2011 Season Preview – Part One
March 20, 2011With a week to go before the long awaited curtain opener to the 2011 season in Melbourne, this article takes a look at the title contenders, runners and riders, and their prospects for the season.
Red Bull – 1 Sebastian Vettel – 2 Mark Webber
The Milton Keynes outfit have invested heavily in development of the car since Dietrich Mateschitz bought the old Jaguar team in 2004. Mateschitz made it abundantly clear last season that he expected repayment in the form of a World Championship. Despite making things as difficult for themselves as possible, they not only delivered the Constructors’ Championship secured in Brazil, but doubled up with Sebastian Vettel securing the Drivers’ Championship in Abu Dhabi.
But can they do it again? Well, little can be taken from Winter Testing, granted, however the new RB7 looks to be quick in both Qualifying and Race trim. Add in a dose of reliability, and the Adrian Newey designed RB7 may just have the elements required to retain one or both titles. [As much as it pains me to say]
McLaren – 3 Lewis Hamilton – 4 Jenson Button
Taking the unusual decision to leave the launch of the MP4-26 until as late as possible, seems to have not been the ideal decision for the team. Aesthetically, the car looks great, but both Lewis and Jenson have hinted that the set-up still isn’t quite there. Added to this, the MP4-26 only covered about half the testing mileage of its competitors Ferrari and Red Bull. Problems with the Woking outfit? I for one certainly hope not.
More positively however, after an upgrade was put on the car before the final Barcelona test, Button reported that the balance was better, whilst Hamilton alluded to the fact that they just haven’t been able to ‘put all the factors together at once’. If this were a pre-season School Report, the verdict surely would be ‘must try harder’.
Ferrari – 5 Fernando Alonso – 6 Felipe Massa
The launch of the new Scuderia contender this year was overshadowed by a legal battle with the Ford Motor Company, after initially choosing to call their car the F150. This was retracted after a threatening letter was sent to Ferrari, and they have decided to change the name to the F150 Italia.
After the embarrassment of throwing away their championship hopes in Abu Dhabi last year, the F150 Italia looks to be a competitive machine, and if anything CAN be taken from pre-season testing, which of course it can’t, it does look like it may just give the Red Bull a run for its money.
Mercedes GP – 7 Michael Schumacher – 8 Nico Rosberg
Having lacked any of the performance of its predecessor, the then Brawn GP, Mercedes really disappointed last season. Michael Schumacher emerged from retirement hoping to make an impact again on the world of Formula One, this he did, but unfortunately in the negative sense.
The team has now been bought in its entirety from the former Brawn principals, and early indications during pre-season tests show the car running pretty quick in short runs. Quite how that transfers once in race trim remains to be seen. Whilst Schumacher doubts the car will be in a position to challenege for the world championship, he believes podiums are a definite possibility. Meanwhile, the spotlight surely must be on Rosberg to prove that his outperformance of Schumacher last season was more than just a chance occurence.
Renault – 9 Nick Heidfeld – 10 Vitaly Petrov
With Robert Kubica’s horrendous crash during a Rally excursion in the off-season, it is unlikely he will return to Formula One in the foreseeable future. His replacement, Nick Heidfeld seems to be a safe bet for the Renault team. Whilst he has performed well since his debut in 2000, scoring a couple of podiums, he has yet to win a race. This means that, of the current drivers on the grid, he has the most GP starts of all, without getting stand on the top step of the podium.
His teammate, Vitaly Petrov had a checkered first season in Formula One. His debut race in Bahrain ended prematurely after his right-front suspension was damaged, attributed to him hitting a kerb too hard. He scored his first points in China, finishing seventh. But in Turkey he collided with Alonso and suffered a puncture, only managing to finish fifteenth. His crashes continued, a first session crash in qualifying in Belgium was followed by a collision with Nico Hulkenberg in Japan, and once again he crashed in Korea. However, the highlight of his season surely must have been at Abu Dhabi, when he finished ahead of both Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso, thus ensuring that Alonso would not win the championship.
It remains to be seen whether Petrov will lose his habit of crashing this season, and whether the pairing with Heidfeld will work, and with testing being inconclusive in Renault’s case, it seems difficult to quantify at this stage, but expect Renault to challenge for points and possibly podiums.
Look out for another post in the next couple of days that will look at the remaining teams, the fortunes of the midfielders, and a look at the new teams battling it out in their own mini-championship.
