Champion Hamilton chases down Schumacher record

F1 2020 TEAM LINE-UP		www.formula1.com	Age	GPs	Pole	Wins	Titles
Alfa Romeo Racing- Ferrari	(7) (99)	Kimi Räikkönen (FIN) Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA)	40 26	312 23	18 -	21 -	1 -
AlphaTauri-Honda	(10) (26)	Pierre Gasly (FRA) Daniil Kvyat (RUS)	24 26	47 93	- -	- -	- -
Ferrari	(5) (16)	Sebastian Vettel (GER) Charles Leclerc (MON)	33 22	240 42	57 7	53 2	4 -
Haas-Ferrari	(8) (20)	Romain Grosjean (FRA) Kevin Magnussen (DEN)	34 27	164 102	- -	- -	- -
McLaren-Renault	(4) (55)	Lando Norris (GBR) Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP)	20 25	21 102	- -	- -	- -
Mercedes	(44) (77)	Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Valtteri Bottas (FIN)	35 30	250 139	88 11	84 7	6 -
Racing Point-BWT Mercedes	(11) (18)	Sergio Pérez (MEX) Lance Stroll (CAN)	30 21	176 62	- -	- -	- -
Red Bull Racing-Honda	(23) (33)	Alexander Albon (THA) Max Verstappen (NED)	24 22	21 102	- 2	- 8	- -
Renault	(3) (31)	Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Esteban Ocon (FRA)	31 23	171 50	3 -	7 -	- -
Williams-Mercedes	(6) (63)	Nicholas Latifi (CAN) George Russell (GBR)	25 22	0 21	- -	- -	- -

SIX-TIME champion Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second place in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix as the 2020 Formula One season finally got under way.

Hamilton was surprisingly beaten by Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas - but will nevertheless be pleased by his team's dominance over closest rivals Red Bull this afternoon.

Max Verstappen has won the Austrian Grand Prix in both of the last two years - so was no doubt hopeful of a quick start to the Championship with both of the opening races being held in Spielberg. 

However, Dutchman Verstappen could only qualify third - and was split from his team-mate Alexander Albon, though they at least start on the clean start of the track. 

Instead, McLaren youngster Lando Norris took a career-best fourth place on the grid with a phenomenal lap in a session which will have provided much hope to the Woking-based outfit.

By contrast, Ferrari suffered from a tiresomely familiar early-season story of failure. 

It is now 12 years since the proud Prancing Horse team were Constructors champions and 13 years since the Drivers' title made its way to Maranello.

And things do not look like improving any time soon.

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel struggled badly with his set-up and could not even make it into the final round of qualifying. 

Meanwhile, Vettel's young Monégasque team-mate Charles Leclerc recovered from scraping 10th place in the second session to a grid placing of seventh.

That outcome carried on a trend from last season when, despite starting the year as Ferrari's designated number one, Vettel was beaten on every measure by the 22-year-old.

It would be fair to say that Vettel's well-publicised difficulties at Ferrari have already been badly exposed on this opening weekend.

Indeed, at this stage, it is difficult to envisage the 33-year-old German staying until the end of the season with a non-competitive Ferrari team, having been told his services will not be required for 2021.

The shake-up in next year's driver line-up sees Carlos Sainz Jr move to Ferrari with Australian Daniel Ricciardo heading from Renault to the vacant McLaren seat.

Mercedes have Hamilton of course, while Red Bull have retained Verstappen - and surely neither team would take on the troublesome Vettel as a second driver.

The German, therefore, appears to have nowhere to go in 2021 - and the early signs from this season are that he will depart F1 with a whimper rather than a bang.

Instead, it is Hamilton who - having won the Drivers' Championship for five of the last six years - remains the undisputed king of the race-track.

Indeed, there is an air of inevitability that the 35-year-old from Stevenage will win a record-equalling seventh Drivers' title this year and climb to the summit alongside Michael Schumacher. 

But, even if Hamilton blows all of his rivals out of the water as usual, there is still plenty for F1 fans to get their teeth into. 

The midfield battle - behind the big three of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari - has been given an extra element of intrigue by the so-called Pink Mercedes of Racing Point.

Having based the design of the RP20 around that of last year’s title winner, strong pre-season testing and practice runs have raised hopes of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll challenging for podium finishes.

But, while Perez and Stroll qualified in highly respectable positions of sixth and ninth, it was undoubtedly Norris who deserved the early plaudits for steering his McLaren onto the second row.

Elsewhere, the back-markers look set to be Haas, Alfa Romeo and - somewhat depressingly - Williams, with the cars from those three teams filling each of the bottom six places in qualifying in Austria.

Certainly, it seems a long time ago since Williams' halcyon days of the 1980s and 1990s when they dominated the sport with seven Drivers' championships and nine Constructors' championships in an 18-year period. 

By contrast, recent times have been pretty grim for the Grove-based team, with last-placed finishes in both of the last two years matched by off-track financial worries. 

In May, Williams announced they were seeking buyers for a portion of the team and that they had terminated the contract of title sponsor ROKiT.

But the coronavirus pandemic makes this an even more difficult time than usual to look for investment - and so a future for Williams beyond 2020 remains troublingly uncertain.

CALENDAR
July
 5 Austrian GP ▪️ Red Bull Ring, Spielberg
12 Styrian GP ▪️ Red Bull Ring, Spielberg
19 Hungarian GP ▪️ Hungaroring, Mogyoród
August
2 British GP ▪️ Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone
9 70th Anniversary GP ▪️ Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone
16 Spanish GP ▪️ Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona
30 Belgian GP ▪️ Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
September 
6 Italian GP ▪️ Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

F1 2018: Fiesta time for five-star Hamilton

FORMULA ONE: THE GREATEST CHAMPIONS

7	Michael Schumacher	(GER)	1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
5	Juan Manuel Fangio	(ARG)	1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957
	Lewis Hamilton	(GBR)	2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018
4	Alain Prost	(FRA)	1985, 1986, 1989, 1993
	Sebastian Vettel	(GER)	2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
3	Jack Brabham	(AUS)	1959, 1960, 1966
	Jackie Stewart	(GBR)	1969, 1971, 1973
	Niki Lauda	(AUT)	1975, 1977, 1984
	Nelson Piquet	(BRA)	1981, 1983, 1987
	Ayrton Senna	(BRA)	1988, 1990, 1991

LEWIS HAMILTON produced an almost faultless season to win a fifth World Drivers' Championship at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in the Mexican Grand Prix.

Hamilton coasted to fourth place in Mexico City for yet another title, one which is enough to draw him level in second on the all-time list alongside Argentine legend Juan Manuel Fangio.

Only Michael Schumacher, with seven titles, now stands ahead of Hamilton - but, already at this stage, it feels as if that record is destined to face a serious challenge in the next few years.

After all, Hamilton in 2018 has taken his own personal performance to another level, eventually beating Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari in utterly convincing fashion.

In the first part of the season, though, that did not look as if it was going to be the case at all.

Vettel swooped to early wins in Australia and Bahrain, and still led the Championship by the narrowest of margins when the F1 big top rocked up at Silverstone in July.

Hamilton took pole in his home Grand Prix but then suffered an absolute nightmare on raceday. 

First, the Stevenage-born racer was jumped off the start line by Vettel and his own team-mate Valtteri Bottas - and then he was sent spinning off the track at turn three by Vettel's team mate Kimi Räikkönen.

For a brief period, Hamilton was pootling about back in 18th - and, although he eventually scythed his way through the field to finish second, Bottas vitally had earlier lost the lead to Vettel.

The German duly took his fourth win of the campaign and an eight-point lead into the last two races before the four-week summer recess.

A fortnight later, it looked even better for Vettel in his home Grand Prix at Hockenheim when Hamilton's Mercedes broke down in qualifying and was left stranded in 14th on the grid. By contrast, Vettel was seemingly sitting pretty on pole.

However, in a complete reversal of fortunes on raceday, Hamilton battled his way through the field on soft and ultrasoft tyres in the rain, and watched on as - critically - Vettel crashed out from the lead.

Hamilton followed up victory at Hockenheim with another from pole at the Hungaroring to extend his advantage to 24 points heading into the summer break.

But, at the resumption, Vettel responded well in the Belgian Grand Prix to beat pole-sitter Hamilton off the start line in Spa-Francorchamps.

