Backstage –………towards F1

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Last weekend represented not only the second appointment of the F1 racing season, but it was also the opening weekend of those preparatory championships which have the important mission of forging the future world champions.

Just in concomitance with the Malaysian GP, the GP2 racing season took its start at Sepang circuit. The GP2 Championship was created to complete drivers’ apprenticeship and facilitate their access into the top category, “I think we reached the 80% of our goal. The economic crisis didn’t help the programme, as F1 teams have to face with their financial resources, as well. This is the reason why, especially over the last few 3-4 years, the drivers who could bring a great amount of money to teams were favoured. It is still a valuable championship, as the car used to race is powerful and demanding. Driving that car, you can learn how to control yourself and it’s a good training for a future step into F1”, said the manager Giovanni Minardi.  “I’m expecting this championship to be hard-fought and difficult, as showcased by qualifying where 16 drivers crossed the line within 1 second. Tyres will rule the race, as well as drivers’ consistency. Now 6-7 drivers are competing for the world title. Among them we can find Coletti, Cecotto, Ericsson, Calado and Bird, five young drivers whose performance level wasn’t consistent in the past”.

 

At the same time the curtain rose over the Auto GP and the FIA International F3 Championship at Monza National Circuit “It’s still too early to make a prediction regarding Auto GP, as the grid is composed both by very young drivers (who are just 18) and more experienced ones. It will be so interesting to see how many of them will contest the whole season, because, starting from the next race, there will be more cars involved. Riccardo Agostini powerfully got the pole, but some issues during the race made him lose the podium”, said also Minardi “Regarding the FIA F3 Championship, the driver Marciello is contesting his second Championship, so he must win it. He took a great start of season, but he has to pay attention to many other drivers who are competing for the title: his teammate Lynn and some outsiders such as Auer, Buller, who delivered very good performances during practices at the wheel of the Dallara-Nissan and Rosenqvist with the Dallara-Mercedes. To Marciello’s benefit, Wehrlein will be promoted to DTM, starting form next race. We should also keep eyes on Giovinazzi (Dallara-Mercedes), who is at his first experience in such a demanding championship.”

 

Giovanni, in his long experience as a manager, helped drivers such as Maldonado to make his first step into the world of F1 by making him test a Minardi F1 car. He’s presently the manager of another great driver, Davide Rigon, “There isn’t a recipe to understand if a driver has that extra oomph. All is given by the match of different aspects. First of all it’s very important to follow a driver and see him acting on track to know his driving style. Then, it’s so important to have a deep knowledge of the championship, of the team he runs with and of the curriculum. The driver’s improvement throughout the season is also another important item to be carefully taken into consideration. To end up, you have to know the racing environment in details, as it changes so quickly”, ended up the manager from Faenza.

Malaysian GP- Un & Down

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During the Malaysian weekend we saw not only beautiful struggles between drivers and team mates, but also many pit-stop mistakes and much more…. Let’s try to analyse drivers’ performances and see who is up and who is down, before the Chinese GP.

RED BULL. The Austrian team has to deal with an inner problem, so they will have to be determined if they want to avoid bad consequences throughout the season. When a driver disregards a command, he has to be ticked off immediately. Positions had already been fixed. The command was clear. It was not the first time Vettel behaved like that. The team has a broaden concept of the race and, what is more, the point of the track where he overtook his teammate was very dangerous, considering also the fact he went beyond the white line which defines the track. I wonder what it would have happened if Bianchi, Bottas, Pic, Chilton or Grosjean were in the place of Vettel and Red Bull………..Would have everything ended up in oblivion or would have they been penalised? We will see during the season. I think the team took advantage of the weather condition.

MERCEDES. They made a great step forward. They finished 3rd and 4th, getting a result that only 8 days ago was absolutely unpredictable. They jumped up to the first four places of the overall standing. Brawn’s command makes us understand that the team has a good team spirit, so did Rosberg’ post-race statement.

MCLAREN. Their performances at Sepang blanked out the Australian hard weekend, showcasing that Button can get excellent results on hard.

FORCE INDIA. Unfortunately they had technical issues, because of which they couldn’t achieve good results. They can have the same issues even in the future, as pit-stops are getting faster and faster (the average time is 2 seconds). In such conditions it’s very easy to make mistakes and have issues. Anyway, the car behaved so well in qualifying and in the first part of the race.

LOTUS. Their performance level got down just a little bit; by the way both drivers scored important points.

