THE new Formula One season begins this weekend, two weeks later than initially planned. The Australian Grand Prix takes over the mantelpiece of the F1 opener, after Bahrain’s cancellation, following the current unrest in the Middle East. With another big shake-up in the rules, another new race in India to look forward to and a rather stable driver market this time around, 2011 can beat the drama of 2010. Can Sebastian Vettel defend his title? Will Fernando Alonso bounce back from last year’s Abu Dhabi heartbreak? How will Renault fare without Robert Kubica? Is Michael Schumacher going to prove his critics wrong? Have McLaren been sandbagging in testing? All the talking stops this weekend in Albert Park, so here’s the inside guide.
Force India Mercedes
14 Adrian Sutil (GER)
15 Paul di Resta (BRI)
As 2010 continued, Force India dropped down the pecking order and 2011 could turn into a very tough one for the Silverstone-based team. The loss of key technical staff is James Key and Mark Smith has hit the team hard and testing form suggests that they could be looking backwards rather than forwards in the incoming campaign. Adrian Sutil is a proven point’s scorer and ditched his accident-prone image last year to score some solid points results. He will do well to match his best results of 5th in Malaysia and Spa last season. After four seasons in DTM, culminating in the 2010 championship, Scot Paul di Resta joins the grid. He deserves his chance, and is bound to be more of a match for Sutil than Vitantonio Liuzzi ever was. However, the car’s ultimate lack of pace could be the downfall for these two talented racers.
Sauber-Ferrari
16 Kamur Kobayashi (JPN)
17 Sergio Perez (MEX)
The distinctive feature of the Sauber last year was no sponsorship whatsoever. However, with rich Mexican businessman Carlos Slim onboard, that changes in 2011. Young Mexican Sergio Perez’s arrival is a interesting move, as it means there will be a lack of experience on the driver front. Perez looks either fast or wreckless and he is bound to add a lot of flair and charisma to the team. They have plenty of that in Kamur Kobayashi already. The Japanese is expected to thrill everyone again with his no holds barred attitude of driving and has all the talent in the world, if he tones down on the wackiness that can lead the Japanese into serious trouble. The car looks very promising but it may need early development if they wish to be regular point’s scorers.
Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari
18 Sebastian Buemi (SUI)
19 Jaime Alguesuari (SPA)
The departures of Gerhard Berger and Sebastian Vettel hit Toro Rosso very hard at the end of 2008, and they haven’t recovered since. The car looks very strong and far more consistent than its previous challengers. Even Lewis Hamilton has told the media to keep a watch on them. Sebastian Buemi enters his third season and was a massive disappointment last season. The Swiss driver is under pressure to deliver, especially with the highly-rated Daniel Ricciardo waiting in the wings as third driver. Buemi will need to perform from the off, if he doesn’t want to go the same way as Scott Speed and Sebastian Bourdais; in earning the sack mid-season. Plus, we know Franz Tost doesn’t accept any excuses. Jamie Alguesuari is in a slightly more secure position and has the knack to pull off some daring overtaking moves. He needs to improve his qualifying performances, and eliminate some of the careless driving which you’d expect to see from a rush hour driver on the M25’s hard shoulder! With Ricciardo waiting and watching, the loser of this team-mate battle is likely to be out of F1, so this could be an intriguing watch.
Team Lotus Renault
20 Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)
21 Jarno Trulli (ITA)
Team Lotus, as they are now known were the class of the new teams in 2010, and have closed the gap to the midfield in winter testing. With two experience racers and a strong reserve in Karun Chandok, excuses will be less vain this season. The move to Renault engines and gearboxes has caused some severe reliability bugs, which has consequently hurt their testing mileages. However, don’t be surprised if they begin to give Toro Rosso and Force India some severe headaches this season. Points are a necessity this time around and Heikki Kovalainen looks a class driver, after his mere at McLaren. Kovalainen is expected to lead the team from the front again and will cause some giant-killing upsets, similar to Takuma Sato at Super Aguri in 2007. Jarno Trulli’s speed over one lap is still as strong as ever, but his racecraft last year was frankly dismal. 2011 is surely Jarno’s last chance to fulfil anything decent onto his CV, otherwise he will end up like Olivier Panis; winning the Monaco Grand Prix once and did very little else with so much supposed talent.
HRT-Cosworth
22 Narain Karthikeyan (IND)
23 Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA)
Is this becoming the ‘Andrea Moda’ of 2011? Remember that joke of the 1992 team that evaded taxes, cars broke down meters from rolling out of the garage. Well, having your entire car failing to get through customs certainly qualifies for this title. Narain Karthikeyan is only on board for Indian sponsorship whilst Vitantonio Liuzzi will bring experience of driving for backmarker teams. With no pre-season testing AGAIN, it is once again going to be a battle for survival till the end of the season for HRT.
Marussia Virgin-Cosworth
24 Timo Glock (GER)
25 Jerome D’Ambrosio (BEL)
They were F1’s joke team of 2010, especially by not building a fuel tank big enough to finish the early season races. However, the future looks bright, especially with backing from Russian sportscar brand Marussia and a confident new rookie in Jerome D’Ambrosio. Timo Glock drove brilliantly in the second half of last season and will be there to pick up the pieces and grab the odd point, but they will struggle to be regular midfield runners.
Rules
As with nearly every F1 season, there have been some changes to the rules this season. The 107% rule returns for qualifying for the first time since 2002 to prove that cars are quick enough to race, this will only apply to Q1 and if the qualifying session is wet, the rule will not be used. Pirelli replaces Bridgestone as the tyre supplier and has been challenged by the FIA to produce a tyre that grains more and causes drivers to pit more often. So far, this seems to have worked and it certainly spice up the racing.
KERS returns after a season away and is once again optional for the teams to use it or not. The most innovative concept for 2011 is an adjustable rear wing, which will aid more overtaking particularly on very long straights. Gearboxes must now last five races instead of four in another case of cost cutting measures and the safety car rules have been tweaked once again with the overtake line abolished after the controversy surrounding it last year, meaning drivers again can only overtake when they’ve crossed the start/finish line at the restart.
For the 2011 season, I will be posting the following on the Formula One season
- A race report from all 19 events in the 2011 FIA Formula 1 World Championship
- NEW! F1 classic races (A brief lookback at six/seven classic events from the country that is about to stage a race that weekend)
- NEW! Replacing 'The Conclusions' will be a new personal blog. 'The Finishing Straight' by HappyDude88 will be online every Tuesday after the Grand Prix weekend, where I will be giving my own personal take on the weekend's events.
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