New Year, New Series
Even though we are just a few days into 2010, I’m willing to bet that the majority of you will have broken some of your New Year’s resolutions already. Promises to lose weight, give up smoking or go easy on the alcohol consumption have probably all gone down the drain as you continue to enjoy whatever is left over from the festive period.
There is still a glimmer of hope for you, my motorsport loving friends, as I have an easily achievable goal for you to at least have a stab at this year: try following something other than F1 for a change.
Now some of you may have scoffed at the previous sentence, perhaps because you already keep a watchful eye on the various rungs of the F1 career ladder. In which case, you can close down this tab in your Internet browser and go about your business as I won’t need to use my powers of persuasion on you.
Still reading this? Well I guess then you’ll want some sort of rationale behind why I think you should make the effort in watching something other than the ‘pinnacle of motorsport’ for a change. So here goes.
Firstly, there is nothing wrong with watching F1, to suggest otherwise would just be plain silly. The problem I have is rather like the Premier League in English football, it riles me that some folk believe it to be the quintessential, all-important element in motor racing. When the truth is, is that bubbling underneath, to the side, wherever, there is a wealth of racing just waiting to grab your attention.
So let’s think about all the things you currently dislike about F1. Go on, go make a mental list.
Now using my best Derren Brown mind reading trickery, I’m going to hazard a guess that the likes of politics, lack of overtaking and boring PR-speak probably popped into your cranium at some point. These are all part and parcel of F1, where egos clash, aerodynamics rule and sponsors need to be appeased.
The same is true in whatever racing category you care to take a peek at, yet thankfully, elsewhere they are much more contemptible, which your tolerance levels will undoubtedly thank you for in the months to come if you choose to spread your racing interests into other fields.
So where should you start? Well if you want to make life easy for yourself you should probably take a punt at the GP2 Series which roars back into life in May. With the likes of Bruno Senna, Nico Hulkenberg and Kamui Kobayashi all set for a full season in the big time this year, it’s pretty apparent that GP2 is the next best thing and is the place to find the next generation of grand prix drivers.
As it follows the F1 calendar for most of its European leg of the season, GP2 shouldn’t prove too much of a culture shock for any new followers as proceedings take place on instantly recognisable circuits. Thanks also to its popularity, coverage is widely available both on the goggle box (ESPN in the UK) and on the Internet.
As a finishing school for F1, GP2 drivers are also prone to the odd mistake as well, which gives the racing an air of unpredictability. Whereas most F1 drivers will understand that four cars won’t fit through a chicane three cars wide, their GP2 equivalents think four cars just might. (Actually, GP2 drivers think 15 might). Some might see this as just sheer stupidity; I see it as a redeeming feature which is apparent in just about all feeder series.
See it all stems from the fact that nearly all the drivers in various formulae have a firm belief in their own invulnerability. The younger they are the greater it seems to be. This allows them to attempt passes that wiser drivers would probably avoid, but as we all know, fortune favours the brave. Which probably explains why some of the best racing I have ever seen has been outside the confines of F1.
The further down the F1 career ladder you descend, the more things become slightly diluted, with a variety of single-seater series vying for your attention. You have British F3, F3 Euroseries, Formula 2, Renault 3.5... and just when you though just one more category and motor racing would go pop, along comes a new one in the guise of GP3 which has already quickly attracted a healthy field for 2010.
But there is an easy way to contend with this possible mountain of confusion though. Simply choose one category and stick with it throughout the course of the season. Perhaps even take a vested interest in a couple of drivers and see how their campaigns pan out though the year. The more exposure you have of them, the more information you will gain, the more inquisitive you become the less daunting and confusing it all turns out to be.
Whichever feeder series you do settle on, I’m sure you’ll quickly discover just how entertaining they can be. Races are won by drivers and race engineers, not wind tunnels and computer labs. There are typically more races and fewer weekends to contend with and like F1, they have a first lap, pitstops and a chequered flag. But manage to cut out a lot of the boring bits in between.
So even if you only manage to give just a flickering interest at best, at least try and give an alternative series some thought this year. Perhaps even go experience the sights and sounds of a live race meeting as the UK is blessed with an abundance of circuits, and one of the best things about going to an event is the wide variety of cars and racing you will see.
Go on, give it a go. You’ve got nothing to lose. Have you?
2009 Top 20 Drivers – Part 1
So where does a bloke who’s shone in a two litre touring car fit in among the F1 elite and sportscar aces? Well I've tried my best and made an attempt to work it all out, so here goes.
Salute my top 20 drivers of 2009.
