

My guess is I will not be likely to follow F1 any closer than I did this year, with the influx of pay drivers only increasing for next year. I know they are rather present in IndyCar, too, but there, midfield teams can win many more races throughout one season than in F1 where they cannot (making the Reverend McDonald's (no spamming intended) victory in Spain some time ago even more poignant.
Here's hoping Pastor can add to that tally at GenII Capital Racing Partners F1 Team next year.

Regarding Sauber, I must admit I don't expect much of a Sutil-Gutierrez combination. They should have hired a returning Checo instead. That would have been better than a "Diniz move", which hiring Sutil isn't even one.

Here's hoping Force 1ndia will perform well with the pairing of Hülkenberg and Perez, the most interesting and "cheerable" driver pairing in the paddock for next year for this forum member. Yes, Checo was far from the championship contender I expected him to be this year, but a lot of that was due to the car.

Here's hoping Daniel Ricciardo wins his first F1 race next year.

[Cynon]

I actually enjoyed the Pirelli tires from earlier in the year, because no matter how quickly they fell apart, the fastest way seemed to be to let them die and push like mad -- see Barcelona.

[girry]

Enjoyable as always, I love how these always look at things from angles I didn't think of but the points still make perfect sense having been put on paper.

Guti was unspectacular yes and his nomination as ROTY very much in line to the previous ROTY nominations, but may I still point out that he seems to have been labeled error prone for far less action than many other drivers, should call it the "flag effect" that also follows poor Japanese drivers...

[wsrgo]

Mostly enjoyable, but Grosjean ahead of Raikkonen just because he was the only spark in the latter half of the year? Grosjean was comprehensively ahead of Raikkonen only in Japan and India, Raikkonen was struggling with acute back problems in Singapore, he beat Grosjean in Korea, was quicker at Abu Dhabi before being sent to the back of the grid. At Spa Raikkonen was ahead when he had the brake failure, and at Monza he had a first lap incident (his fault, mostly), but Grosjean was rather insipid that weekend too.
Grosjean beat Raikkonen at Malaysia, was only marginally ahead at Silverstone when the team order call came, and at Nurburgring got the better bite at the strategy cherry. At Austin, RoGro did finish a strong 2nd, but the yardstick was a rusty Kovalainen, and at Interlagos he was struggling relatively in the slippy conditions before his engine gave way.

[tristan1117]

Mostly enjoyable, but Grosjean ahead of Raikkonen just because he was the only spark in the latter half of the year? Grosjean was comprehensively ahead of Raikkonen only in Japan and India, Raikkonen was struggling with acute back problems in Singapore, he beat Grosjean in Korea, was quicker at Abu Dhabi before being sent to the back of the grid. At Spa Raikkonen was ahead when he had the brake failure, and at Monza he had a first lap incident (his fault, mostly), but Grosjean was rather insipid that weekend too.
Grosjean beat Raikkonen at Malaysia, was only marginally ahead at Silverstone when the team order call came, and at Nurburgring got the better bite at the strategy cherry. At Austin, RoGro did finish a strong 2nd, but the yardstick was a rusty Kovalainen, and at Interlagos he was struggling relatively in the slippy conditions before his engine gave way.

Fair points, but I think Enoch was rewarding our expectation of RoGro for this season, especially considering the deserved bad rap he got from 2012. Also, Grosjean didn't quit on his team with two races to go. I think that factoring in his massive improvement, his good results, and the all important "effort points" compared to Kimi, putting Grosjean ahead of Kimi was justified.

[mario]

Thank you Enoch for all the hard work you put into yet another season review.

You must have had higher expectations of Esteban Gutierrez Gutierrez than I had so you ranked him in a way that I cannot reveal here due to a spoiler alert. Or was it the teammate comparison that got him in? What did Max Chilton do, apart from lower expectations, to not be ranked in Gutierrez Gutierrez's position instead?

The higher expectations of Gutierrez would probably explain why there was greater disappointment as his failings - Gutierrez is a GP3 and Formula BMW champion and a top three finisher in GP2, yet his season for Sauber was quite patchy.

I suppose the other aspect is that Gutierrez appeared to be more error prone on track than Chilton - it was Gutierrez's crash that forced qualifying to be aborted in Australia, for example, and there have been times when his driving conduct has been criticised by both other drivers and by the officials (such as in Belgium, where he was penalised for using the run off at Blanchimont to avoid yielding his position and, indirectly, causing the clash between Maldonado and di Resta). OK, a certain amount of that is because Chilton has generally been running on his own in the races, but even so I believe that Gutierrez has made more unforced errors on track when running on his own than Chilton has.