FERRARI. It’s difficult to make an evaluation. Supposing that it was a driver’s decision, the team had to take over and command Fernando to pit. A wing has only a certain load resistance, so it was impossible for it to withstand all the laps required to avoid a further pit-stop. It’s a long championship and every single point scored is very important.  It was necessary to pit and try to recover.

SAUBER. The team recovered a little bit in comparison with the opening race. Hulkenberg delivered good performances, but we’ll see their further step.

 WILLIAMS. The team has too many issues. It’s non-comprehensive at the moment.

Giancarlo Martini passed away

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Gian Carlo Minardi painfully announces Giancarlo Martini’s death. The 66 year-old Giancarlo Martini was not only a great sportsman and businessman, but, above all, a very generous and kind friend of mine. We shared success and the passion for motor sport. A hearty hug to his wife Paola and his sons Jacopo, Benedetta and Donata.

Bye Giancarlo !!!!!!!!
 

Malaysian GP: THE POINT

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The Malaysian GP was full of mistakes, which can become the leitmotiv of the season. When teams have to pit three-four times per car and the battle is within few tenths, it is clear that problems are just around the corner. What is more, if we consider the excitement for the strategy, the difficult weather conditions and the attempt to pit faster and faster (2 seconds), we have a more complete picture of the situation.

Among the teams who bored the brunt in Malaysia, we have to mention Force India; the Indian squad had air pistol and hub issues. Jenson Button had a right-front wheel issue as well as Hamilton, who thought about visiting his previous mechanics. We don’t have to forget about Fernando Alonso and the Ferrari team.  Just after few laps we lost a great driver who hadn’t been making any mistake for many GP.  He made an evaluation mistake, but the technicians’ decision to leave him out without replacing the damaged wing, is somehow very strange. A risky strategy could have been good, but it was important to finish in the score zone.

In a 19-race- championship, positions are very important, as we saw in the past season.  The Italian team lost the championship missing only 3 points. Strategy or the will to get results, are sometimes taken to the maximum level, even in situations which are so different if compared to what it was expected. In this case too many risks were taken. The Spaniard was only on the second lap, so they had to try to limit the damage and risked leaving him out, trying to finish in the score zone, as this championship is getting more and more competitive.

It will be hard to recover from zero point, giving the fact the fight is not only between two drivers but between 5, to whom outsiders such as Williams, Force India and Sauber have to be added. Last year Fernando lost the championship and finished second in Spain and Abu Dhabi behind Maldonado and Raikkonen, two drivers who weren’t considered to be running for the world title at the beginning of the season.

Red Bull was once again the car to be defeated, even if they’ll have to solve a big internal issue. It won’t be easy for Horner and Newey to manage the two drivers. The strategy can cause trouble for the drivers. Even Mercedes drivers were given some recommendations. This is something that doesn’t ring true inside a championship full of overtaking, sharp braking and inner fight. Sometimes the battle is taken to the limit.

Once again tyres handled the race; this is due to a variable weather which changed on-track situations. Teams are still learning how to make the best use of tyres, so in Malaysia things changed if compared to Australia, where Lotus got the best over McLaren. Despite the fact everyone considered the Walking Team almost “dead”, Button was fighting for a podium finish.

Thanks to his long experience and a good performance on hard tyres, he’s making a difference over his younger teammate Perez, who is at his first experience in a top team and has to deal with a car which is still not so performing.

Felipe Massa had a good start of season. The Brazilian driver delivered good qualifying performances over the past two weekends; his race performances were not bad, as well. His Ferrari had issues on medium tyres. In the wet the car didn’t keep pace with rivals and it had many problems when the track was still cool. Finishing fifth was the best result he could get, giving the fact Red Bull and Mercedes were much more competitive.

Now we’ll have a three-week-break before the Chinese GP. In China teams will showcase several upgrades and they will use the Pirelli soft for the first time. At that time we’ll have a complete overview of the Pirelli compounds.


