Barcelona testing – Day eight analysis

So that’s it! Pre-season testing is over for another year, and unlike previous seasons, we still don’t have much of an idea over just who is where.

One thing we can be sure about is that not a great deal has changed from the end of last season. The top four are still the top four, last season’s midfield are still the midfield and Marussia and Caterham are still bringing up the year. In what order these teams are, however, remains to be seen.

Nico Rosberg followed up Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton’s impressive lap on low fuel yesterday with the quickest time today. His time of 1:20.130 was three tenths faster than Fernando Alonso, who underlined the undoubted improvement that Ferrari have made from the end of 2012.

No other teams attempted a low fuel run today, with everyone else running more general testing programmes. While in some ways a surprise that the majority of teams have not attempted a proper qualifying simulation, it could well be they are wanting to wait until Melbourne, and when they will have their final packages with which they will start the season, before seeing exactly what they have got on minimum fuel.

Red Bull haven’t shown any true pace, but their car looks well balanced and with little regulation changes from last year, you would expect them to be right up there. Ferrari and Lotus also look to have made steps forward, despite the latter having the test slightly disrupted by Kimi Raikkonen’s illness.

One team that appears to be struggling a little bit is McLaren. Despite showing strong pace in the first two tests, there are suggestions that the team is struggling over long runs compared to the rest of their rivals, which could well leave them off the pace when we get to Melbourne.

Despite showing very strong pace over one lap, Mercedes are still lacking over the long runs. There is no doubt they have improved from the end of last season, but it is unlikely they will be able to challenge for the win at the first race. Podiums are a possibility, but that is the most they can probably hope for.

Williams have shown good pace with their new car, and with a strong line-up in Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas, look as if they may have jumped to the front of the midfield, although the gap between them, Sauber, Force India and Toro Rosso is not going to be that big.

Marussia look to have the advantage over Caterham in the battle for tenth place in the championship, although with major upgrades planned before the start of the European season, it looks like the former Lotus team are prepared to begin the championship with a slight deficit to their rivals and claw the time back later. With points likely to be hard to come by for either team, it could potentially be a clever strategy.

However, the big question of who is quickest, despite any predictions that can be made, will not definitively be known until the chequered flag drops at the end of Q3 in Melbourne.

My Predicted Pecking Order
1) Red Bull
2) Ferrari
3) Lotus
4) McLaren
5) Mercedes
6) Williams
7) Sauber
8) Force India
9) Toro Rosso
10) Marussia
11) Caterham

Timesheets
1) Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes – 1m20.130s (131 laps)
2) Fernando Alonso (Esp) Ferrari – 1m20.494s (120 laps)
3) Jenson Button (GB) McLaren-Mercedes – 1m21.444s (122 laps)
4) Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari – 1m21.541s (118 laps)
5) Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus-Renault – 1m21.658s (50 laps)
6) Paul di Resta (GB) Force India-Mercedes – 1m21.664s (112 laps)
7) Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams-Renault – 1m22.415s (42 laps)
8) Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault – 1m22.514s (100 laps)
9) Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams-Renault – 1m22.524s (31 laps)
10) Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham-Renault – 1m23.115s (116 laps)
11) Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia-Cosworth – 1m23.167s (62 laps)
12) Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1m23.628s (91 laps)
13) Max Chilton (GB) Marussia-Cosworth – 1m24.103s (49 laps)

Stephen D’Albiac

Barcelona testing – Day six analysis

Romain Grosjean became the first man to top two sessions in pre-season testing by clocking the fastest time around the Circuit de Catalunya on Friday.

The Frenchman’s time of 1:22.716 was half a second quicker than Jenson Button, with Pastor Maldonado, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top five.

Track conditions were once again far from ideal in the morning session as overnight rain made the circuit wet. As a result, the best times were not seen until the track dried in the afternoon, although running was once again compromised in the latter stages of the day as showers hit the circuit.