That should really have marked the start of a Vettel comeback as Ferrari arrived at their home circuit in Monza - but the reality could not have been more different to the expectations of the Tifosi.

First, Ferrari chose not to reverse the order of Vettel and Räikkönen in qualifying, despite the former being their only title contender.

The Finn - who had, by then, been told by Ferrari that he would not be retained for 2019 - took pole and, racing on his own merits, it was no surprise at all to see him defend his lead from Vettel.

At the second chicane, a watchful Hamilton took advantage and passed Vettel on the outside.

Crucially, in attempting to defend his position, the battling German crashed into Hamilton and spun to the back. Then, to make matters even worse for him, the Mercedes driver subsequently overtook Räikkönen to win.

By this point, an in-form Hamilton was buzzing - and next came one of the moments of the season as the 33-year-old produced one of the best flying laps of his whole career to secure a race-winning pole in the night race at Singapore.

Two weeks later at the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi, the British driver benefited from a rare imposition of team orders as Mercedes told Bottas to let him past at halfway stage.

Then, at Suzuka in Japan, Hamilton made it four wins in a row with a lights-to-flag victory which left Vettel trailing in his wake.

Rapidly through the autumn, Hamilton's lead had grown to 67 points - a gigantic advantage which meant the Mercedes man could mathematically seal the title at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

Indeed, it looked, at one stage, as if he would take the title in Texas as he made a wheel-to-wheel challenge to Red Bull's Max Verstappen for a few corners while Vettel trailed again in fifth.

Ultimately, Hamilton was forced to pull out of his move on the young Dutchman - and, even if he had taken second place, he would have been denied the big prize by Vettel's successful late pass on an ailing Bottas.

Nevertheless, Hamilton's pragmatic approach to his attack on Verstappen contrasted sharply with Vettel's earlier haphazard attempt to pass Daniel Ricciardo in the other Red Bull.

Once again, Vettel made contact and was sent spinning to the back of the field - and, although the German recovered to take fourth, the result in the United States merely delayed the inevitable.

Requiring any finish in the top seven in Mexico, regardless of Vettel's result, Hamilton qualified behind the dominant Red Bulls in third and never dropped below sixth even after his pit-stops. His triumph had become a mathematical certainty.

"I don't allow myself to be too emotional in public, but now I feel humbled by the whole experience [and] it's hard to realise it at the moment," said Hamilton in his post-race interview.

"It's something I dreamed of, but I never in a million years thought I'd be stood here as a five-time champion and I'm so grateful for everyone who helped me be here, to raise the bar and lift the cup.

"It was a goal, when I won the championship last year - I kept thinking how can I be fitter, faster, better - a better all-rounder, a better friend, better son, and I think I've been able to lift them all up this year.

"Maybe it comes with age or experience but I'm very happy with how it's gone."

Undoubtedly, at 33, Hamilton will need to use all his experience to stay at the top of his game in the coming years.

For, certainly, it would be a big surprise if four-time champion Vettel and Ferrari made as many poor mistakes again in 2019. 

Meanwhile, the Prancing Horse from Maranello will also inject younger blood in their line-up following the signing of 21-year-old Charles Leclerc from Sauber.

And then there is Verstappen - also just 21 - who further added to his burgeoning reputation at the weekend with a fifth race win and 20th podium of his relatively short F1 career so far.

But, of course, this Mexican Grand Prix was all about the legendary Hamilton, and his hard work and sacrifices which have allowed him to retain the Drivers' Championship.

A class apart from his contemporaries, it feels only a matter of when - and not if - he will triumph again.

FORMULA ONE 2018
+/- refers to Hamilton lead or deficit in the Drivers' Championship 

Date		Pole	Fast lap	Winner	+/-
25 March	Australian Grand Prix	Hamilton	Ricciardo	Vettel	-7
8 April	Bahrain Grand Prix	Vettel	Bottas	Vettel	-17
15 April	Chinese Grand Prix	Vettel	Ricciardo	Ricciardo	-9
29 April	Azerbaijan Grand Prix	Vettel	Bottas	Hamilton	+4
13 May	Spanish Grand Prix	Hamilton	Ricciardo	Hamilton	+17
27 May	Monaco Grand Prix	Ricciardo	Verstappen	Ricciardo	+14
10 June	Canadian Grand Prix	Vettel	Verstappen	Vettel	-1
24 June	French Grand Prix	Hamilton	Bottas	Hamilton	+14
1 July	Austrian Grand Prix	Bottas	Räikkönen	Verstappen	-1
8 July	British Grand Prix	Hamilton	Vettel	Vettel	-8
22 July	German Grand Prix	Vettel	Hamilton	Hamilton	+17
29 July	Hungarian Grand Prix	Hamilton	Ricciardo	Hamilton	+24
26 August	Belgian Grand Prix	Hamilton	Bottas	Vettel	+17
2 September	Italian Grand Prix	Räikkönen	Hamilton	Hamilton	+30
16 September	Singapore Grand Prix	Hamilton	Magnussen	Hamilton	+40
30 September	Russian Grand Prix	Bottas	Bottas	Hamilton	+50
7 October	Japanese Grand Prix	Hamilton	Vettel	Hamilton	+67
21 October	United States Grand Prix	Hamilton	Hamilton	Räikkönen	+70
28 October	Mexican Grand Prix	Ricciardo	Bottas	Verstappen	+64
11 November	Brazilian Grand Prix	Hamilton	Bottas	Hamilton	+81
25 November	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	Hamilton	Vettel	Hamilton	+88

FIA F1 DRIVERS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

			Points
1	Lewis Hamilton (GBR)	Mercedes	408	(11 wins)
2	Sebastian Vettel (GER)	Ferrari	320	(5 wins)
3	Kimi Räikkönen (FIN)	Ferrari	251	(1 win)
4	Max Verstappen (NED)	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	249	(2 wins)
5	Valtteri Bottas (FIN)	Mercedes	247
6	Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	170	(2 wins)
7	Niko Hülkenberg (GER)	Renault	69
8	Sergio Pérez (MEX)	Force India-Mercedes	62
9	Kevin Magnussen (DEN)	Haas-Ferrari	56
10	Carlos Sainz Jr. (ESP)	Renault	53
11	Fernando Alonso (ESP)	McLaren-Renault	50
12	Esteban Ocon (FRA)	Force India-Mercedes	49
13	Charles Leclerc (MON)	Sauber-Ferrari	39
14	Romain Grosjean (FRA)	Haas-Ferrari	37
15	Pierre Gasly (FRA)	Toro Rosso-Honda	29
16	Stoffel Vandoorne (BEL)	McLaren-Renault	12
17	Marcus Ericsson (SWE)	Sauber-Ferrari	9
18	Lance Stroll (CAN)	Williams-Mercedes	6
19	Brendon Hartley (NZL)	Toro Rosso-Honda	4
20	Sergey Sirotkin (RUS)	Williams-Mercedes	1

FIA F1 CONSTRUCTORS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

			Points
1	Mercedes (GER)	Lewis Hamilton - Valtteri Bottas	655	(11 wins)
2	Ferrari (ITA)	Sebastian Vettel - Kimi Räikkönen	571	(6 wins)
3	Red Bull-TAG Heuer (AUT)	Max Verstappen - Daniel Ricciardo	419	(4 wins)
4	Renault (FRA)	Niko Hülkenberg - Carlos Sainz Jr.	122
5	Haas-Ferrari (USA)	Kevin Magnussen - Romain Grosjean	93
6	McLaren-Renault (GBR)	Fernando Alonso - Stoffel Vandoorne	62
7	Force India-Mercedes (GBR)	Sergio Pérez - Esteban Ocon	52
8	Sauber-Ferrari (SUI)	Charles Leclerc - Marcus Ericsson	48
9	Toro Rosso-Honda (ITA)	Pierre Gasly - Brendon Hartley	33
10	Williams-Mercedes (GBR)	Lance Stroll - Sergey Sirotkin	7
NC	Force India-Mercedes (IND)	Sergio Pérez - Esteban Ocon	(59)

[NC - Not classified. The Force India-Mercedes (IND) points were voided and the team was excluded from the Constructors' Championship during the summer recess. The team's assets were sold and re-entered as a newly-formed team also called Force India-Mercedes (GBR) - this team was treated as a separate entrant in the Constructors' Championship]

High-rolling Hamilton completes his quadruple

FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONS Four times or more

7 Michael Schumacher (Ger)		1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
5 Juan Manuel Fangio (Arg)		1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957
4 Alain Prost (Fra)		1985, 1986, 1989, 1993
4 Sebastian Vettel (Ger)		2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
4 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr)		2008, 2014, 2015, 2017

LEWIS HAMILTON may have secured his latest world title in inauspicious circumstances on Sunday after being lapped and finishing down in ninth place in the Mexican Grand Prix.