20. Andy Soucek - 1st in Formula 2
19. Yvan Muller - 2nd in WTCC
18. Stefan Mucke - 1st in Le Mans Series
17. Petter Solberg - 5th in WRC
16. Rubens Barrichello - 3rd in Formula 1
15. Gary Paffett - 2nd in DTM
14. Fernando Alonso - 9th in Formula 1
13. Bertrand Baguette - 1st in Formula Renault 3.5
12. Jimmie Johnson - 1st in NASCAR
11. Daniel Ricciardo - 1st in British Formula 3
10. Kris Meeke – 1st in Intercontinental Rally Championship
Kris Meeke was the main man in his first IRC year. In a series which really never followed up on its amazing start on the Monte Carlo rally in January, Meeke and his Union Jack-liveried Peugeot managed to keep the championship on the nation’s rallying radar with some excellent performances.
The most dominant champion in IRC history, the 30-year-old managed to avoid the mistakes that had dogged his career in the past. The result was an impressive 42 stage wins out of 127 contested.
9. Dario Franchitti – 1st in IndyCar
After a year away, following an unsuccessful dalliance with NASCAR, Dario Franchitti returned to his first love to win his second IndyCar series title this year.
To return to a brand new team and score five wins, five poles, all after a year away from open-wheel racing, is worthy of commemoration. The Scotsman was also chased to the bitter end by two of the best in the business (Dixon and Briscoe), but his use of strategy, intelligence and speed helped him clinch the championship title.
The league’s best driver is now at the height of his career, it would be criminal if his efforts continue to gain little in the way of exposure in the UK.
8. Mark Webber - 4th in Formula 1
Sebastian Vettel was apparently going to be the driver that was going to see off Webber’s career. But that looked to be the least of his worries after shattering his leg and heavily damaging his shoulder having been involved a horrific incident with a Nissan X-Trail during a charity event last year.
Undeterred, the competitive Aussie picked himself up and worked his backside off to get ready for the season opener down under, and from there Webber did pretty well: bagging his first two grand prix victories and emerging as a contender in the fight for the world championship.
While team-mate Vettel regularly out-qualified him, there were several races where he completely out-performed the German wunderkind. Particularly during the Spanish and Turkish Grands Prix where he drove immaculately.
The pinnacle of his season had to be at the Nurburgring where he was outstanding all weekend, sealing pole under changeable weather conditions and pushing aside a drive-through penalty to win the race.
7. Nico Hulkenberg – 1st in GP2
It’s fair to say that it took a while for Hulkenberg and ART to get to grips with the car this year. Yet come mid-season, the floodgates were well and truly opened, and from there he was unstoppable.
Arriving in GP2 having already won titles in German Formula BMW, A1GP and the F3 Euro Series, the 22-year-old German had his work cut out for him, competing in a season featuring the most experienced grid in the series history.
But when Hulkenberg overcame the tyre degradation issues that plagued the start of his campaign he was in a class of his own. The highlight being on home soil at the Nurburgring where he showed his hand by taking pole during changing conditions and then bagged two wins, while all his main rivals struggled.
With a ticket to F1 more-or-less booked irrespective of whether he was crowned champion, GP2 probably needed Hulkenberg to win the series more than the German did. Yet, GP2 couldn’t have asked for a more ideal graduate and his success could not have come at a better time.
6. Jules Bianchi – 1st in Formula 3 Euro Series
Bianchi became undoubtedly the most dominant F3 Euro Series champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2005. This season he went on a relentless run of victories, winning nine races out of 20 and making history along the way by doing the double at Zandvoort.
Sublime in overtaking with an abudence of speed to boot, the Italian looks set to realise his Formula 1 ambitions having been taken under Ferrari’s wing recently.
5. Mikko Hirvonen – 2nd in WRC
Whilst Citroen and Loeb predictably took both titles this year, Mikko Hirvonen fought hard and never gave up his fight against WRC’s man of the millennium – coming within a single point of winning the championship.
His mightily impressive 11 podium finishes from 12 starts helped invigorate what looked on paper to be a fairly dull season in the pinnacle of rallying.
The Finn is getting better and better all the time and continues to be the biggest threat to Loeb’s reign in the sport.
4. Jenson Button – 1st in Formula 1
Button may have delivered the world title, but mid-season wobbles worked against him. The latter half of the year was heavily bogged down by some mediocre qualifying efforts as cracks began to appear as he led the championship.
But on the form of his first half-season, he would undoubtedly have been number one in my list. There were a number of impressive races – Bahrain and Barcelona – where he not only out-drove his team-mate but both Red Bulls who were as equally fast on the day.
As the Brawn entered less than competitive territories though, Button began to struggle and his silky driving style worked against overcoming the car’s faults.