Regarding Sauber, I must admit I don't expect much of a Sutil-Gutierrez combination. They should have hired a returning Checo instead. That would have been better than a "Diniz move", which hiring Sutil isn't even one.

Here's hoping Force 1ndia will perform well with the pairing of Hülkenberg and Perez, the most interesting and "cheerable" driver pairing in the paddock for next year for this forum member. Yes, Checo was far from the championship contender I expected him to be this year, but a lot of that was due to the car.

I think that the general consensus is that Sauber's line up isn't a particularly strong one. Gutierrez will need to substantially improve his performances if Sauber are to score points, whilst Sutil, if I am honest, just doesn't seem like the sort of driver who can lead a team and inspire his mechanics (having heard his parting shots at Force India, where he has been complaining that the car was "crap" and that the team were "useless", I'm inclined to say that it seems it wasn't just di Resta who had a rather dour attitude within Force India).

Mostly enjoyable, but Grosjean ahead of Raikkonen just because he was the only spark in the latter half of the year? Grosjean was comprehensively ahead of Raikkonen only in Japan and India, Raikkonen was struggling with acute back problems in Singapore, he beat Grosjean in Korea, was quicker at Abu Dhabi before being sent to the back of the grid. At Spa Raikkonen was ahead when he had the brake failure, and at Monza he had a first lap incident (his fault, mostly), but Grosjean was rather insipid that weekend too.
Grosjean beat Raikkonen at Malaysia, was only marginally ahead at Silverstone when the team order call came, and at Nurburgring got the better bite at the strategy cherry. At Austin, RoGro did finish a strong 2nd, but the yardstick was a rusty Kovalainen, and at Interlagos he was struggling relatively in the slippy conditions before his engine gave way.

Fair points, but I think Enoch was rewarding our expectation of RoGro for this season, especially considering the deserved bad rap he got from 2012. Also, Grosjean didn't quit on his team with two races to go. I think that factoring in his massive improvement, his good results, and the all important "effort points" compared to Kimi, putting Grosjean ahead of Kimi was justified.

To be fair, in Spa the relative position of Grosjean and Kimi was fluctuating in part because Lotus had the two drivers on different strategies (Kimi stopped quite a bit earlier than Grosjean). As for Korea, whilst Kimi did beat Grosjean, it was slightly skewed by the safety car that helped Kimi to make up lost ground on his rivals - the raw lap times suggest that Grosjean was actually the slightly faster driver in that race, but Kimi had more fortune with his strategy (something he alluded to after the race).

[eytl]

On another note, may I ask you what Jamie has said of your rankings, especially as far as the former SuperAguri test driver Giedo VanDerGarde and the reject podium winners are concerned. Thanks for letting us know.

We discussed them before they were finalised.

I actually enjoyed the Pirelli tires from earlier in the year, because no matter how quickly they fell apart, the fastest way seemed to be to let them die and push like mad -- see Barcelona.

That would have been nice to see more often. I guess my point is that the Pirellis were soooooo on the edge this year that most teams went down the safer option of being ultra-conservative.

[Cynon]

I actually enjoyed the Pirelli tires from earlier in the year, because no matter how quickly they fell apart, the fastest way seemed to be to let them die and push like mad -- see Barcelona.

That would have been nice to see more often. I guess my point is that the Pirellis were soooooo on the edge this year that most teams went down the safer option of being ultra-conservative.

Then is that not the fault of Pirelli, and more the fault of the teams for being spineless cowards? If anything, the Pirelli tires were the only major risk teams were taking this year.

[eytl]

I actually enjoyed the Pirelli tires from earlier in the year, because no matter how quickly they fell apart, the fastest way seemed to be to let them die and push like mad -- see Barcelona.

That would have been nice to see more often. I guess my point is that the Pirellis were soooooo on the edge this year that most teams went down the safer option of being ultra-conservative.

Then is that not the fault of Pirelli, and more the fault of the teams for being spineless cowards? If anything, the Pirelli tires were the only major risk teams were taking this year.

That's a valid point - it's a chicken/egg question isn't it? I still think that if the Pirellis weren't quite so touch-and-go then the teams would have had more options. Silverstone really showed the deficiencies of the tyres. But reverting to 2012 constructions weren't the answer either, because it just led to Red Bull/Vettel domination.