But his achievement in having reached the summit of his sport - again - has sealed his place as a legend of Formula One.

Mercedes man Hamilton joins Alain Prost and contemporary rival Sebastian Vettel on four Drivers' Championships. Only Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio have more.

Yet, at certain stages of the season, it looked as if it might be Vettel joining Fangio on five, as Ferrari produced a far more impressive car than in recent years.

After the Monaco Grand Prix in late-May, Vettel enjoyed a healthy 25-point lead, the exact equivalent of a whole race win.

And, even after both drivers had endured an indifferent summer, the German still led Hamilton at the four-week break by 14 points.

The autumn, though, was an entirely different story as Vettel imploded and Hamilton ignited his challenge with five wins out of six.

In Singapore, Vettel qualified on the pole - but, at the start, he and team mate Kimi Räikkönen squeezed the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, causing the Dutchman to touch Räikkönen.

The collision sent the Finn out of control and he hit the left sidepod of his team mate Vettel's car, causing major damage to both.

None of the three drivers involved completed a lap, while Hamilton - who had qualified fifth - picked up a fortunate victory, a third win in a row.

Two weeks later in Malaysia, Ferrari again had the fastest car - but an engine problem in qualifying consigned Vettel to the back of the grid.

And, although the German recovered to fourth, Hamilton took a surprise second to extend his lead to 34 points.

Remarkably, in Japan, Vettel retired early again - on that occasion due to a spark plug failure - and the Mercedes man Hamilton took full advantage with another race victory.

The championship lead was up to 59 points - and, at the following race in the United States, Mercedes were crowned Constructors' champions for a fourth successive year.

That achievement should not be understated for it came despite a whole raft of technical changes at the start of the 2017 season.

Indeed, it would also be wrong to suggest Hamilton and Mercedes have solely relied on the misfortune of Vettel for their success.

As Andrew Benson, chief correspondent for the BBC website, explained: "Of [Hamilton's] nine wins, at least three were of the very highest calibre, and in very different ways.

"He fought back to catch and pass Vettel in Spain, held off a faster Ferrari in Belgium, and came through against the odds with pace his team did not know they had in wet-dry Singapore. Three others - in Britain, Italy and the United States - were utterly dominant."

Of course, Hamilton will never be universally popular. Off the track, he is a self-styled high-roller, seemingly hopping from one celebrity bash to the next. One week he is hanging with Mo Farah, the next week with Usain Bolt.

He scored a big own goal when he was the only one of the 20 Formula One drivers who refused to take part in an event in London in the run-up to the British Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, on the track, he has gained a reputation for pettiness, badly damaging his longstanding friendship with Nico Rosberg in last year's tussle for the title.

Even on Sunday, Hamilton immediately speculated Vettel had hit him on purpose at the third corner, though the racing incident had done no favours for the German either.

Vettel ultimately finished fourth, well short of the required second place - which was guarded in any case by Hamilton's loyal Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas.

Red Bull's Verstappen consequently earned a merited victory, his second of the season and the third of his fledgling career.

But - despite a self-proclaimed "horrible" race in Mexico City - the day belonged to Hamilton.

He already had more race victories (62) than any other British driver in Formula One history anyway - and he also has the most pole positions of any driver in history with 72.

Now, most significantly of all, he has more world titles than any other Briton, surpassing Sir Jackie Stewart's three.

And so, if it was not clear before this week then it certainly is now: this is Hammer time.

FORMULA ONE 2017 Race-by-race

Date			Hamilton	Vettel	Hamilton lead
26 March		Australian Grand Prix	2nd - 18	🏆1st - 25	🔽7
9 April		Chinese Grand Prix	🏆1st - 43	2nd - 43	🔼🔽Level
16 April		Bahrain Grand Prix	2nd - 61	🏆1st - 68	🔽7
30 April		Russian Grand Prix	4th - 73	2nd - 86	🔽13
14 May		Spanish Grand Prix	🏆1st - 98	2nd - 104	🔽6
28 May		Monaco Grand Prix	7th - 104	🏆1st - 129	🔽25
11 June		Canadian Grand Prix	🏆1st - 129	4th - 141	🔽12
25 June		Azerbaijan Grand Prix	5th - 139	4th - 153	🔽14
9 July		Austrian Grand Prix	4th - 151	2nd - 171	🔽20
16 July		British Grand Prix	🏆1st - 176	7th - 177	🔽1
30 July		Hungarian Grand Prix	4th - 188	🏆1st - 202	🔽14
27 August		Belgian Grand Prix	🏆1st - 213	2nd - 220	🔽7
3 September		Italian Grand Prix	🏆1st - 238	3rd - 235	🔼3
17 September		Singapore Grand Prix	🏆1st - 263	DNF - 235	🔼28
1 October		Malaysian Grand Prix	2nd - 281	4th - 247	🔼34
8 October		Japanese Grand Prix	🏆1st - 306	DNF - 247	🔼59
22 October		United States Grand Prix	🏆1st - 331	2nd - 265	🔼66
29 October		Mexican Grand Prix	9th - 333	4th - 277	🔼56
12 November		Brazilian Grand Prix	tbc	tbc	tbc
26 November		Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	tbc	tbc	tbc

STANDINGS
Drivers' Championship

P	Driver	Team	Points
01	Lewis Hamilton (Gbr)	Mercedes	333 (9 wins)
02	Sebastian Vettel (Ger)	Ferrari	277 (4 wins)
03	Valtteri Bottas (Fin)	Mercedes	262 (2 wins)
04	Daniel Ricciardo (Aus)	Red Bull-Renault	192 (1 win)
05	Kimi Räikkönen (Fin)	Ferrari	178
06	Max Verstappen (Ned)	Red Bull-Renault	148 (2 wins)
07	Sergio Pérez (Mex)	Force India-Mercedes	92
08	Esteban Ocon (Fra)	Force India-Mercedes	83
09	Carlos Sainz Jnr (Esp)	Renault	54
10	Lance Stroll (Can)	Williams-Mercedes	40
11	Felipe Massa (Brz)	Williams-Mercedes	36
12	Nico Hulkenburg (Ger)	Renault	34
13	Romain Grosjean (Fra)	Haas F1-Ferrari	28
14	Kevin Magnussen (Den)	Haas F1-Ferrari	19
15	Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel)	McLaren-Honda	13
16	Fernando Alonso (Esp)	McLaren-Honda	11
17	Jolyon Palmer (Gbr)	Renault	8
18	Pascal Wehrlein (Ger)	Sauber-Ferrari	5
19	Daniil Kvyat (Rus)	Toro Rosso	5

Constructors' Championship

P	Team	Points
01	Mercedes	595 (11 wins)
02	Ferrari	455 (4 wins)
03	Red Bull-Renault	340 (3 wins)
04	Force India-Mercedes	175
05	Williams-Mercedes	76
06	Toro Rosso	53
07	Renault	48
08	Haas F1-Ferrari	47
09	McLaren-Honda	24
10	Sauber-Ferrari	5

F1 2013: Simply four-some for Vettel

MULTIPLE F1 WORLD CHAMPIONS

(7)	Michael Schumacher (GER)	Benetton	1994, 1995
		Ferrari	2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
(5)	Juan Manuel Fangio (ARG)	Alfa Romeo	1951
		Mercedes-Benz	1954, 1955
		Ferrari	1956
		Maserati	1957
(4)	Alain Prost (FRA)	McLaren	1985, 1986, 1989
		Williams	1993
(4)	Sebastian Vettel (GER)	Red Bull	2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

SEBASTIAN VETTEL joined a pantheon of motor racing legends after clinching his fourth successive Formula One world title with victory in the Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit.