 
 
 
 
 
Sepang – Gara
1. Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull-Renault – 56 giri
2. Mark Webber – Red Bull-Renault – +4″2
3. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – +12″1
4. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – +12″6
5. Felipe Massa – Ferrari – +25″6
6. Romain Grosjean – Lotus-Renault – + 35″5
7. Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus-Renault – +48″4
8. Nico Hulkenberg – Sauber-Ferrari – +53″0
9. Sergio Perez – McLaren-Mercedes – +1’12″3
10. Jean-Eric Vergne – Toro Rosso-Ferrari – +1’27″1
11. Valtteri Bottas – Williams-Renault – +1’28″6
12. Esteban Gutierrez – Sauber-Ferrari – +1 giro
13. Jules Bianchi – Marussia-Cosworth – +1 giro
14. Charles Pic – Caterham-Renault – +1 giro
15. Giedo van der Garde – Caterham-Renault – +1 giro
16. Max Chilton – Marussia-Cosworth – +2 giri
17. Jenson Button – McLaren-Mercedes – +3 giri
18. Daniel Ricciardo – Toro Rosso-Ferrari – +5 giri

La classifica del Mondiale Piloti:
1. Vettel 40; 2. Raikkonen 31; 3. Webber 26; 4. Hamilton 25; 5. Massa 22; 6. Alonso 18; 7. Rosberg 12; 8. Grosjean 9; 10. Sutil 6
La classifica del Mondiale Costruttori:
1. Red-Bull Renault 66; 2. Lotus-Renault e Ferrari 40; 4. Mercedes 37; 5. Force India-Mercedes 10; 6. Sauber-Ferrari e McLaren-Mercedes 4; 8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1.

Gian Carlo Minardi: “I was deeply impressed by Alonso”

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For Fernando Alonso the Malaysian GP, scheduled for the coming weekend, will not only represent the second race of the season, but also the achievement of 200 GP.

12 years have passed since that young Spanish driver (who was only 19) made his debut in the top category, thanks to Gian Carlo Minardi who, after seeing him racing, he wanted the Spaniard to run for his team. It’s just with the Minardi team that the Spanish driver made his debut into F1 at the wheel of the PS01: “I’ve always paid much attention to young drivers’ results, thanks to the support of a valuable staff. One of my contributors was Adrian Campos. After recommending me Mark Genè, who was a Minardi racer for two seasons, he made me focus on Fernando. I began to follow him and I was so impressed by his performances. It was clear that he was a step ahead of anybody else”, remembers Minardi.

In 1999 Fernando won the World Series by Nissan Championship and he had the opportunity to test a Minardi car at Jerez “As a tradition, my team usually raffled off a testing session to those drivers who won the most important Championships. That was the year of Fernando and other drivers. Despite the heavy rain, Alonso was able to do things a rookie driver had never done before. He just played with the car, so much so that in the third lap he had already set the best lap time, running 1.5 sec. faster than any other tester……At that point I understood that I was dealing with a completely different driver. So we negotiated for such a long time and, in the end, he finally signed a long-time contract with us.”

In 2000 he contested the F.3000 Championship with Astromega Team. He was successful, as in he finished second and scored a win in the last two races: “He began to work with us while he was contesting the F.3000 Championship. The most important test was at Fiorano, where he set incredible lap times so much so that he drew the attention of the Ferrari team. From that moment on, his reputation got better and better. Unfortunately we were in troubles and were thinking about selling the team. So we decided to put on the market Alonso’s registration which was offered to Flavio Briatore, as it happened before with Fisichella. According to the agreement, Alonso had to race either with the Minardi Team or with the Renault Team, he couldn’t race with other squads. In 2001 he contested 17 GP with us, running a successful season. The following year he was engaged by Briatore as a test driver.”

I immediately realised he would have become a successful driver and during his first season with us I stated many times he would have become the world champion. Now he’s about to contest the GP number 200, having two world titles under his belt. I hope he will win the third.

What’s Fernando best trait? “He’s always very concentrated and performing. His strength is to be able to run a race to the same level he runs in qualifying. That separates him from Vettel, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Webber. He has a broaden overview of the race, even without being supported by the radio or the timesheet. Happy anniversary Fernando!”, ended the manager from Faenza.  

Australian GP – Successful and unsuccessful drivers

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The first race of the 2013 F1 racing season is over, now all eyes are on the Sepang International Circuit, where the second race will be held next weekend.

Teams and cars are on a trip to Malaysia, but we want to go back to the Albert Park and talk about drivers who deserved a glowing report and those who didn’t deserve it. We don’t have to forget that the Australian GP is an “anomalous” race; it’s a street circuit with nonabrasive asphalt and the weather can change within few hours. In fact, by mid-week the temperature was 45°C and cooled down to 15° on Sunday. Furthermore, since it was the “first day at school” for drivers and teams, they still have to learn how to use the new Pirelli compound. In the past season, it took seven races to see a double winner.

