Two Races In - What Have We Learned?

We're officially into F1 2012. Having broken the skin with an exciting Australian Grand Prix, we pushed deeper into the veins of the season with last weekend's dramatic race in Malaysia. With a surreptitious and unrevealing testing period giving us little to go on, a lot has been revealed in the last two races. Here's what we have learned so far...


The McLarens have a headstart on the rest of the pack



There was a collective anxious sigh from the McLaren fanbase when the MP4-27 was unveiled and seemed very different to its competitors. The front noses of all the other cars included an aesthetically offensive crumpled feature, and there was fear that McLaren had missed a trick on this and were going to be left trailing in the first few races. Thankfully, this has clearly not been the case.


Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton have locked out the front row of the grid in two successive races, and though their races have been peppered with mistakes the two Brits seem to have the paciest cars on race day as well. Certainly in Australia the McLaren seemed to be in its element, with only a badly-timed safety car preventing the first 1-2 for Hamilton and Button since Canada 2010. The car looked to be perhaps more of a struggler in the difficult conditions of Malaysia, but any troubles were heavily exacerbated by collisions, bad pit-stops and tyre issues.

McLaren, without a doubt, have the advantage in terms of the package they have brought to this season. It's a shame they haven't capitalised upon this quite as much as they could have done, but if they can maintain their dominance on the field for the majority of this season it will be a very fruitful year for the Woking-based team. Given the natural determination of Ferrari and Red Bull though, it's hard not to imagine that this gap will close quickly.

Ferrari know how to make the best of a bad car


From the moment teams arrived in Melbourne for the opening Grand Prix, it was clear something was very wrong at Ferrari. Engineers and drivers were openly talking about the damage limitation approach they needed to take as the car wasn't fit to win races. There was an unnerving air of pessimism all over Scuderia, and it became apparent that this was founded in reality as their two cars were knocked out of Qualifying in Q2, with barely a whimper.

However, a driver with the calibre of Fernando Alonso refuses to let pesky machinery get in his way. A solid and complete performance from the Spaniard saw him shimmy his way into a respectable fifth place, picking up 10 vital points. More was to come the following weekend with Fernando Alonso holding firm in the changeable conditions. Combined with some excellent pitwork from the Ferrari mechanics and a bit of luck regarding Perez's late off, Alonso was able to send the Tifosi into raptures with a truly unexpected race victory. Damage limitation? Perhaps damage denial would be more befitting.

The downside for Ferrari is that Felipe Massa has been poor. Finishes in 15th a 16th could either show that Massa isn't skilful enough to make the car work, or that he truly has lost the motivation to drive for Ferrari. In either case, his prospects for staying in the team beyond 2012 look dim.

Red Bull won't dominate


Given Vettel's outright monopolization of the 2011 Grand Prix calender, arguably one of the worst things that could have happened this year is a repeat of last season's form for Red Bull. The term "Schumacher years" reverberated eerily amongst discussion of racing fans as Vettel geared up to his campaign for a third consecutive title.


However, the Red Bull car has not only lost it's massive lead on the rest of the pack, it has positively fallen behind. Both Mercedes and Lotus have managed to get cars in front of Red Bulls during qualifying, as well as the aforementioned front-row lockouts from the McLarens. In the race as well, we have seen that the Red Bull is nothing spectacular, and although Sebastian Vettel enjoyed a podium in Australia, it appears that Adrian Newey and Christian Horner have some work to do.

Given that Red Bull probably has the best development team in the sport, it is unlikely that Red Bull will struggle to win races throughout the season. That said, it is hard to see them finding a way to establish the command they had on the track in 2011, and that should be of massive benefit to the sport.

The Saubers look tasty... as does a lot of the midfield


I was absolutely gutted for Sergio Perez on Sunday. I genuinely felt like he was about to pull off a famous move on Alonso that would give him an absolutely amazing victory, but a mistake manufactured by the spoiling hands of pressure destroyed the potential triumph.


It is still remarkable that we almost saw a Sauber take victory though. From untroubling midfield grid-fillers, the team have clearly had an excellent Winter with all the progression necessary to give them a hatful of points this season. Perez was quicker than Alonso throughout the last half of the Malaysian Grand Prix, with a mis-timed pit-stop and a mistake meaning he managed to catch back up with Fernando twice. That aside, both Perez and Kobayashi scored decent points in the Australian Grand Prix. Sauber is definitely a team to watch this season.

In fact, the rest of the midfield looks pretty good this year, and the result of it is some very close racing. Force India, Mercedes, Toro Rosso, Lotus and Williams have all scored points in those first two races, meaning that only those three perennial backmarkers remain stuck on their marks (although I'm fairly sure - and I might have been dreaming here - that a HRT was in 10th at one stage). Everyone is perusing the points closely, and it means we are in for some really intriguing battles across the track.