Vettel's win from pole was his sixth in a row, and his seventh in the last eight races. It was also his 10th of the season which, remarkably, is eight more than anyone else.

Aged just 26, the German became the youngest ever four-time world champion, having previously been the youngest world champion, youngest double world champion, and youngest triple world champion.

And yet, despite - or maybe because - of his glittering career, Vettel is not exactly a popular champion with the crowds.

Booing on the podium has blighted the second half of the season when, after a fairly even start to 2013, the superiority of Vettel and the Red Bull team has become unquestionable.

Vettel had remained pretty quiet on the issue at previous Grand Prix but he finally admitted on Sunday that he has been hurt by the negative reaction.

"It's very difficult for me personally, to receive boos, even though you haven't done anything wrong," he said.

"At the time it hurts not to get the reception you expect but I think I'm clever enough to understand why they do it. I'm not blaming them."

Vettel's theory is that most of his detractors are supporters of Ferrari or McLaren, and are finding it difficult to see a team as dominant as Red Bull when it is not their own.

Meanwhile, Adrian Newey, Red Bull design chief extraordinaire, agreed that at least part of it was down to "jealousy of success people have".

However, Newey has also recognised that Vettel has not helped himself this year, even effectively admitting that the German's oft-seen index-finger victory salute could be perceived as arrogant.

Then, there is Vettel's flagrant decision early in the season to ignore team orders not to pass team-mate Mark Webber in Malaysia.

But none of these reasons is in any way good enough for motor racing fans to boo a quadruple world champion. It is rather poor form and he really cannot help being as good as he is.

It does beg the question, though - just how good is Vettel?

Arguably, the last four years have shown only that he is faster than his older team-mate Webber, and that much of his success has been down to the brilliant design work of Newey.

To pardon the pun, that in itself would be nothing new. Since 1992, Newey has designed the winning car on 10 occasions, having previously furnished the likes of Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, and Mika Häkkinen at Williams and then McLaren.

Of course, Vettel - for his part - has plenty of brilliance throughout his short career - from winning in a Toro Rosso in Monza in 2008 to wrapping up his title on Sunday by storming through the field from 17th after an early tyre change.

Nevertheless, the feeling persists even among die-hard race fans, who would never boo him, that he needs to win the Drivers' Championship with more than one team - just as Prost, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Michael Schumacher did.

Some more competition would help too, although that this has not been present is largely down to the faults of the other teams.

Ferrari, in particular, have consistently let down their main driver Fernando Alonso over the last few years while McLaren have had another year to forget with even Lotus ahead of them in the Constructors' standings.

Mercedes have probably been the best of the rest in 2013 with three race victories from their two drivers, Lewis Hamilton (once) and Nico Rosberg (twice).

Rosberg's second-place in India has even lifted them back above Ferrari in the Constructors' championship with just three races left.

But the team came back down with one hell of a bump today following the bombshell news that their team principal Ross Brawn has decided to leave at the end of the season.

Brawn, alongside Newey, is the other remarkable figure in F1 over the last 20 or so years, having masterminded Schumacher's seven world titles at Benetton and Ferrari before later leading Jenson Button to a dream title-winning season in 2009.

If Brawn were to leave F1 altogether, then he would be a great loss to the sport - and a blow for those hoping that the Vettel-Newey axis will be properly challenged next year.

Nevertheless, 2014 already promises more than 2013 has delivered, with the move from 2.4 litre V8s to 1.6 litre V6 turbos among other big regulation changes.

It will be a clean slate for all of the teams - but the same question as last year will remain: can anyone stop Vettel?

CALENDAR

Date	Television		Pole position	Fastest lap	Winner
17 March	Sky	Australian Grand Prix	Vettel	Raikkonen	Raikkonen
24 March	Sky	Malaysian Grand Prix	Vettel	Perez	Vettel
14 April	BBC Sky	Chinese Grand Prix	Hamilton	Vettel	Alonso
21 April	Sky	Bahrain Grand Prix	Rosberg	Vettel	Vettel
12 May	BBC Sky	Spanish Grand Prix	Rosberg	Gutierrez	Alonso
26 May	Sky	Monaco Grand Prix	Rosberg	Vettel	Rosberg
9 June	BBC Sky	Canadian Grand Prix	Vettel	Webber	Vettel
30 June	BBC Sky	British Grand Prix	Hamilton	Webber	Rosberg
7 July	Sky	German Grand Prix	Hamilton	Alonso	Vettel
28 July	Sky	Hungarian Grand Prix	Hamilton	Webber	Hamilton
25 August	BBC Sky	Belgian Grand Prix	Hamilton	Vettel	Vettel
8 September	BBC Sky	Italian Grand Prix	Vettel	Hamilton	Vettel
22 September	Sky	Singapore Grand Prix	Vettel	Vettel	Vettel
6 October	Sky	Korean Grand Prix	Vettel	Vettel	Vettel
13 October	BBC Sky	Japanese Grand Prix	Webber	Webber	Vettel
27 October	BBC Sky	Indian Grand Prix	Vettel	Raikkonen	Vettel
3 November	Sky	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	Webber	Alonso	Vettel
17 November	Sky	United States Grand Prix
24 November	BBC Sky	Brazilian Grand Prix

STANDINGS
Drivers' Championship

P	Driver	Team	Points
01	Sebastian Vettel (Ger)	Red Bull-Renault	347 (11 wins)
02	Fernando Alonso (Spa)	Ferrari	217 (2 wins)
03	Kimi Raikkonen (Fin)	Lotus-Renault	183 (1 win)
04	Lewis Hamilton (Gbr)	McLaren-Mercedes	175 (1 win)
05	Mark Webber (Aus)	Red Bull-Renault	166
06	Nico Rosberg (Ger)	Mercedes	159 (2 wins)
07	Romain Grosjean (Fra)	Lotus-Renault	114
08	Felipe Massa (Brz)	Ferrari	106
09	Jenson Button (Gbr)	McLaren-Mercedes	60
10	Paul di Resta (Gbr)	Force India-Mercedes	48
11	Nico Hulkenberg (Ger)	Sauber-Ferrari	39
12	Sergio Perez (Mex)	McLaren-Mercedes	35
13	Adrian Sutil (Ger)	Force India-Mercedes	29
14	Daniel Ricciardo (Aus)	Toro-Rosso-Ferrari	19
15	Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra)	Toro-Rosso-Ferrari	13
16	Esteban Gutierrez (Mex)*	Sauber-Ferrari	6
17	Pastor Maldonado (Ven)	Williams-Renault	1
18	Valtteri Bottas (Fin)*	Williams-Renault	0
19	Jules Bianchi (Fra)*	Marussia-Cosworth	0
20	Charles Pic (Fra)	Caterham-Renault	0
21	Giedo van der Garde (Ned)*	Caterham-Renault	0
22	Max Chilton (Gbr)*	Marussia-Cosworth	0

*= Debut season in F1

Constructors' Championship

P	Team	Points
01	Red Bull-Renault	513 (11 wins)
02	Mercedes	334 (3 wins)
03	Ferrari	323 (2 wins)
04	Lotus-Renault	297 (1 win)
05	McLaren-Mercedes	95
06	Force India-Mercedes	77
07	Sauber-Ferrari	45
08	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	32
09	Williams-Renault	1
10	Marussia-Cosworth	0
11	Caterham-Renault	0

F1 2012: Webber wins Silverstone's top-two shootout

MARK WEBBER made it two wins at Silverstone in three years after overtaking Championship rival Fernando Alonso with just four laps to go yesterday.

Spaniard Alonso had survived the torrential Saturday rain to qualify on pole and he then held off an immediate attack from Webber off the line.

After that, it looked for all the world as if Alonso was going to make it back-to-back wins in the 2012 season as well as enjoying successive Silverstone successes.

But Webber had other ideas, and some great team tactics pulled this battle back in his favour.

For, while Alonso was stuck on the soft compound after the final pit-stop, Webber benefited from the harder tyres as he became only the second multiple Grand Prix winner this season - after Alonso, of course.

This was a particularly sweet victory for the Australian whose previous win at Silverstone was marred by his own perception that his Red Bull team was favouring Sebastian Vettel.

"Not bad for a number two driver," said Webber at the finish in 2010 - but he is now number one in the Red Bull. He leads Vettel by 16 points, though he is still behind Alonso by 13.