[Ferrim]

I have to say that I have big disagreements with this year's rankings, probably the biggest ever, and particularly with the reject podium. I mean, is there something McLaren can do to do to get ROTY? I thought the way they treated Perez was the final nail in the coffin, but it wasn't to be. My expectations of Williams, in spite of a decent 2012, certainly weren't that high compared to the disastrous season McLaren has had: no podiums for the first time since 1980/1 (can't remember exactly), while Williams have had poor seasons before, crowned with two ROTYs in 2006 and 2011.

Still, Williams' worst ever season probably deserved recognition, in the way of 2nd place in the reject podium. I didn't think Gutiérrez Gutiérrez was that bad, nor did he have many particularly rejectful moments. Chilton probably was as poor as him, and higher expectations for Maldonado probably put him lower than these two on my list.

I'm also uncomfortable with Lotus in 2nd place -their Quantum antics were pretty rejectful, and the Räikkönen saga was after all because of the team not paying up the bills. Boullier trying to downplay the problems and talking about how the Räikkönen-Lotus relationship would be remembered in the future and blahblahblah was... well. I would have left them behind Mercedes because of these issues. But then, you had the whole Pirelli-gate...

Anyway, this criticism doesn't mean (at all!) that I haven't enjoyed reading through the review. Great stuff and interesting insights, like always. Keep it up!

[watka]

I'm also uncomfortable with Lotus in 2nd place -their Quantum antics were pretty rejectful, and the Räikkönen saga was after all because of the team not paying up the bills. Boullier trying to downplay the problems and talking about how the Räikkönen-Lotus relationship would be remembered in the future and blahblahblah was... well. I would have left them behind Mercedes because of these issues.

Yes, I ranked them only 6th in my list due to their complete mismanagement of finances and Kimi Raikkonen. On sheer pace alone, 2nd or 3rd is fair, but considering the rejectful means by which this was achieved calls for a downgrading imo.

Other than that, I agreed with most of the rankings, but as suggested, I am one of the people who rank Rosberg's season as better than Hamilton's. Rosberg had 2 wins and would have scored more points than Hamilton had he not had the lion's share of the team's bad luck. Lewis' one lap pace was pretty mighty but he is a racer that should be able to convert those grid positions into results and I think he found himself going backwards faster than Rosberg seemed to.

[eytl]

Yes, I ranked them only 6th in my list due to their complete mismanagement of finances and Kimi Raikkonen. On sheer pace along, 2nd or 3rd is fair, but considering the rejectful means by which this was achieved calls for a downgrading imo.

I must say that, whilst we take any number of factors into account, I overlooked Lotus' financial issues. And I guess you could argue that, despite their financial woes, they actually pressed on until the end and were Red Bull's closest challenger in several races in the back end of the season. That itself earns "plus" points.

[mario]

Yes, I ranked them only 6th in my list due to their complete mismanagement of finances and Kimi Raikkonen. On sheer pace along, 2nd or 3rd is fair, but considering the rejectful means by which this was achieved calls for a downgrading imo.

I must say that, whilst we take any number of factors into account, I overlooked Lotus' financial issues. And I guess you could argue that, despite their financial woes, they actually pressed on until the end and were Red Bull's closest challenger in several races in the back end of the season. That itself earns "plus" points.

I suppose, though, that there will be questions until the 2014 season kicks off over whether Lotus may have jeopardised their 2014 campaign by committing so many resources to 2013 in an attempt to beat Ferrari and Mercedes.
After all, the deal with Kovalainen seems to have been one that was negotiated from something of a position of weakness - Lotus gained Kovalainen for two races, but in return had to allow two of their engineers who were moving to Caterham to move there immediately rather than having to go on "gardening leave". To be honest, Caterham probably off as the better of the two parties in that deal...

As an aside, one comment that I think could be revisited is the comment about di Resta and not raising sponsorship as a way of staying within the sport. That subject is actually part of the legal dispute between Anthony Hamilton and di Resta over his management services - Anthony Hamilton is currently suing di Resta over breach of contract after being fired in 2012, and one reason that di Resta has cited for sacking Anthony is a claim that Anthony was misleading him over a potential sponsorship deal with an energy drink (Go Fast).
The claim from di Resta is that Anthony Hamilton behaved dishonestly by attempting to channel the commercial rights through a shell company in the British Virgin Islands, skimming around €1 million from his sponsors in the process, a claim that Anthony rejects. It appears that di Resta might in fact have sought to raise sponsorship, although what happened next is still currently under dispute. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motors ... -case.html

[1993DonningtonNo1]

At least the 2013 edition has a Reject of the Year podium unlike the 2012 version. I know Caterham was Reject of the Year for 2012 but who came 2nd and 3rd?

