THE 2011 Formula1 season has come and gone. I still have fresh memories from the pre-season tests where Mclaren had seemed to get it all wrong and of course the first race of the season where Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing gave indications that theirs would be a season-long domination. I also remember the half a dozen of times that Hamilton was called by the Stewards and probably the dozens of times he and Massa collided on-track. All said and done, after 19 races and over 60 days of action, the 2011 Formula1 season will be known as Sebastian Vettel’s best season yet.
Indications from the Brazilian GP were strong that the off-season news would be dominated by the driver’s market and of course the FOTA or the Formula One Teams Association. Going into the off-season, there were upto 9 seats unconfirmed, which included the seats of F1 veteran Rubens Barrichello and the two Sahara Force India drivers. As you read this, Lotus F1 team has confirmed that former World Champion and Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen will make a comeback to Formula1 next season with their team and the young French GP2 winner Roman Grosjean would be his partner. This new pairing would mean that Lotus’ 2011 driver pair of Petrov and Senna are out finding a seat elsewhere! If the 2012 driver market interests you, read further.
Toro Rosso, WilliamsF1 and Sahara Force India are yet to confirm both their drivers for next season. HRT have confirmed Spanish F1 veteran Pedro de la Rosa for next year and are still on the lookout for his partner. The math in this market is pretty simple, 7 seats up for grabs and there are more than a dozen drivers out there which includes 2011 rookie Paul di Resta, Rubens Barrichello, Adrian Sutil, Nico Hulkenberg, Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari, Daniel Ricciardo, Vitaly Petrov, Bruno Senna and more! And if you are still thinking about Raikkonen’s return, here’s a little more on that. The 2012 Formula1 grid will now have 6 World Champions and interestingly every World Champion crowned since the 2000 Formula1 season will be racing next season!
While the driver market is buzzing, the Formula1 teams seem to be going through a rough phase. F1 is full of abbreviations and one such abbreviated term that has been in the news last week was the FOTA or the Formula One Teams Association, which is basically a union of all the F1 teams in the sport. The purpose of the FOTA is to deal with issues (both commercial and technical), rules and regulations of the sport from a team’s point of view and one of the key issues that the sport faces is the reduction of operating expenses for each of the teams.
To control their expenses, the FOTA had previously agreed upon an RRA (yet another abbreviation!) or a Resource Restriction Agreement, which would mean that each Formula1 team would be allowed to employ only a limited number of staff working in their factories. The logic here was pretty simple, the lesser the staff, the lesser the overheads and of course the more demands on efficiency. While the RRA does sound simple its implementation is not and it is in this cross-fire that the members of the FOTA are currently caught up in.
Each Formula1 team has different management setups. Teams are broadly split into manufacturer and privateer teams. Teams like Ferrari manufacture their own chassis, gearboxes, KERS, engines, etc. for their use and sell it to privateer teams for their use as well. This would mean that equivalence in implementing the RRA was getting difficult since the number of members assembling an engine in Ferrari would be vastly more than that at Sauber and this is just one of the few examples.
The RRA was one of the key reasons why Ferrari and Red Bull Racing left the FOTA. They were soon followed by Sauber (Ferrari’s engine customer) and speculations indicate that even Toro Rosso (Red Bull’s ‘B’ Team) are on their way out; taking the tally of non-members in FOTA to five (HRT was never a part of it), which means that the existing FOTA would represent only 50% of the teams. I must mention that the FOTA came together a few seasons back to protect their commercial gains from the sport and it is their expenses that have led to its breakdown.
However, for an average F1 fan, FOTA or no FOTA, racing will still go on in 2012. There are a few changes to the regulations which I will explain in my next column. However, I will still expect Red Bull Racing to be the strongest of the teams next year, with Mclaren and Ferrari chasing them for victories and possibly the titles. It will also be an important year for Mercedes GP who are yet to register their first win in the sport since their comeback and it will only be an icing on the cake if it were at the hands of the Formula1 legend, Michael Schumacher.
From the mid-field teams, Lotus F1 and Sahara Force India should be battling their way up to the top manufacturer teams whereas Sauber, Toro Rosso and WilliamsF1 will be hoping to have faster machinery to help them challenge for the top 10 positions more regularly.
The one team that will need to show improvement will be Team Lotus (aka Caterham F1 for 2012) who will be in their third year in the sport. 2 seasons, 38 races and zero points is a stat that won’t let Tony Fernandes sleep in peace this off-season. What are you doing this off-season?