Meanwhile, it was a bad weekend all round for the Brits at their home Grand Prix. Jenson Button went into the weekend already 62 points adrift of Alonso but still defiant that he could yet challenge.

When it came to qualifying, though, Button made it his exit in Q1 in a lowly 18th place, though this was adjusted to 16th after grid penalties for Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi and Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne.

Matters were only a little better for Button's McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton who could manage no better than eighth, two places ahead of Force India's Paul di Resta in 10th.

On race day, Hamilton finished where he started - in eighth - and while Button took advantage of a late slip-up by Nico Hulkenberg to win a single point in 10th, he now has just seven overall from his last six races.

The lack of pace in the McLaren is an issue which both Hamilton and Button were not slow to hide in their post-race comments.

Hamilton said: "We are still in the fight, but unless we find something it's going to be hard to stay in the fight. I raced my heart out as always but we just struggled. We did not have enough speed in general."

Meanwhile, 2009 world champion Button added: "You can see where our weaknesses are. I just don't think we are very quick at the moment. I don't think we did anything wrong with strategy, we just were not quick enough today.

"We need to find some pace. It is not just the Red Bulls and Ferraris who are quicker than us, a lot of cars are. We have a lot to work on."

Nevertheless, at least the McLarens were in the points which is more than can be said for the unfortunate di Resta.

The Scot was the second retirement of the afternoon after just two laps, having spun off the track with a puncture as a result of contact with Lotus's Romain Grosjean.

Later, Sauber's Mexican driver Sergio Perez could sympathise with di Resta after he was forced off the track in a racing incident with Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado.

Now, Maldonado received a time penalty for his transgressions a fortnight ago in Valencia against Hamilton, and this latest clash saw Perez openly question the Williams driver's validity in F1.

"He doesn't respect other drivers," he said. "I was already in front and he should have given space not to crash but he tried to push me all the way.

"I don't understand why he drives like that and I hope the stewards do something. It is not first time he has damaged my weekend. This guy will never learn if they don't do something."

Most damagingly of all, Perez added about his rival: "He could hurt someone. Everybody has concerns about him."

It certainly seems a long time ago since the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona where Maldonado brilliantly won Williams' first race since 2004.

Now his reputation is right under fire - one of so many sub-texts as the summer break approaches after races at the end of July in Germany and Hungary.

Of course, the main event remains what is shaping up to be a thrilling Championship race. Alonso may still lead the way for Ferrari but there have been seven winners from the first nine races, and the top four are within 37 points of each other.

There are still 11 races left of F1 2012 and so, at this stage, it is still quite frankly anybody's guess who will ultimately prevail in the autumn.


CALENDAR

Date	TV		Pole position	Fastest lap	Winner
18 March	Sky	Australian Grand Prix	Hamilton	Button	Button
25 March	Sky	Malaysian Grand Prix	Hamilton	Raikkonen	Alonso
15 April	BBC	Chinese Grand Prix	Rosberg	Kobayashi	Rosberg
22 April	Sky	Bahrain Grand Prix	Vettel	Vettel	Vettel
13 May	BBC	Spanish Grand Prix	Maldonado	Grosjean	Maldonado
27 May	BBC	Monaco Grand Prix	Webber	Perez	Webber
10 June	Sky	Canadian Grand Prix	Vettel	Vettel	Hamilton
24 June	BBC	European Grand Prix	Vettel	Rosberg	Alonso
8 July	BBC	British Grand Prix	Alonso	Raikkonen	Webber
22 July	Sky	German Grand Prix	Alonso	Schumacher	Alonso
29 July	Sky	Hungarian Grand Prix
2 September	BBC	Belgian Grand Prix
9 September	Sky	Italian Grand Prix
23 September	BBC	Singapore Grand Prix
7 October	Sky	Japanese Grand Prix
14 October	BBC	Korean Grand Prix
28 October	Sky	Indian Grand Prix
4 November	BBC	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
18 November	Sky	United States Grand Prix
25 November	BBC	Brazilian Grand Prix

STANDINGS
Drivers' Championship

P	Driver	Team	Points
01	Fernando Alonso (Spa)	Ferrari	129 (2 wins)
02	Mark Webber (Aus)	Red Bull-Renault	116 (2 wins)
03	Sebastian Vettel (Ger)	Red Bull-Renault	100 (1 win)
04	Lewis Hamilton (Gbr)	McLaren-Mercedes	92 (1 win)
05	Kimi Raikkonen (Fin)	Lotus-Renault	83
06	Nico Rosberg (Ger)	Mercedes GP	75 (1 win)
07	Romain Grosjean (Swi)	Lotus-Renault	61
08	Jenson Button (Gbr)	McLaren-Mercedes	50 (1 win)
09	Sergio Perez (Mex)	Sauber-Ferrari	39
10	Pastor Maldonado (Ven)	Williams-Renault	29 (1 win)
11	Paul di Resta (Gbr)	Force India-Mercedes	27
12	Michael Schumacher (Ger)	Mercedes GP	23
13	Felipe Massa (Brz)	Ferrari	23
14	Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn)	Force India-Mercedes	21
15	Bruno Senna (Brz)	Williams-Renault	18
16	Nico Hulkenberg (Ger)	Force India-Mercedes	17
17	Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra)	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	4
18	Daniel Ricciardo (Aus)	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2
19	Heikki Kovalainen (Fin)	Caterham-Renault	0
20	Vitaly Petrov (Rus)	Caterham-Renault	0
21	Timo Glock (Ger)	Marussia-Cosworth	0
22	Charles Pic (Fra)	Marussia-Cosworth	0
23	Narain Karthikeyan (Ind)	HRT-Cosworth	0
24	Pedro de la Rosa (Spa)	HRT-Cosworth	0

Constructors' Championship

P	Team	Points
01	Red Bull-Renault	216 (3 wins)
02	Ferrari	152 (2 wins)
03	Lotus-Renault	144
04	McLaren-Mercedes	142 (2 wins)
05	Mercedes GP	98 (1 win)
06	Sauber-Ferrari	60
07	Williams-Renault	47 (1 win)
08	Force India-Mercedes	44
09	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	6
10	Caterham-Renault	0
11	Marussia-Cosworth	0
12	HRT-Cosworth	0

F1 2012 preview: Vettel eyes a hat-trick

SIX world champions lining up in five different teams with two drivers going for a third crown. All this across 20 races in five different continents over nine months of dramatic twists and turns. 

Yes, it can only mean one thing - Formula One is back...


TEAM-BY-TEAM PREVIEW

RED BULL-RENAULT
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) GPs: 81 Poles: 30 Wins: 21 Points: 773
2 Mark Webber (Aus) GPs: 176 Poles: 9 Wins: 7 Points: 669.5
It seems as if there cannot be too many more records which Sebastian Vettel is yet to hold but the youngest F1 driver to score championship points, to lead a race, to secure pole position, to win a race, to win a world championship, and to become a double world champion now has his sights on being the sport's youngest triple world champion. That record is currently still held by the late, great Ayrton Senna who achieved it in 1991, aged 31. And so, even if Vettel - aged 25 in July - fails this season, he still has another six years to crack it. Vettel is nothing if not ruthless, though, as he proved throughout 2011 by mercilessly tearing up the field for a second succesive crown and he is undoubtedly the man to beat going into 2012.
That is a tougher task for Vettel's team mate Mark Webber than anyone else - for, though the Aussie has the same car and competed well in 2010, he struggled badly to match the German in 2011. Now with two championships in the bag, Vettel is the darling of the Red Bull team and team orders are likely to favour him again. Webber needs to find a team of his own to lead but he is 35 years old now and time is running out.

