Champion prospects less clear
The Formula One teams are ready to rumble, although the first 2011 start comes two weeks later than originally scheduled. After the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix the action will now commence on the 25th through 27th March weekend. And after 19 races… assuming there will be no replacement for the Bahrain event… there will be a new champion driver and constructor. But in the chase after these honours the auspices are unclear. The novice World Champion, Sebastian Vettel, will be intent of defending his title and keeping start number 1 on his Red Bull racer for 2012. But there are driver who have been around longer, above all Fernando Alonso who was so narrowly beaten in 2010, who will be just as determined to set things straight one more. The changes to the regulations and the tyres from the new supplier Pirelli add further to the suspense to be expected in the new season.
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- Sebastian Vettel knows he cannot rest on his laurels if his car is to wear start number 1 in 2012 as well.
Responsibility and trust
It is more or less traditional that the defending champion goes into the new season as favourite for the title. And in fact it appears that Sebastian Vettel is even stronger after the 2010 season. The youngest World Champion ever knows full well that he cannot rest on his laurels, however, and that he faces an immense responsibility. “Number one is nice,” Vettel said in an interview with a German magazine, “but it doesn’t make you faster”. This is a young man who knows that he must invest a lot of effort if he is to take the best of all start numbers with him into 2012. And he knows too whom he has to thank for his first champion’s title. That he has already extended his contract though 2014… as have head engineer Adrian Newey and team boss Christian Horner as well as no less than fifty Red Bull staff members… speaks of a strong shared awareness of responsibility and immense trust.
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- The three main contenders of 2010 go into the 2011 season again as the top contenders. But behind this trio the ranks of potential winners have thinned.
Three with chances
The list of potential challengers is this year shorter than it was in 2010. Fernando Alonso remains a driver to be reckoned with after his very narrow and ultimately avoidable defeat last year and he is certain to be highly motivated. And there is Vettel’s team-mate Mark Weber who may have only this one final chance to triumph over his upstart colleague. These are three drivers with almost equal chances and there seem to be few others who can be seen as having serious title prospects. Felipe Massa? He doesn’t have the profile of a winner. Nico Rossberg and Michael Schumacher? The Mercedes does not yet seem like a winning car. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button? The McLaren no longer seems like a winning car. Robert Kubica? After his rally accident he is fighting not only for rehabilitation from his injuries but for his very racing career. The others? Just also-rans.
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- At the request of Bernie Ecclestone and the motor sport governing body FA the new supplier of the racing rubber, Pirelli, will be delivering sets of tyres with very different mixtures to the race circuits. This is sure to cause increased tension as key choices are made.
The tyres and the questions
Which of the trio of favourites prevails in the end will depend very much on how each responds to the altered circumstances, in particularly how they come to terms with the new tyres. At the request of Bernie Ecclestone and the motor sport governing body FA the new supplier of the racing rubber, Pirelli, will be delivering sets of tyres with very different mixtures to the race circuits. This is sure to cause increased tension as key choices are made. It is to be noted that the preliminary test have shown that the new tyres maintain their grip for a longer running time but then degrade very rapidly. And so it will be of crucial importance that tyre changes take place at exactly the right time. It may well be that decisions in this regard will make more of a difference between winning and losing races than the pure speed of the cars and the skill of the drivers..
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- For 2011 the KERS technology will make its come-back. Here is the equipment used by the Williams team. Only Team Lotus, Marussia-Virgin and Hispania Racing will not be using KERS on their cars.
Rear wing, KERS and ‘team orders’
To make the whole thing even more impenetrable there have been… as every winter… amendments to the racing regulations. The most significant developments in aerodynamics of recent years, the double-diffuser and the F-duct, have been prohibited. Instead there will now be adjustable rear wings which will give an extra turn of speed on the straights and facilitate overtaking. This year will see a generalized return to the KERS technology which will allow the driver to call on a burst of about 82 additional horsepower for a brief time on every lap. Not every team, however, has opted for this system. Finally there is now an acceptance of ‘team orders’, bringing to an end such farcical ploys such as those of Ferrari at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim last year. For more about the rule changes you can refer to another article on this page.
And so the Formula One is again ready to rumble and new excitement can be anticipated.