Lotus will be happy with their day’s work. Having regularly troubled the top of the timesheets during testing, they have clearly made a step forward from 2012 and look in much better shape. Grosjean’s times in the afternoon were consistent and as one of the better teams in terms of managing tyre degradation last year, they will be confident as the first race approaches.

Button also had a strong day in the McLaren, but despite looking one of the strongest teams throughout testing, the car appears to be lacking speed on long runs compared to that of the Red Bull and Ferrari.

Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso propped up the rear, although that will not be a concern to either them or their teams as they were concentrating on long runs when the track conditions were at their peak.

One team that will be having strong concerns is Caterham. The car appears to have gone backwards from last year and they are struggling with reliability issues, a fact further reinforced when Giedo van der Garde’s car ground to a halt in the final hour of running. With the battle for tenth place in the constructors’ championship with Marussia expected to rumble through the season, it is not the start to the new season they would have wished for.

The weather forecast looks much better for the weekend than it has been for the first two days, so with just Saturday and Sunday left to test their cars, we should expect a frantic weekend as the teams look to extract every last bit of performance from their 2013 packages as the first race approaches.

Timesheets
1) Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus-Renault – 1:22.716 (88 laps)
2) Jenson Button (GB) McLaren-Mercedes – 1:23.181 (72 laps)
3) Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams-Renault – 1:23.628 (75 laps)
4) Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault – 1:23.743 (65 laps)
5) Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari – 1:23.744 (79 laps)
6) Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Mercedes – 1:24.215 (62 laps)
7) Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:25.483 (61 laps)
8) Max Chilton (GB) Marussia-Cosworth – 1:25.598 (75 laps)
9) Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham-Renault – 1:26.316 (48 laps)
10) Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes – 1:26.655 (120 laps)
11) Fernando Alonso (Esp) Ferrari – 1:27.878 (102 laps)

Stephen D’Albiac

Barcelona testing – Day three analysis

With the chequered flag having waved to signify the end of the Thursday’s running at the Circuit de Catalunya, there is no doubt that Fernando Alonso and Ferrari will be incredibly happy with their day’s work.

Alonso was undoubtedly the stand-out performer in the morning, with the Spaniard setting a series of impressive and consistent times on the soft tyre and his best time of 1:21.875 remaining unbeaten throughout the day.

Although Alonso’s time was just shy of Sergio Perez’s benchmark from yesterday, Ferrari can draw confidence from the fact that they appear to have fixed their problems over one lap and are now able to challenge their rivals in this department, a weakness that almost certainly played a part in costing them the championship last year.

Nico Hulkenberg also showed Sauber’s hand over a single lap with an impressive time that was around a quarter of a second off Alonso’s pace. Having spent the first two days of the test concentrating on long runs, the Swiss team will be confident they have a car that can challenge for Q3 on a regular basis this season.

Romain Grosjean was undoubtedly the busiest driver on track on Thursday, with the Frenchman completing 119 laps which included a full race distance simulation in the afternoon. Grosjean set the third quickest time and continued Lotus’ relentless appearances near the front end of the timesheets in pre-season.

Williams continued their strong start to testing with their new car, with Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas sharing driving duties and finishing up fifth and sixth respectively. It has been a positive start to life with the FW35, but those question marks over the legality of the team’s exhaust will linger on over the coming weeks.

Elsewhere, McLaren and Red Bull had low-key days as they focused on long runs rather than going for the outright pace they’d shown on the first two days. Adrian Sutil had a good first day’s running on his return to Force India as he completed 75 laps and ended the day in eighth place. It remains to be seen whether the German lands the team’s remaining race seat as he fights it out with Jules Bianchi for that honour. Jean-Eric Vergne, Max Chilton and Giedo van der Garde completed the times.

With Friday’s running looking likely to be a washout, we could well have seen the last meaningful action of the second pre-season test.