McLAREN-MERCEDES
3 Jenson Button (Gbr) GPs: 208 Poles: 7 Wins: 12 Points: 811
4 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) GPs: 90 Poles: 19 Wins: 17 Points: 723
It is a big year for Jenson Button - and an even bigger one for Lewis Hamilton, as the McLaren team vows to make up for lost time following last year's failure to match Red Bull's place. That, in itself, was no shame, of course - and, indeed, Button - with three wins and nine other podium appearances - seemed at times as if he was the only driver capable of matching the imperious Vettel last year. But it is still a big year for Button because all those efforts ultimately counted for very little in the grand scheme of things. Nevertheless, a repeat of his 2011 form and aggression would surely give him a good chance of adding to his 2009 title, provided that Vettel is reeled in by the pack.
It is a bigger year for Hamilton as, not only will he presumably be aiming for a place in the championship shake-up, the Stevenage man has some work to do to salvage his reputation as a front-runner after a messy fifth-placed finish in 2011. Hamilton was involved in countless incidents on the track, many of them with Ferrari's Felipe Massa, and the spotlight also shone on his seemingly hectic personal life away from the paddock. Hamilton is a delight to watch when he is in full flow and concentrating on his racing - if he can sort out his head then he, too, can dream of joining Vettel and Alonso on two world championships.

FERRARI
5 Fernando Alonso (Spa) GPs: 177 Poles: 20 Wins: 27 Points: 1,086
6 Felipe Massa (Brz) GPs: 152 Poles: 15 Wins: 11 Points: 582
Sebastian Vettel is not the only driver on the F1 circuit who can take Ayrton Senna's youngest triple world champion record from him - a third championship for Fernando Alonso will mean that he would receive this honour. But, unlike Vettel, Alonso only has one year in which to achieve this goal - and it does not seem likely that his Ferrari team is going to be much in the way of help.
Having been well off the pace in 2011, the last thing Alonso needs is a car which is going to struggle at the start of the season but already technical director Pat Fry has been downplaying hopes of a resurgence from the Prancing Horse. And, while that will undoubtedly prove frustrating for Alonso, it could be terminal for Felipe Massa's chances of carving out a career at the front of the grid after his lacklustre showing in 2011 when he failed to achieve a single podium finish. 

MERCEDES
7 Michael Schumacher (Ger) GPs: 287 Poles: 68 Wins: 91 Points: 1,517
8 Nico Rosberg (Ger) GPs: 108 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 306.5
Mercedes was another team which failed to impress in 2011, struggling even to come close to matching a poor effort from Ferrari. Nico Rosberg had plenty of points finishes but did not appear on the podium once and the 26-year-old German is still awaiting his first pole or win after more than a century of races. That is easier said than done with the likes of Vettel around but Mercedes will hope they can compete right at the front of the grid, allowing Rosberg to unearth his undoubted potential. At least Rosberg showed his class in qualifying last year, beating team mate Michael Schumacher in 16 of the 19 sessions.
Although Schumacher actually achieved the team's best result of the season - a fourth place in Canada - he was wildly inconsistent, and suffered five retirements. It is no surprise then that big questions remain over whether the seven-time world champion should have ever come back. Irritatingly for him, those questions are unlikely to go away any time soon.

LOTUS-RENAULT
9 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) GPs: 156 Poles: 16 Wins: 18 Points: 579
10 Romain Grosjean (Fra) GPs: 7 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 0
Lotus-Renault will hope to gain to a new lease of life by putting a former world champion in its car for the 2012 season. For, the Iceman returns to F1 and he arrives with a deservedly big reputation after his 2007 title at Ferrari. It seems exactly what the team needs having failed to win a race since Fernando Alonso was still racing for them in 2008 and there are high hopes that the Lotus team will awake from its mid table slumber in this campaign.
The employ of the inexperienced Romain Grosjean is more of a risk but the Geneva-born French licence holder can rely on plenty of support from boss Eric Boullier, simply for being French - or, at least, pretty much French. But, of course, the highest hopes are for Raikkonen and so it will be fascinating to see how the Finn re-adapts to F1 having spent more than a couple of years rallying.

FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES
11 Paul di Resta (Gbr) GPs: 19 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 27
12 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) GPs: 19 Poles: 1 Wins: 0 Points: 22
It has been an eventful close season for the Force India team with former number one driver Adrian Sutil found guilty in January by a German court of grievous bodily harm following an incident at the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix. Sutil received an 18-month suspended prison sentence and was fined 200,000 euros but the upshot of it in F1 terms was that Scotland's Paul di Resta became Force India's lead driver despite having only completed an admittedly impressive rookie season in 2011.
Di Resta's team mate, Nico Hulkenberg, was unfortunate last year not to have a seat after a decent enough finish to his 2010 season at Williams and the 24-year-old German will push di Resta all the way with the Scot only himself still just learning his trade at this level. Team principal Vijay Mallya has apparently demanded his team go for fifth place this season but, while that is of course within the realms of possibility, a consolidation of sixth would still not necessarily be a bad result, given the inexperience on display.

SAUBER-FERRARI
14 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) GPs: 40 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 65
15 Sergio Perez (Mex) GPs: 17 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 14
Sauber was again a solid, mid table outfit in 2011, and the team can expect yet more of the same this time around having retained the services of unpredictable pair, Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez - just don't expect the means to this end to be anything like straightforward. Whereas Japan's Kobayashi started impressively with six points finishes from the first seven races before fading, Mexican Perez recovered from a nasty accident in the Monaco tunnel to score in three of the last six races. Indeed, if the team and the drivers could improve on their consistency, Sauber may yet spring a surprise - but such an outcome is not worth betting on, though.

TORO ROSSO-FERRARI
16 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) GPs: 11 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 0
17 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) 2012 is debut season in F1
Toro Rosso made the surprise choice to dispense with the services of Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi for this new 2012 season. Well, at least the decision looks surprising to an outsider after both drivers scored consistently enough throughout 2011 for the team to merit a lower mid-table place. However, as team principal Franz Tost explained, Toro Rosso effectively exists in F1 as "rookie training school" - and now it has been decided that Alguersuari and Buemi have 'graduated' from the team's ranks to be replaced by two more eager recruits, 22-year-old Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne, aged 21. Ricciardo arrives after just half-a-season at HRT last year while rookie Frenchman Vergne is signed up having been British Formula Three champion in 2010. As such, this whole season should definitely be regarded as just a transitional one for Toro Rosso.

WILLIAMS-RENAULT
18 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) GPs: 19 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 1
19 Bruno Senna (Brz) GPs: 26 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 2
Williams enter 2012 in desperate need of a good - or even half-decent - year after their disastrous 2011. Last season, the Oxfordshire-based team had a wretched car and scored just five points in the whole campaign. Unsurprisingly, for a team which used to win championships, that was their worst ever return in their 34 years in F1 and, even then, they only scored those points because the generous system now rewards down to 10th position. Certainly, it was a sad way for Rubens Barrichello to depart F1 but, looking ahead, Williams fans can only hope that the team provides better equipment to Barrichello's promising compatriot, Bruno Senna, following his move from Renault. A proper mid-table challenge from Williams is a must.

CATERHAM-RENAULT
20 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) GPs: 89 Poles: 1 Wins: 1 Points: 105
21 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) GPs: 38 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 64
Caterham, as the team is now called, was forced to shed the Lotus name in the close season after an "amicable settlement" with Renault. Nevertheless, the Tony Fernandes-backed outfit will hope that this fresh start will be more successful than the team's first two seasons which have garnered exactly nul points. In comes Russian Vitaly Petrov from Renault (now, ironically, Lotus-Renault) after he failed to be consistent enough further up the grid. He joins Finland's Heikki Kovalainen whose couple of seasons at McLaren in 2008 and 2009 must now seem like a lifetime away. But, despite their patchy records, these drivers still probably represent Caterham's best chance of breaking its points duck. Expect wild celebrations from Fernandes if, or when, it eventually happens.  

HRT-COSWORTH
22 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) GPs: 86 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 35
23 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) GPs: 27 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 5
That HRT is putting all of its hopes on 41-year-old Pedro de la Rosa and 35-year-old Narain Karthikeyan speaks volumes of exactly where this team can expect to find itself throughout the 2012 F1 season. Yes, HRT will, more often than not, be bringing up the rear again having already spent two seasons barely threatening to score a point. That is not to say the move for de la Rosa is a particularly bad one: a former McLaren test driver, he is now hugely experienced and presumably highly knowledgeable about F1. Also, as a Spaniard, he will also indulge in some patriotic flag-waving for his team if - and it is a big 'if' - he gets the chance. The presence of Karthikeyan is less easily explained, until the subject of rupees is approached. 

