The longest Formula 1 season since 1950 came to a close in Interlagos with Sebatian Vettel sealing his third consecutive Formula1 drivers’ title, making him the youngest ever Formula 1 driver to achieve such a record. Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher was the first to congratulate the young German, with Vettel taking over the mantle of the next most successful German Formula1 driver.
A few weeks ago, Valencia hosted the annual Ferrari Finals 2012, which brought down the curtain on one of the most exciting seasons. A season that started off with a different winner in each of the first seven races, there was no dominant team. Ferrari with Fernando Alonso looked somewhat lost with the progress of their racer yet he kept the Italian team fighting for the championship up to the last race.
Critics sighted that Alonso won where others stopped but it is factual that the No 1 Ferrari driver was out of the points in two races, namely Spa and Suzuka, due to no fault of his own.
He was the only good thing that happened at Ferrari; he might have been on the podium at nearly all the races, but his elapsed time from the winners was always astronomical, showing that Ferrari F 2012 had evolved limitedly since conception.
The two major drawbacks were the exhaust configuration and, once more, their wind tunnel.
No wonder a few days ago Luca de Montezemolo was urging all major stakeholders within the Formula 1 community to re-introduce track testing which, since 2009, has been reduced to a mere three to four days prior to the Formula 1 season start.
With all the wind tunnels and CFDs teams like Red Bull are very much at ease and this has clearly illustrated the massive improvement to win the title from practically nowhere. The 2012 season was not a rosy start for the Milton Keynes outfit however once more Adrian Newey methodology proved a winning factor, his customary stroll on the grid before each GP, pencilling down interesting concepts that other teams are developing, unlike Red Bull mechanics that stage a human screen around their racers.
Many were those that blamed the Ferrari pullrod front configuration for lack of grip out of the corners. Personally, I think it was the lack of new ideas, something that Ferrari has to invest solidly to have a competitive racer in 2013 straight out of the box. This will be Alonso’s fourth season at Ferrari and I am sure that no one at Ferrari or even the Spaniard himself ever imagined that they wouldtake so long to be worldchampions.
This season has shown how close the teams are performing. The final verdict will be winning or losing, but credit has to be given to teams, namely Lotus F1 team, Sahara Force India and Sauber, in that order as they all have shown intense progress. Once more, Mercedes was the ugly duckling of the group, with a super-advanced DRS system that was rather complex and probably effective had it to work well on all tracks. However, the team had spent so much time to try and make it work that car development was nearly at a standstill. Now Lewis Hamilton is joining the Brackley team, but will his input thwart Mercedes towards more winning conquests?
Bottom of the chart goes to the three teams that are constantly fighting it out between them with Caterham, now possibly changing both their drivers, a great mystery with a person like Mike Gascoyne getting the team nowhere. HRT is heading towards administration with Marussia still remaining in the offing until its Russian investors continue to pour in funds. This time next month the teams will be unfolding their 2013 Formula 1 racers, and it will be time to go racing.