Reflections on the Spanish GP 2013
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso vanquished the opposition at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya yesterday. Hugh Podmore looks at the biggest stories from the weekend’s action.
Category: Features
F1 and Motorsport Features
McLaren Win Prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise
McLaren Electronic Systems (MESL), part of the McLaren Group, have won the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise for achievement in international trade.
The company previously won a Queen’s Award in 2009, then a recognition for its innovation in, and development of, leading-edge control and data systems.
Bahrain GP shows racing is back on the agenda
Following last week’s Chinese Grand Prix, a busload of F1 people, fans and otherwise, could be heard on Twitter bemoaning the oddly neutered racing in that race. Mea culpa here – this column also contributed to that racket. But a few things in yesterday’s Bahrain Grand Prix restored the post-2010 consensus that wheel-to-wheel action is good.
Think before criticising Vettel: fallout from Malaysia 2013
Today’s Malaysian Grand Prix was won by Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull Racing RB9. He was followed home by team mate Mark Webber and by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. Such prosaic sentences belie a race full of drama and intrigue, which resulted in one of the most awkward podium presentation ceremonies ever seen in F1.
Five things we learned from the Australian GP 2013
The 2013 F1 season kicked off in Australia last weekend with a historic victory for Lotus and Kimi Raikkonen. Here, Hugh Podmore analyses what fans can take away from the new season so far.
F1 2013 – season preview
The 2013 F1 season fast approaches – and it hasn’t seemed that long since the dust settled on 2012. Here, forumula1.com’s Hugh Podmore assesses the teams and drivers entering this year’s championship, and predicts their final placings.
2012 season review
In the current era, every year in F1 seems to surpass itself in terms of entertainment and brilliance. The oft-repeated assertion that, say, 2009 to at least 2012 represents a ‘golden era’ is no less true for its clichedness. And 2012 was the best yet – a season made wildly unpredictable by the KERS, DRS and principally by the wonderful Pirelli tyres. No one knew what to make of the rubber at first, which must have contributed to the seven different winners in the first seven races, In a season like that, the men in the shadows often get the chance to shine, to show their skill on a day when others are lost. But finally, inevitably, the cream rises to the top. Here, we salute that cream, and analyse milk, cheese and curd too.
Victorious Vettel in Brazilian epic
Sebastian Vettel yesterday became the youngest ever triple world champion in one of the most dramatic grands prix ever seen. In wet-dry conditions at the Interlagos track in Sao Paulo, the Red Bull man survived an early scare, damage and further attrition to finish sixth – and with rival Fernando Alonso only managing second to McLaren’s Jenson Button, Vettel took the world championship.
Ferrari favouritism and RBR muted glory suggest the driver is the star
F1 is often presented as a team sport. This is usually by people who quite rightly wish to share their feats with the people whose hard work made those achievement possible. On occasion, and less salubriously, it is portrayed so to divide and so dilute blame for failure, or provide excuses for blatant favouritism. Human nature, perhaps. Nonetheless, it is standard diktat at season’s start that the drivers’ championship is absolutely no more significant than the constructors’ championship.
Hunches say Alonso can do it at the last
Yesterday evening’s superb US Grand Prix provided the fans with a wonderful spectacle at a great new track. Won by the peerless Lewis Hamilton, the race was a great advert for the merits of European-style racing, too, and the organisers and Mr Ecclestone should be congratulated on taking the sport back to the heart of the United States.