MARUSSIA-COSWORTH
24 Timo Glock (Ger) GPs: 72 Poles: 0 Wins: 0 Points: 51
25 Charles Pic (Fra) 2012 is debut season in F1
Marussia is another new name on the F1 circuit, appearing after the Russian supercar manufacturers replaced Virgin Racing as the team's majority shareholders. So far this has not exactly been a successful enterprise for all concerned with the team having propped up the Constructors' standings for the last two years. Finishing behind HRT in 2010 was bad enough but, incredibly, it happened again in another pointless season in 2011. And now, even the change of name in has not helped with Marussia failing the FIA's crash test in February, meaning the 2012 car arrives in Melbourne without having been tested. Consequently, it seems that the Franco-German pair Timo Glock and Charles Pic will already have their work cut out to impress in this campaign. 

2012 RACE CALENDAR
For the first time ever this season, Sky will have live coverage of every race on their dedicated channel (Sky 408) after their controversial agreement last July. Where Sky is listed in the column below, the satellite channel will have exclusively live coverage and the BBC will only show extended (delayed) highlights. The BBC also has live coverage of 10 races where its name is listed below.

Date	TV		Pole position	Fastest lap	Winner
18 March	Sky	Australian Grand Prix	Hamilton	Button	Button
25 March	Sky	Malaysian Grand Prix	Hamilton	Raikkonen	Alonso
15 April	BBC	Chinese Grand Prix	Rosberg	Kobayashi	Rosberg
22 April	Sky	Bahrain Grand Prix	Vettel	Vettel	Vettel
13 May	BBC	Spanish Grand Prix	Maldonado	Grosjean	Maldonado
27 May	BBC	Monaco Grand Prix
10 June	Sky	Canadian Grand Prix
24 June	BBC	European Grand Prix
8 July	BBC	British Grand Prix
22 July	Sky	German Grand Prix
29 July	Sky	Hungarian Grand Prix
2 September	BBC	Belgian Grand Prix
9 September	Sky	Italian Grand Prix
23 September	BBC	Singapore Grand Prix
7 October	Sky	Japanese Grand Prix
14 October	BBC	Korean Grand Prix
28 October	Sky	Indian Grand Prix
4 November	BBC	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
18 November	Sky	United States Grand Prix
25 November	BBC	Brazilian Grand Prix

F1 2011: Team-by-team review

1 RED BULL-RENAULT 650 points
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) 392 (11 wins)
3 Mark Webber (Aus) 258 (1 win)
RED BULL and Vettel did in 2011 exactly what they had threatened to do in 2010 by utterly dominating their respective championships. While their 2010 victories came in spite of reliability issues and driver error, this year Vettel was seemingly on a one-man mission to break as many records as he could. Twice, the 24-year-old German went on a streak of winning five races out of six on his way to becoming the youngest double world champion.
Vettel notched up 11 Grand Prix wins and achieved more pole positions in a single season (14) than anyone previously, beating Nigel Mansell's record from 1992. Vettel also beat Mansell's record of leading more Grand Prix laps (739) in a single season in F1 history. Even with the proviso that this was a longer F1 season than most in the past, this was still a huge achievement.
Team-mate Webber had a less happy time with Vettel's imperious performance in qualifying converting into a race-day record that the Australian was simply powerless to match. In 19 Grand Prix, Webber out-qualified Vettel just three times, and he also had a better final result on only three occasions. The last of these came in Webber's solitary Grand Prix win of the season at the final race in Brazil but, while the victory did at least promote him into third place in the championship by a single point, the feeling remains that 2010 was Webber's last chance of ultimate glory.

2 McLAREN-MERCEDES 497
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) 270 (3 wins)
5 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) 227 (3 wins)
McLAREN was the only team able to hold a light to the dominant Red Bull on a consistent basis with the two drivers racing to three wins each. That is pretty much, however, where the similarities to the respective campaigns of Button and Hamilton end.
Considering their parity in totalling their race wins, that Hamilton finished 43 points behind his team-mate is not inconsiderable - but then that is what happens to drivers who get into too many tangles. Indeed, Hamilton was involved in six incidents with Ferrari's Felipe Massa alone in a season-long spat which seemingly developed from a grouchy rivalry to outright hostility.
Hamilton's race day problems also negated a strong qualifying performance in which he beat Button in 13 of the 19 sessions. But what Button lacked on a Saturday, he more than made up for on Sundays, generally staying out of trouble and recording a series of highly impressive results in the second half of the season. In a low point, the Frome flyer suffered consecutive retirements in the British and German GPs in mid-season but, after that, he finished off the podium only once more in the remaining nine races. Even then, that was a fourth-placed finish in Korea and it all contributed to a runners-up finish in the drivers' championship.
Considering that this season could have so easily been a Red Bull whitewash, Button can reflect positively on an excellent campaign. Meanwhile, Hamilton needs to get his head sorted out, though there were signs that he is finally doing exactly that in much-improved late-season performances in Korea and Abu Dhabi.

3 FERRARI 375
4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) 257 (1 win)
6 Felipe Massa (Bra) 118

FERRARI suffered another dispiriting campaign with just one win all season coming courtesy of Alonso after he took advantage of an uncharacteristic Red Bull error in the pits at Silverstone. Indeed, his team mate Massa failed even to appear on the podium once - and his fifth-placed finishes in the Grand Prix in Malaysia, Europe, Britain, Germany and Abu Dhabi were the height of his attainment. Massa was also out-qualified by Alonso on 15 out of 19 occasions, the second worst record in the paddock, and so it was no surprise to see Ferrari warn the Brazilian that the 2012 season represent his last chance at Maranello.

It must be said, though, that Massa's performance was possibly closer to the natural ability of this Ferrari model. Alonso seemed at times to outperform his team and, after a slow start, the Spaniard finished on the podium in four races out of five in a mid-season purple patch. That is all it proved to be, however, and there were only three further podium finishes followed in the last nine races.

Nevertheless, this still gave him a creditable total of nine top-three placings in the campaign as a whole but Alonso will demand so much more of his team next season as he looks to beat Vettel in the race to become F1's youngest ever triple world champion, a record currently held by Ayrton Senna. 

4 MERCEDES 165

7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) 89
8 Michael Schumacher (Ger) 76

While German giants MERCEDES went backwards in a season that many expected them to up their game, one thing did not change - Nico Rosberg's dominance of seven-time former world champion Michael Schumacher. Rosberg out-qualified his more illustrious compatriot on no fewer than 16 occasions out of 19, the best record of any driver against his team-mate in the paddock.
It is a shame then that, unlike last season when the younger German scored three podium finishes, Rosberg was unable to make it into the top-three once this season. Nevertheless, Rosberg still outscored Schumacher and finished in the points in all but one of the last 12 races.
Just like last season, Schumacher improved as the season went on, and he can at least boast that he got the team its best result of the year with a weather-assisted fourth-placed finish in Canada. But that result is rather counter-balanced by a poor record of five retirements in the season. Schumacher will turn 42 years old in January and perhaps it is time that he realises that he will never be the champion he once was. For a start, the Mercedes team still has far too much work to do to catch the top three.

5 RENAULT 73
10 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) 37

11 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) 34

18 Bruno Senna (Bra) 2
After the first two hectic races, it looked as if the two RENAULT drivers were going to challenge those top three teams - or at least appear prominently in the skirmish behind Red Bull. Petrov and Heidfeld had one podium apiece in Australia and Malaysia respectively but, after that bright start, the big points pretty much dried up. A smattering of eighth- to tenth-placed finishes for both men meant the Renault team was always likely to end up topping the mid-table battle - but, in the end, it was a close call and only secured by four points.
In that respect, Bruno Senna's two points for ninth place at Monza - though not decisive - were hugely welcome after he replaced Heidfeld in the team for the second half of the season. However, some encouraging performances from Ayrton's nephew went unrewarded in terms of points - and so it is perhaps easy to understand why Lotus Renault has chosen to pair Petrov with 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen instead for next season.