Timesheets
1) Fernando Alonso (Esp) Ferrari – 1:21.875 (97 laps)
2) Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari – 1:22.160 (91 laps)
3) Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus-Renault – 1:22.188 (119 laps)
4) Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes – 1:22.611 (106 laps)
5) Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams-Renault – 1:22.675 (79 laps)
6) Valtteri Bottas (Ven) Williams-Renault – 1:22.826 (66 laps)
7) Jenson Button (GB) McLaren-Mercedes – 1:22.840 (71 laps)
8) Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Mercedes – 1:22.877 (78 laps)
9) Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault – 1:23.024 (107 laps)
10) Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:23.366 (106 laps)
11) Max Chilton (GB) Marussia-Cosworth – 1:25.690 (56 laps)
12) Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham-Renault – 1:26.177 (93 laps)

Stephen D’Albiac

Barcelona testing – Day one analysis

A large number of improvements towards the end of running on the first day of testing at Barcelona means the lap times presented a misleading picture of who was doing what today.

Nico Rosberg’s time of 1:22.616 put them just seven one-thousandths of a second clear of Kimi Raikkonen in the overall standings, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.

However, for a lot of the day it was Vettel who had been quickest around the Circuit de Catalunya. The world champion set the quickest lap of the morning on the hard tyres and then lowered that benchmark in the afternoon on the mediums. The Red Bull was one of the fastest cars at the last test in Jerez and has definitely continued in the same vein here.

Alonso also impressed during the course of Tuesday. The Ferrari driver missed the first test in Jerez to concentrate on physical training for the new season and wasted no time getting down to work today, completing 110 laps – 24 more than any other driver – and was in the around the front end of the times for the majority of the day.

Williams launched their new car this morning and Pastor Maldonado enjoyed a trouble-free day of running to end the day fifth, a good showing considering the FW35 is one test behind the rest of its rivals in terms of track time. However, with it being the first day of running, it is too early to say where they are compared to the other teams.

Lotus had another good day of running, with Kimi Raikkonen setting the second quickest time on both the hard and medium tyres, whilst McLaren opted to stay out of the limelight as Sergio Perez finished down in seventh, 1.5 seconds off the pace. One can’t help but feel that McLaren will show its hand more over the coming days.

Elsewhere, Daniel Ricciardo continued Toro Rosso’s promising start to testing by posting the sixth fastest time, whilst Paul di Resta and Esteban Gutierrez got a good amount of running in. Max Chilton edged out Charles Pic at the back of the grid.

With the teams having used the first day to acclimatise themselves to the Circuit de Catalunya, we should get a clearer picture of who’s looking good over the next few days.

Timesheets
1) Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes – 1m22.616s (54 laps)
2) Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus – 1m22.623s (44 laps)
3) Fernando Alonso (Esp) Ferrari – 1m22.952s (110 laps)
4) Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull – 1m22.965s (66 laps)
5) Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams – 1m23.733s (86 laps)
6) Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso – 1m23.884s (73 laps)
7) Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren – 1m24.124s (77 laps)
8) Paul di Resta (GB) Force India – 1m24.144s (82 laps)
9) Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber – 1m25.124s (68 laps)
10) Max Chilton (GB) Marussia – 1m26.747s (65 laps)
11) Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham – 1m27.534s (49 laps)

Stephen D’Albiac

Jerez testing – Day four analysis

Friday brought the curtain down on four days of running at the first pre-season test in Jerez.

Kimi Raikkonen’s time of 1:18.148 ensured that Lotus topped the timesheets for the second time this week, but Sebastian Vettel’s time of 1:18.565 on the hard tyres this morning was extremely impressive and looks to have sent out an ominous message to the rest of field.

Splitting Raikkonen and Vettel was the still miraculously non-confirmed Jules Bianchi in the Force India, who followed up strong runs from Paul di Resta and James Rossiter earlier on this week with a time less than a tenth of a second slower than the Lotus. All indications at this stage seem to point towards the Silverstone-based outfit having a much stronger car this year than last.

Lewis Hamilton almost matched Nico Rosberg’s impressive lap tally from yesterday by lapping the Jerez circuit 145 times, which signals a good recovery by Mercedes over the last couple of days having seen the first two days of running blighted by mechanical failures.