3. Sebastian Leob – 1st in WRC
Once again, and for the sixth time in succession, Loeb delivered both titles for Citroen this year in the WRC. Five rallies in this season he had won the lot and at one point looked like he couldn’t be beaten.
But quick as a flash, something changed, and the man who couldn’t put a foot wrong, appeared to lose his competitive ability. Amid speculation that he had his sights set on a possible Toro Rosso seat in Formula 1, Loeb did what all champions do and found his impressive form again – normal service was resumed. He went all out and won in Catalunya and Wales, to bring his season tally of rally wins to seven out of 12 rallies contested.
Still in a league of his own in the WRC.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 2nd in Formula 1
He may have missed out on the title, but Vettel showed enough to win over the majority of F1 fans this year.
His highs were spectacularly high – a fantastic performance in the wet of China possibly the best drive of the season – but there were several costly errors that cost him the title in the end. The clash with Kubica in Australia, crashing at Ste Devote in Monaco and sliding across the grass in Turkey to name but a few.
But let’s not dwell too much on the negatives here, because Vettel was brilliant this year and it’s far too easy to forget how little experience he has, such are the dizzying heights he’s regularly attained.
Four wins, out-qualified his widely regarded one-lap specialist team-mate Mark Webber and a smiling, joking demeanour to boot. He will progress further in the years to come and looks certain to become world champion very soon.
So which driver has impressed me the most this year to clinch the top spot? Well tune in again tomorrow when all will be revealed...
Alexander Rossi – The next competitive American driver?
It has been just over two years now since we last saw an American driver participating in Formula 1, ever since Scott Speed failed to live up to his namesake and was given the chop mid-season by Toro Rosso under rather acrimonious circumstances.
In the meantime, despite the occasional murmurings surrounding the likes of NASCAR’s Kyle Busch and the easy on the eye, media-savvy Danica Patrick possibly applying their trade in Formula 1, there haven’t been any American drivers appearing on the radar – until now.
Alexander Rossi is putting together a substantial case to be the next stateside driver to make his way into Formula 1 in the not too distant future, be it with the American-based USF1 team or any of the other more established teams currently competing in the sport.
The 18-year-old’s racing career to date makes for impressive reading. After a couple of years racing in karts, Rossi progressed on to the American variant of the Formula BMW series for Team Apex Racing and finished third in his first season. Driving for the more competitive Euro International team the following year, he clinched the title after scoring a record-breaking ten poles and ten wins out of 14 races. The icing on the cake then came as he won the Formula BMW World Final (a race among all the Formula BMW champions) and with it came a test drive with BMW Sauber.
Reaching the single-seater formulae ceiling in America, Rossi ventured across the Atlantic Ocean at the start of this year to participate in the International Formula Master series. Initially driving for the Hitech Racing team for the first four rounds of the season, he then switched across to the more favourable ISR Racing and despite being the novice in the field, finished the season in fourth having achieved three wins.
Buoyed by his relative success in IFM, Rossi recently found himself behind the wheel of a GP2 car for the first time this month during testing at Jerez for both Piquet GP and DAMS teams, and despite not appearing at the sharp end of the timesheets, did show his worth by being the quickest in the wet session before suffering from a mechanical failure and eventually emerged ahead of a certain Bruno Senna.
Receiving rave reviews from both the GP2 teams he tested with, the young American was promptly snapped up by Ocean Racing Technology for their 09/10 GP2 Asia campaign, driving alongside fellow rookie and Formula Master Champion Fabio Leimer and Rossi’s season has got off to an impressive start already in the opening round at Abu Dhabi.
Typically the GP2 Asia series is often regarded as not having the greatest level of competitiveness, but this season the field consists of a lot of regulars from the main European series. His fourth place today, following an impressive run from 12th on the grid, is hopefully indicative of more to come from the youngster who definitely looks like being one to watch out for in the future.
Should he continue to flourish this winter, it is more than likely that Rossi will find a seat in Formula 1’s feeder-series, so long as he can find the necessary finance and sponsorship needed to fund his way through an entire season of GP2.
Someone who will be definitely keeping an eye on his progression has to be Peter Windsor who has stated on numerous occasions his desire to fill at least one of the seats at the newly formed USF1 with some American talent.
Something tells me however that if he keeps this up, Rossi will not only find his way into F1, but may find a number of other opportunities to drive with more established teams present itself. The guy has some serious talent on offer with his raw pace, and at this stage of his career, is shining brighter than Scott Speed ever did with all his Red Bull backing.
Easily the brightest current young American talent with a real F1 perspective. Watch him with interest.
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