6 FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES 69
9 Adrian Sutil (Ger) 42
13 Paul di Resta (Gbr) 27
Button and Hamilton may steal the headlines at McLaren but there was a third British driver on the circuit who impressed in his rookie season at FORCE INDIA. Scot Paul di Resta opened his account with two points from the opening two races in Australia and Malaysia before a tough, pointless eight-race spell followed despite him regularly out-qualifying his more experienced team-mate Sutil. Credit must go to di Resta, then, for the way he turned it around to score in six of the last nine races.
German Sutil also improved as the campaign went on with only four points finishes in the first 11 races but five top-ten placings in the last eight Grand Prix, including ninth, eighth and sixth in the last three races. If only the Force India team could put a full season of form together - but, then, it was always said by legendary BBC commentator Murray Walker that if is the longest word in F1.
Having enjoyed a bright start in 2010 that faded, 2011 went the opposite way with a flurry of points at the end as Force India gave Renault a bit of a fright. The driver line-up for 2012 has yet to be confirmed but hopes will be higher of further improvement whoever takes the seats.

7 SAUBER-FERRARI 44
12 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) 30
16 Sergio Perez (Mex) 14
20 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) 0
Following an inauspicious opening weekend in Australia, in which both drivers were disqualified after the race for technical infringements, SAUBER soon settled into the expected mid-table role, picking up points here and there.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of them came from Japan's Kobayashi, a driver whose aggressive style in the middle of the pack during the last two years has earned him plenty of plaudits. At Monaco this season, Kobayashi was at his best and finished fifth, the highlight of six successive points finishes in the first part of the season. Sadly, he was not able to continue this run and he scored points just three times in the last 12 races.
While Kobayashi enjoyed his best weekend in Monte Carlo, team-mate Perez - the first Mexican in F1 for 30 years - suffered a nasty crash in the tunnel, missing that race and the one which followed in Canada. Away from that, though, Perez's form was mildly impressive with six points finishes and season-best seventh place at Silverstone enough for Sauber to hold off Toro Rosso in the Constructors' championship. The two drivers' reward for their efforts is a seat each for the 2012 campaign.

8 TORO ROSSO-FERRARI 41
14 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) 26

15 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) 15

With a combined age of 44, the TORO ROSSO team has an enjoyable refreshing take on its driver line-up. Spaniard Alguersuari and Switzerland's Buemi lined up for their second full season together and improved on their effort from last year with more than three times as many points.
Indeed, on four separate occasions - in Canada, Hungary, Italy and Korea - both drivers finished a race in the top ten together, though it was also the case that certain circuits, such as Malaysia, Spain and Germany, favoured neither man. A low point came at Spa, the only race in which both cars retired, but in two of the four races which followed, in Italy and Korea, the fast-improving Alguersuari finished in a season-high of seventh. Buemi's best finishes were two eighth places in Australia and Hungary as Toro Rosso fell just three points short of matching Sauber.

9 WILLIAMS-COSWORTH 5

17 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) 4

19 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) 1

After an incredible 19 seasons, it looks like it could be farewell to Rubens Barrichello. The Brazilian has raced in 322 Grand Prix, more than any other driver in F1 history, and driven enough miles to go around the world twice. His support to Michael Schumacher at Ferrari and, later, to Jenson Button in their season at Brawn GP has resulted in Barrichello being portrayed as a right-hand man but he enjoyed plenty of moments in the sun himself.
Only four men - Schumacher, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Fernando Alonso - have finished on the podium more times, and only Schumacher has finished more races in any points scoring position. In all, Barrichello won 11 Grand Prix and enjoyed a memorable maiden win, at the 123rd attempt, at the German GP in 2000, having started in 18th.
Sadly, in perhaps WILLIAMS' worst-ever season, the team was never going to provide him with a race-winning car for this particular campaign. But, as game as ever, Barrichello still recorded successive ninth-placed finishes in Monaco and Canada to finish on four points. Aged 26, Maldonado is closer to the start of his motor racing career and the Venezuelan will hopefully benefit in the long run from being in the same team as Barrichello. The Williams car did little to help this rookie and, though he managed to pick up his first F1 point in Singapore, three retirements from the last four races meant a hugely disappointing season closed at its lowest ebb. 

10 TEAM LOTUS-RENAULT 0
21 Jarno Trulli (Ita)
22 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin)
28 Karun Chandhok (Ind)
For the second year running, TEAM LOTUS finished as the best of the back-markers while failing to get on the board. The experienced line-up of Trulli and Kovalainen failed to score for a second season in a row but a smattering of 13th- and 14th-placed finishes throughout almost provides some vague veneer of respectability.
Still, Trulli's race-winning antics at Renault in 2004 and Kovalainen's two years at McLaren in 2007-08 now seem to belong to a parallel universe. The two drivers can only hope that a change of name to Caterham and more Malaysian investment can make their ride more competitive in 2012.

11 HRT-COSWORTH 0
23 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita)
26 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus)
27 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind)
HRT recovered from another embarrassing opening weekend to avoid the indignity of finishing last in the Constructors' championship after Liuzzi's 13th place finish following the torrential rain in Canada.
First, thought, it was a case of deja vu as, for the second year running, the Spanish team's cars arrived at the opening Grand Prix without any pre-season testing - and it showed. Liuzzi and Karthikeyan both finished outside of the re-instated 107% qualifying threshold and failed to qualify. Thankfully, that never happened again but the second race was only modestly better with a double retirement in Malaysia.
Little did anyone expect then that Liuzzi would haul HRT off the bottom but, with this in the bag, the team was seemingly content to amble its way through the rest of the races. Perhaps the arrival of Pedro de la Rosa for 2012 will encourage a little more from this perennial minnow.

12 VIRGIN-COSWORTH 0
24 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel)
25 Timo Glock (Ger)
A change to Russian backers failed to bring a change of fortune to the VIRGIN team as it finished 2011 exactly in the same place as it had finished 2010 - beaten by HRT to the bottom of the table and without a single point. There was no surprise that Glock out-qualified his rookie team-mate d'Ambrosio on a regular basis but the Belgian youngster had the last laugh, finishing in 14th - one place ahead of the German in the team's best performance in Turkey.
Russian manufacturer Marussia has further increased their stake in the team and apparently secured its status until 2014. Consequently, the Virgin racing cars will carry the Marussia name from 2012 onwards with Glock joined by another F1 rookie, Charles Pic. A finish at least above HRT for next year is a must.

F1 2011 SEASON RESULTS

PODIUMS

Australian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

3 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault

Malaysian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

3 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault

Chinese GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)

1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault

Turkish GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault

3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari

Spanish GP (Pole: Mark Webber)

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

Monaco GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari

3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

Canadian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)

1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault 

3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault

European GP (Valencia) (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari

3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault

British GP (Pole: Mark Webber)

1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari

2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault

German GP (Pole: Mark Webber)

1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari

3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault

Hungarian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)

1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari

Belgian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

Italian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari

Singapore GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault

Japanese GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

Korean GP (Pole: Lewis Hamilton)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault

Indian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari

Abu Dhabi GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

Brazilian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

F1 2011 FINAL STANDINGS

World Drivers' Championship

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault 392 (11 wins)

2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 270 (3 wins)
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 258 (1 win)
4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 257 (1 win)

5 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 227 (3 wins)

6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 118

7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 89
8 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes 76

9 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Mercedes 42
10 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 37

11 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault 34

12 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 30

13 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India-Mercedes 27
14 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 26

15 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 15
16 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 14

17 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams-Cosworth 4

18 Bruno Senna (Bra) Renault 2

19 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams-Cosworth 1

Nine drivers failed to score: (20 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) Sauber-Ferrari, 21 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus-Renault, 22 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus-Renault, 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-Cosworth, 24 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin-Cosworth, 25 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin-Cosworth, 26 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) HRT-Cosworth, 27 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-Cosworth, 28 Karun Chandhok (Ind) Lotus-Renault).

Constructors' Championship

1 Red Bull-Renault (Aut) 650

2 McLaren-Mercedes (Gbr) 497

3 Ferrari (Ita) 375

4 Mercedes (Ger) 165

5 Renault (Gbr) 73

6 Force India-Mercedes (Ind) 69

7 Sauber-Ferrari (Swi) 44
8 Toro Rosso-Ferrari (Ita) 41

9 Williams-Cosworth (Gbr) 5

There were three teams (10 Lotus-Renault (Mal), 11 HRT-Cosworth (Spa), and 12 Virgin-Cosworth (Rus)) which failed to score.