This is all bloody exciting, isn't it?


One theme running through all of this the potential for great racing. I truly think we're in for one of the best F1 seasons in living memory. The action on the track has been very enjoyable so far, and though it's very early to comment upon the title race, there are early signs that this could be a close one.


Last season I though the racing was fantastic. The controversial new elements of KERS and DRS did, if nothing else, spice the game up a bit and it made for some absolutely tremendous Grands Prix. However, 2011 was ruined by a yawn-inducing Championship fight between Sebastian Vettel and Sebastian Vettel. Before that we had what was arguably the opposite - a spectacular title-battle between five drivers that came down to the final race. Despite this, the racing in 2010 was appalling, with overtaking a rare and treasured animal. But in 2012, I'm starting to think that we could get the best of both worlds.

Maybe I'm just an eternal optimist, but I can truly see this year being special. The pack is closer than ever, the amount of rivalries developing is phenomenal, and we've had two very entertaining races already. If there's one thing that we have learned so far, it is that all our excitement and hype in the build-up to F1 2012 is well and truly justifiable.

Strife in the Fast Lane

The word ‘tumultuous’ was invented for people like Lewis Hamilton. He’s the sort of sportsman who cannot go through a season in his career without a heap of controversy and incident being levelled upon his shoulders, but despite this he is still considered one of the best Formula One drivers on the grid. How does such a star lend himself to such inconsistency, you might ask (if you were talking to him)?

There’s been much written about Lewis’ recent chequered form. A lot of people say it’s a problem with his attitude, some say he lacks support, some say he’s just not that good a driver. Whatever the reasons for his lack of consistency, I think the truth is his dip has been marginal, at worst. This year was never going to be his year with the fantastically quick Red Bulls tearing up the field, but Lewis has consolidated a decent 168 points thus far, with a solitary win in China to his name.

As people point out though, he’s been outclassed this season by his team-mate Jenson Button, a perhaps less fancied driver amongst the Formula One ranks up until this season. I don’t think this would be a fair reflection on Button though, as in my opinion he’s a driver that just defines quality in each department. He’s pacy, a fighter, a tactician. To be behind Button is no disgrace at all.

Besides, Jenson has much more experience than Hamilton. His many years in fairly average cars such as the BAR and the Renault were a steep learning curve for Button, but going through such a school of hard knocks has clearly worked wonders for him. When his chance came in a competitive car, he was far readier than his team-mate at the time Rubens Barrichello, who had spent quite a few years playing the safe understudy role to Michael Schumacher. Still, this perhaps doesn’t explain why Hamilton has fallen behind his team-mate.

Whatever the reason, it’s clear that Lewis is currently going through a school of much harder knocks. It’s true that he’s never had to participate in a useless car for more than a few races at a time, but he’s always been in a fight for something, no matter what season it was, and he’s always been making mistakes along the way. It’s easy to forget though, that Hamilton’s career is still in relative infancy, and these mistakes will continue for a few years yet.

But that will come to be his advantage in the near future. If we look at Sebastian Vettel at the moment, he is enjoying the benefits of an absolutely amazing car. There’s nothing wrong with that particularly, but it’s quite incredible that practically no misfortune has befallen Vettel throughout the whole season.

You could say that’s great; that he isn’t making mistakes and he’s matured from his more petulant 2010, but I feel that he’s missing the sort of fight that characterizes Hamilton and Button. It’s rare that he isn’t leading races into the first corner, it’s rare that he gets overtaken and it’s rare that he has to deal with any problems during the race. The Red Bull won’t always be the best car on the field, rather like the McLaren wasn’t in 2008. But whereas Hamilton created the opportunity for the title that year, I have my doubts that Vettel will be able to do the same in the future.

So what about these many incidents that Hamilton’s been having? Why is his style reminiscent of bumper-karts at the moment? I think that this is just the nature of the beast. Hamilton’s style is to absolutely hammer every chance to overtake, and when he gets this right it’s completely spectacular. Nothing compares to it in modern day F1. However, when he’s off-form, this sort of style will take the unfortunate appearance of Hamilton just getting one thing wrong and thumping someone off the road.

That’s why I say Lewis’ dip in form is marginal – He’s only making the odd mistake when you consider how often he gets himself into a scrap on track. Just look at Monza. He spent 27 laps trying every trick in the book to get past Schumacher, and only our old German friend’s brilliant defending snuffed the opportunities out. If Hamilton had really lost his head, he would have ended up going into the back of Schumi’s Mercedes at some point.

So although it’s difficult to know why Hamilton is struggling at the moment, I think there’s no need to fear for him. He’s had a difficult year but he’ll have learned a lot. There was never really an inkling of hope that he’d win the title thanks to Christian Horner and Adrian Newey being Gods amongst men, but next year he’ll be more prepared than ever.