Ferrari had their first major setback of pre-season after Pedro de la Rosa broke down with a gearbox problem after just two laps. Helped by a delay of almost an hour when a pothole was discovered on the circuit, leading to today’s session being extended by half an hour, the Scuderia recovered and de la Rosa managed to do a respectable 50 laps in the three hours running it had before the end of the day.

Although de la Rosa finished down in eighth in the time sheets, his job was simply to gain an understanding of the car to enable him to carry out his simulator duties with more ease so he was never going to be chasing the lap times.

Now for a quick stab at a pecking order from the first test, which could well be wildly off the mark given there’s only been four days of running but is the best indication there’s been from the action we’ve had.

It looks like Red Bull are looking strongest once again. The RB9 has shown great long run pace so far and according to BBC technical analyst Gary Anderson has “10% more downforce than anything else I’ve seen”. Lotus, Ferrari and McLaren look very closely matched behind them, with Lotus perhaps having a slight edge on their two rivals.

Mercedes look to be in a similar position to last year, but Force India and Toro Rosso have shown good pace and look like they may well have leapfrogged Sauber in the pecking order, although a lot can change before the first race. Marussia and Caterham predictably bring up the rear, with Marussia perhaps having a slight advantage. Williams haven’t been included due to them not running their new car in Jerez.

With Barcelona being a better indicator of all-round car performance and coming off the back of four strong days of running in Jerez, we will have a much clearer idea of the pecking order in a couple of weeks.

The Pecking Order (My – probably wrong – prediction)
1) Red Bull
2) Lotus
3) McLaren and Ferrari
5) Mercedes
6) Force India
7) Sauber and Toro Rosso
9) Marussia
10) Caterham
* Williams not included

Timesheets
1) Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus-Renault – 1m18.148s (83 laps)
2) Jules Bianchi (Fra) Force India-Mercedes – 1m18.175s (56 laps)
3) Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault – 1m18.565s (96 laps)
4) Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari – 1m18.669s (142 laps)
5) Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1m18.760s (92 laps)
6) Lewis Hamilton (GB) Mercedes – 1m18.905s (145 laps)
7) Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren-Mercedes – 1m18.944s (98 laps)
8) Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams-Renault – 1m19.851s (91 laps)
9) Pedro de la Rosa (Esp) Ferrari – 1m20.316s (50 laps)
10) Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham-Renault – 1m21.105s (109 laps)
11) Luiz Razia (Bra) Marussia-Cosworth – 1m21.226s (82 laps)
12) Paul di Resta (GB) Force India-Mercedes – 1m23.435s (49 laps)

Stephen D’Albiac

Jerez testing – Day three analysis

Felipe Massa’s pace on the third day of testing in Jerez will have given Ferrari fans every reason to be feeling positive ahead of the new season.

The Brazilian’s time of 1:17.879 was almost a second faster than second placed Nico Rosberg and was four tenths quicker than Romain Grosjean managed on a similar run on Wednesday. The Ferrari also experienced a consistent drop off in performance on the soft tyres on both quick runs Massa did, which will give the Scuderia a huge amount of confidence in the F138’s ability to manage its rubber.

While it is still far too early to proclaim that Ferrari will be at the front when the season starts, they will be delighted to have hit the ground running in testing this week and to have avoided any repeat of last year, when they were hopelessly off the pace in pre-season.

It was a much better day for the Mercedes team. Having had the first two days of testing blighted first by an electrical fire and then a brake failure that caused Lewis Hamilton to crash yesterday, Nico Rosberg managed a staggering 148 laps on Thursday without any trouble. To put it into perspective, that’s further than the distance from London to Paris and well over two full Grand Prix distances.

Red Bull and Lotus continued their solid starts to the testing season, with both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen getting good mileage under their belts. James Rossiter impressed for Force India at his first Formula One test in five years, while Jean-Eric Vergne continued Daniel Ricciardo’s strong showing earlier in the week by putting the Toro Rosso fifth.

