The 2010 Formula One season, in which four drivers went to the final round with a chance of claiming the title which was ultimately won by Sebastian Vettel, was hailed as the most open since the glory days of the 1980s.
However, with talent across a variety of teams, 2012 is already shaping up to be even more competitive.
Importantly for fans who love a balanced competition, “more competitive” in this case means that the drivers come from a variety of teams, rather than the big three of Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.
The likes of Lotus, Mercedes, Sauber and even Williams are showing that, on their day, victories aren’t out of the question in 2012.
It is early days in this season’s campaign, with only two of the scheduled twenty events completed, but as we saw with Fernando Alonso’s less likely than winning the lotto triumph at Malaysia last weekend, and Sergio Perez’s barnstorming drive to second, there are no guarantees that the same two or three constructors will appear on the podium each race. What a refreshing change from previous seasons.
Kimi Raikkonen pointed out that his Lotus could have finished much higher than fifth if it hadn’t rained, having qualified fifth only to incur a five-place grid drop for a gearbox change, and charging through the field from seventeenth in Australia to finish seventh. Romain Grosjean has been impressive during both qualifying sessions, only to find himself an early casualty at both races through little fault of his own.
Mercedes no doubt have a fast car as Michael Schumacher has proven during the qualifying sessions, the German running third in Melbourne before a gearbox failure, while his evening at Malaysia was ruined by a first-lap tap from Grosjean. They just need to sort out their tyre degradation woes on race day and they too will be regular competitors for podiums and victories.
Sauber finally seem to have a genuinely fast car in their own right, capable of scoring points each weekend, and if the first two rounds are anything to go by, they will compete for a spot in the top five. The weather admittedly helped their cause at Malaysia, but it can’t be denied that this year’s car, in the capable hands of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi, is more than handy. Of Perez can repeat last weekend’s heroics, podiums and even a victory is certainly on the radar. It could be that the team with customer Ferrari engines finally beats Ferrari on merit in 2012.
Williams are showing signs that their car will become more competitive as the season progresses, with Pastor Maldonado demonstrating this at Australia, and Bruno Senna optimising his pit strategy at Malaysia to finish sixth after tangling with Maldonado. Taking into consideration that their last campaign was their worst since they joined Formula One in 1978, they have already made a huge stride forwards.
For all the troubles they endured in the pre-season and the wave of criticism coming from all angles, Ferrari amazingly boasts the leader in the drivers’ championship, and though Fernando Alonso like Perez, benefitted from the inclement weather and the right strategy at Malaysia, they have proven that on their day this season, they are still contenders for podiums and victories. Felipe Massa is another matter, but suddenly things don’t seem as bad at Maranello as they did not even a week a go.
And of course, last year’s champions Red Bull cannot for one second be discounted. Their first two outings have been comparatively dismal in contrast to last season, and the one before that, but they are still producing top five results, with a podium to Vettel at Australia. Mark Webber is seemingly more at ease with the RB8 than it’s predecessor, the team will certainly feature regularly on the podium. If they can find those elusive two or three tenths of a second which separates the top three or four teams this season, they will feature on the top more often than not.
McLaren are in the envious position of being the hunted this season, but still with it all to do. As we saw at Malaysia, they too aren’t having it all their way, which means that they will have to work hard to earn the drivers’ and constructors’ crowns which have seldom come their way in the past decade or so.
Two races in, you can’t help but feel excited that this could finally be the season that there are seven or eight different drivers and four, five or maybe even six different constructors standing on the top step of the podium at some stage.
Formula One is as healthy as ever, and whatever politics are going on off the track should become irrelevant if the season pans out as Australia and Malaysia have promised.
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