[Julien]

Funny, I felt Maldonado a much bigger failure than Gutierez in this year. After winning a race in last year, the only thing he was noteworthy is constantly complaining about his car and being outpaced by his newbie teammate.

[Kuwashima]

At least the 2013 edition has a Reject of the Year podium unlike the 2012 version. I know Caterham was Reject of the Year for 2012 but who came 2nd and 3rd?

For that you may have to listen to the 2012 Season Review podcast? I assume we did one there... Just skip to Fanfare for the Common Man

[Alextrax52]

At least the 2013 edition has a Reject of the Year podium unlike the 2012 version. I know Caterham was Reject of the Year for 2012 but who came 2nd and 3rd?

Karthikeyan was 2nd and Grosjean was 3rd

[go_Rubens]

At least the 2013 edition has a Reject of the Year podium unlike the 2012 version. I know Caterham was Reject of the Year for 2012 but who came 2nd and 3rd?

Karthikeyan was 2nd and Grosjean was 3rd

I don't understand how Karthikeyan was higher than Grosjean on the ROTR podium, or as to why he was there at all. I only see Karthikeyan's 2012 as a season where he may have been the slowest driver, but he did nothing rejectful except for being slow in an HRT and maybe a few driver errors (Spa comes to mind).

[FullMetalJack]

At least the 2013 edition has a Reject of the Year podium unlike the 2012 version. I know Caterham was Reject of the Year for 2012 but who came 2nd and 3rd?

Karthikeyan was 2nd and Grosjean was 3rd

I don't understand how Karthikeyan was higher than Grosjean on the ROTR podium, or as to why he was there at all. I only see Karthikeyan's 2012 as a season where he may have been the slowest driver, but he did nothing rejectful except for being slow in an HRT and maybe a few driver errors (Spa comes to mind).

Probably because of how badly he was obliterated by Pedro de la Rosa, a man in his 40s.

[good_Ralf]

I only see Karthikeyan's 2012 as a season where he may have been the slowest driver, but he did nothing rejectful except for being slow in an HRT and maybe a few driver errors (Spa comes to mind).

I thought his Spa crash (in the race) was caused by a loose wheel. But crashing out mid-race in Singapore didn't help his causes very much

[go_Rubens]

I only see Karthikeyan's 2012 as a season where he may have been the slowest driver, but he did nothing rejectful except for being slow in an HRT and maybe a few driver errors (Spa comes to mind).

I thought his Spa crash (in the race) was caused by a loose wheel. But crashing out mid-race in Singapore didn't help his causes very much

Yeah, I get my races mixed up. I only remember 2012's Spa race as one where all of the retirements were due to accidents. I remember Abu Dhabi best, for everyone who finished, including de la Rosa's HRT, finished on the lead lap.

[Alextrax52]

I'm also uncomfortable with Lotus in 2nd place -their Quantum antics were pretty rejectful, and the Räikkönen saga was after all because of the team not paying up the bills. Boullier trying to downplay the problems and talking about how the Räikkönen-Lotus relationship would be remembered in the future and blahblahblah was... well. I would have left them behind Mercedes because of these issues.

Yes, I ranked them only 6th in my list due to their complete mismanagement of finances and Kimi Raikkonen. On sheer pace alone, 2nd or 3rd is fair, but considering the rejectful means by which this was achieved calls for a downgrading imo.

Other than that, I agreed with most of the rankings, but as suggested, I am one of the people who rank Rosberg's season as better than Hamilton's. Rosberg had 2 wins and would have scored more points than Hamilton had he not had the lion's share of the team's bad luck. Lewis' one lap pace was pretty mighty but he is a racer that should be able to convert those grid positions into results and I think he found himself going backwards faster than Rosberg seemed to.

I also thought Rosberg was better than Hamilton this year. If the season finished after Belgium Lewis would be safely in my top 4 with Nico about 5th or 6th because Lewis really did pull off some great performances like Hungary and China where he doggedly hung on to 3rd while Nico floundered. However if the year started at Monza then Lewis for me would be out of the top 10 because apart from the first half of Korea he didn't look remotely like getting onto the podium in the 2nd half of the year (of course we'll never know about Japan) While Rosberg should have had a podium in Singapore to go along with India and Abu Dhabi and just generally did the better job in the 2nd half of the year. So I'd swap the 2 around.