Sauber’s rookie driver Esteban Gutierrez also had a highly productive day of running, with the young Mexican managing 110 laps which put him second only to Rosberg in the distance charts on day three.

The only team that has performed below par this week is Williams, who haven’t shown much in terms of pace over the three days of testing so far. However, they are still running a 2012-spec car so it’s impossible to draw any conclusions on the team from Grove until their new machine debuts in Barcelona in a couple of weeks time.

With Friday being the last day of testing at Jerez, you can expect more teams to chase a lap time and we may begin to get the first signs of something resembling a pecking order. The big question is will anyone get into the 1:16s, a time that was predicted by many (well by that, I mean me) to be reached by the end of the test?

Timesheets
1) Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari – 1:17.879 (85 laps)
2) Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes – 1:18.766 (148 laps)
3) Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault – 1:19.052 (102 laps)
4) Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus-Renault – 1:19.200 (40 laps)
5) Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:19.247 (85 laps)
6) James Rossiter (GB) Force India-Mercedes – 1:19.303 (42 laps)
7) Jenson Button (GB) McLaren-Mercedes – 1:19.603 (83 laps)
8) Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari – 1:19.934 (110 laps)
9) Max Chilton (GB) Marussia-Cosworth – 1:21.269 (78 laps)
10) Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams-Renault – 1:21.575 (86 laps)
11) Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham-Renault – 1:22.352 (57 laps)
12) Paul di Resta (GB) Force India-Mercedes – 1:23.729 (7 laps)

Stephen D’Albiac

Jerez testing – Day two analysis

Day two of pre-season was only slightly more useful than day one in terms of getting any idea of a pecking order ahead of the new season.

One thing we can be fairly sure of is that Lotus are looking good. Romain Grosjean followed up his strong pace from Tuesday with a time much quicker than anyone else today. While it doesn’t give much of an indication of how quick they will be when the teams arrive in Melbourne, they look likely to be there or thereabouts at the start of the season.

Another team that looks in good shape is Force India. For the second day in a row the Silverstone-based outfit set more laps than anyone else without incident and they look to have a reasonable package underneath them, which should give them confidence as they look to reclaim sixth place in the constructors’ championship from Sauber.

There’s no way of knowing which of the top three teams is looking strongest at the moment. Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari have all made positive starts to their testing campaigns, with few problems (Jenson Button’s fuel pump failure aside) to report at the moment. It certainly appears that any repeat of Ferrari’s situation in pre-season testing last year is off the cards, with none of the top teams clearly struggling at this point in time.

It was a different story for Lewis Hamilton on his first outing for Mercedes after he suffered a brake failure at the end of the back straight, resulting in a brush with the tyre wall from which he was always coming to come off second best. It has been a difficult test for the Silver Arrows so far, with Hamilton’s crash coming off the back of Nico Rosberg’s electrical problem yesterday. As a result, Mercedes have been restricted to just 26 laps in two days. As a comparison, Force India have managed 203.

Tomorrow sees world champion Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen on track for the first time this week, whilst rookies Esteban Gutierrez and Valtteri Bottas will also get their first taste of pre-season action.

Timesheets
1) Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus-Renault – 1:18.218 (95 laps)
2) Paul di Resta (GB) Force India-Mercedes – 1:19.003 (95 laps)
3) Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:19.134 (83 laps)
4) Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault – 1:19.338 (101 laps)
5) Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari – 1:19.502 (99 laps)
6) Lewis Hamilton (GB) Mercedes – 1:19.519 (15 laps)
7) Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren-Mercedes – 1:19.572 (81 laps)
8) Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari – 1:19.914 (78 laps)
9) Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams-Renault – 1:20.623 (71 laps)
10) James Rossiter (GB) Force India-Mercedes – 1:21.273 (19 laps)
11) Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham-Renault – 1:21.311 (88 laps)
12) Luiz Razia (Bra) Marussia-Cosworth – 1:23.537 (31 laps)

Stephen D’Albiac

The top ten of 2012: Part Two

With the first part of the top ten yesterday revealing the drivers who ranked from sixth to tenth over the 2012 season, here is the second and final part which reveals the top five drivers over the course of the year.

