The 2012 season for Formula One finished last weekend at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paolo. After a nail biting race (at least as far as how the overall World Driver’s Championship would turn out), we've finally reached the season’s finish line and can collectively take a few deep breaths and gather up our reserves for the first race of the 2013 season in Melbourne in a little over three months.
This has been a very special season for me – certainly my best ever because after being a fan of open wheel racing in general, and F1 in particular, I was finally able to attend my first Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, near Austin, Texas. It was a wonderful experience, and I’m already looking forward to attending as many more GPs as I am able to in the future.
During this year, I've been privileged to meet quite a few professionals who are part of what's euphemistically called the "F1 Circus" . I won’t name them here, but I’ve met racing journalists working in the US and abroad in both print and broadcasting media. These pros spend between 9 and 10 months each year on the road as the F1 series travels around the globe from continent to continent, from Australia to England, from Shanghai to Sao Paolo, only to start over again in Melbourne in just over three short months. I’m not kidding when I say that I wish I could work in their world. I know it’s not always fun and exciting. The hassles of constant travel can wear anyone down, but what a life to live while you can do it.
I’ve been a fan of open wheel racing, including Indy Cars and Formula One racing since I was a teenager. Back in the days before the internet (or even VCRs !) about the only way a kid in the states could even watch an F1 race was via tape delay and that was reserved for the biggest race of all, Monaco. Needless to say, most of my F1 knowledge and insight back then came from magazines. It was much easier to follow Indy cars since the races took place in the states, and at least the Indy 500 was always front and center on ABC's Wide World of Sports. I remember Mario winning at Indy in 1969 and a few years afterwards, the tragic year of 1973 in which both Art Pollard and Swede Savage were killed. Just three years later, Niki Lauda had his fiery crash at the Nurburgring, and much later the tragic deaths of Ratzenberger and Senna at San Marino finally forced sweeping changes to improve safety in the sport. In the grand scheme of things, the lows aren't quite balanced by the highs because no number of wins, championship drives, and excitement can undo the death of a race car driver or track marshall, but the as long as safety improvements are made and the sport becomes safer, then one can say that some good has come of their tragic deaths.
Back to this F1 season. During winter testing at Jerez, who would have thought that Scuderia Ferrari would be in contention for the WDC ? Even their full coming out party had to be cancelled due to snow and poor weather. The cars were considered slow and uncompetitive. Ferrari-istas complained about the nose of the F2012 (“snout” may be more like it). Going into the first race at Melbourne, the Scuderia's cars for 2012 seemed destined for lackluster performance at best when compared to arch rivals McLaren and Red Bull, but once piloted by the best driver in Formula One today - Fernando Alonso - the car came alive and he finished 5th in Melbourne and then won the very next race at Sepang. Had Alonso not been crashed out in the first lap at Spa after Grosjean’s blunder at the start, it’s quite likely that he would have collected his 3rd WDC rather than Vettel.
Meanwhile, his teammate Felipe Massa seemed to finally return to his old self after that terrible accident at the Hungaroring a few years back. Although he didn’t win any races, Felipe returned to the podium twice this year with numerous 4th and 5th place finishes and finished in the points in 14 out of the 20 races this year. He proved to be more than a worthy partner to the great Alonso.
This year saw the welcome return of Kimi Raikkonen to F1 from his self-imposed exile exploring other forms of motor racing. He brought excitement and winning ways to the “new” Lotus team and proved once again that an iconclast such as he still knows how to win, and on his own terms. Kimi's now famous retort to his engineer in Abu Dhabi, “Leave me alone - I know what to do”, says it all. His teammate, Romain Grosjean showed a lack of maturity in the cockpit, with some disastrous consequences (he may have cost Alonso the title WDC title with his shunt at Spa) but Romain also demonstrated how fast he is by finishing on the podium three times this year in spite of several DNFs.
I’ll be sad to see the departure of Kamui Kobayashi from the Sauber team (and probably F1 completely) and the likely departure of Heikki Kovaleinen from Caterham (same), but especially with Sauber, it’s been wonderful to see how that team has emerged as a contender again ! Although it couldn’t really challenge for the Constructor’s Title, drivers Kobayashi and the young Mexican Sergio Perez are both exciting drivers with the skills to win at this level. Next year they’ll both be gone as Kamui moves out of F1 and Perez switches to McLaren but Peter Sauber and Frank Williams’s eponymous teams have both demonstrated that there is still room for the independents among the more monied and richer teams in the sport. The promotion of Monisha Kaltenborn as team Principal at Sauber, and the increasing number of women in the F1 paddock prove that women have a firm place in Formula One and after a long absence (Leila Lombardi in 1976) we may see another woman in the driver’s seat on one of the teams within the next few seasons.
Finally, we see the passing of the torch from the last, and greatest F1 champion to the next superstar - Sebastian Vettel - a 3 time Champion at the age of 25. At the rate he’s going and with the strength of his Red Bull team, Seb could easily surpass Michael’s 7 WDCs by the end of his career.
It’s a year of transition and changes in 2012-2013. F1 returns to the United States at the beautiful Circuit of the Americas with accolades all around. Lewis Hamilton leaves McLaren, the only team he’s ever known, for Mercedes. Perez leaves Sauber to take Lewis’ spot alongside Jenson Button. Michael Schumacher retires for the second, and final time. Some long time F1 journalists leave the field to find other professional avenues to report on and others and it looks like the HRT team may fold after only three years of competition. F1 is a an expensive ticket for everyone, but Bernie always gets his money up front.
Bring on Jerez and Melbourne. We’re already waiting.
No comments:
Post a Comment