5) Nico Hulkenberg

Nico Hulkenberg showed everyone what he was made of in 2012 with a series of good drives and performances that marked him out as one of the stars of the future. Having been forced to sit 2011 out, the Force India driver was both fast and consistent all year and comfortably got the better of teammate Paul di Resta.

Hulkenberg drove well all year, with fourth at Spa being his best result. But it was the German’s end to the season that really caught the eye, with five points finishes in the last six races, including possibly the overtake of the season when he passed both Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton in Korea, and a stunning drive in Brazil where he challenged for victory before colliding with Hamilton and putting himself out of contention.

With a move to Sauber on the cards in 2013, Hulkenberg will be looking to repeat his impressive season as he looks to secure a top drive in the future.

4) Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel became a triple world champion in 2012, but there is no doubting that he took advantage of a vastly improved Red Bull to achieve the feat. When his car wasn’t as strong at the beginning of the year Vettel struggled, winning only one of the first 13 races, although he did lose almost certain victory in Valencia when his alternator failed.

It was only when Red Bull’s upgrades made it the class of the field that Vettel truly began to shine. He inherited victory from Lewis Hamilton in Singapore, before wins in Japan, Korea and India put him in control of the championship. Vettel then produced arguably the best drive of his career to come from last to third in Abu Dhabi, before another recovery drive to sixth in Brazil sealed the title.

Although Vettel became only the third driver in F1 history to win three straight titles, the question still remains as to how good he is when not in the fastest car.

3) Kimi Raikkonen

There were fears before the start of the season as to whether Kimi Raikkonen would be the same driver that wowed the sport in his first career. We needn’t have worried, as the Finn proved to be just as good as before, with great race pace and remarkable consistency helping the Lotus driver to an impressive third in the championship.

After the first couple of races were spent getting back up to speed, Raikkonen looked as though he’d never been away as he challenged Sebastian Vettel for victory in Bahrain, before further podiums throughout the year followed. Although the Lotus lost some pace towards the end of the year, Raikkonen continued to push hard and then produced a phenomenal drive to take his first win in three years at Abu Dhabi.

With the Iceman showing to everyone that he did ‘know what he was doing’ by returning to the sport, hopes will be high in 2013 as Raikkonen looks to build on a strong first year back.

2) Lewis Hamilton

Although he only came fourth in the championship, Lewis Hamilton drove as well as he ever has in 2012, with a series of team errors and mechanical failures preventing him from challenging for the title. After a disappointing 2011, the Hamilton of old was back with a vengeance, taking four victories and more pole positions than anyone else.

With a huge amount of bad luck hitting him throughout the season, costing him likely wins in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Brazil and probable podiums in Valencia and Spa, it would’ve been easy for Hamilton to let his head drop. But fighting wins in Montreal and Austin, as well as dominant triumphs in Hungary and Monza showed the McLaren driver was back to his best, reaffirming his status amongst the sport’s elite.

With Hamilton moving to Mercedes in 2013, the Englishman has a chance to show he can build a team around him and become one of the best of his generation.

1) Fernando Alonso

In a Ferrari that started the season over a second off the pace, 2012 should have been a write-off for Fernando Alonso. But not only did the Spaniard launch a title challenge, he incredibly sustained it until the final race and lost out to Sebastian Vettel by just three points.

Alonso confirmed his status as the most complete driver on the grid with brilliant wins in Malaysia, Valencia and Hockenheim, and when the car wasn’t quick enough for him to challenge for victory he was always there picking up the points and keeping the pressure on. Had it not been for first lap retirements in Belgium and Japan, neither of which were his fault, it could well have been Alonso rather than Vettel celebrating his third title.

With Alonso producing probably the best season for a non-champion since Ayrton Senna in 1993, he will be right in the hunt in 2013, and if Ferrari give him a quicker car next year it will be difficult to bet against him winning his third world championship.

Stephen D’Albiac