All the aforementioned items could have influenced the on-track performance. Only after some GP, we’ll have a more precise overview of the situation. What is certain is that we have 5 first actors who will strive for the world title and some outsiders like Force India and Williams, who can disturb their struggle.  We’ll see how many of them will continue to make car upgrades until the end of the season, considering that 2014 will be the year of the new turbo engine.

LOTUS (…and Kimi Raikkonen). They can drink Champagne, as they deserve it. Despite the car was less fast than before, the team managed to get a good result and made the most of the strategy. They’re not a surprise, considering also that during the past season they finished almost every race on the score zone. Kimi is a world champion, so he hardly misses points. The budget available for the team is lower than the one available to Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes. So, it will be interesting to see until when they’ll manage to make car upgrades.

FERRARI their objective was to finish on the podium in Australia. They’re now heading the world championship. Anyway, it is important to stay grounded. They’re very performing in the long run, even though they are not so good in qualifying. They didn’t miss a shot and I think we don’t have to blame Massa’s pit-stop. The chain of command inside the team has already been established. The second driver has to “sacrifice himself”, so the team’s strategy to delay Felipe’s pit-stop in order to make him pit only twice, it’s comprehensive.

RED BULL after holding the stage during free practices and qualifying, the situation suddenly changed. They were able to recover during the race, but later they slowed down their racing speed. Once again Webber had some issues in the starting stage. Team and driver will have to concentrate all their efforts to solve this issue.

FORCE INDIA they showcased to be the first among secondary teams, having enough strength to bother the 5 top teams, thanks to an interesting car. Along with Lotus, they played on the two pit-stop- strategy. They were successful in Q3 with Di Resta. On the contrary Perez didn’t manage to get the Q3.

MCLAREN the result achieved in Australia doesn’t mirror the team real skills. It will be necessary to wait until the next GP to see the necessary upgrades. In the past, Button showcased he could mange tyres very well. But it’s too early to judge their performances, as well as Williams’, which has many issues in terms of reliability and performance.

MERCEDES they still have many issues in terms of reliability. They moved team’s improvements to the background; Hamilton’s fifth place is good. The Englishman’s race was only compromised by the aggressiveness expressed towards Alonso. The Mercedes’ driver had to change his strategy as a consequence of tyres degradation. By the way, it has to be said that everybody has to look out for both of them, because Rosberg behaved like a leader.

This year championship will be a point struggle, so what is important is to seize every chance and avoid rivals to take over. This season is expected to be full of uncertainty, so let’s get ready to see some disruptions in terms of performance and winners.

Now, we’re heading to Malaysia, where the team will use a new rubber, the P Zero Orange hard, besides the usual medium. Weather conditions will be so different if compared to Australia; humidity and heat will change the situation. Sepang is a very fast track and the downforce level has to be higher than the one required by the Australian circuit (in Australia a low downforce was demanded). What is more, particular weather conditions such as high temperatures and showers will impact on everyone’s performance.

Australian GP – THE POINT….by Gian Carlo Minardi

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The racing season has finally started. The green light switched on and the curtain rose on the 2013 F1 world championship. The opening race met our expectations; the heavy rain affected qualifying (divided into 2 days) and the GP was dominated by the 5 top teams, with a disappointing McLaren and an amazing Force India.
Three world champions got onto the podium and four finished in the top five. That means that this world championship will be so difficult and competitive. Amazing race for Lotus and Kimi Raikkonen, who showcased they can manage tyres very well and finished the first race by pitting only two times in comparison with 3 pit-stops strategy of the rivals. The Finnish driver powerfully fitted into the struggle for the world title; his Lotus has the right stuff to bother the pretenders for the world title. They confirmed all the good things they showed during tests.
Good start for Fernando Alonso. Overtaking Hamilton in the first laps was the cherry on top. He showcased to have cold shoulder, self-control and to be clear headed. His racing speed during the race was like the one he kept up during the qualifying session. The Ferrari showcased to be very close to the top during the race, but the car fails a little bit in the single qualifying lap, in which Red Bull usually takes over. The Scuderia from Maranello handled a good race and pit-stop strategy. Massa’s fourth place allows the Italian team to start the season on top.
Force India is secondary teams’ leader, as Di Resta was able to lead the Q3 and both its drivers scored points. Good return into F1 for Sutil who, together with his teammate, drove a great race and scored points. Thumb down for McLaren. I would have expected Button to be much more performing than he was. He’s always driven a great race in Melbourne and has always managed tyres very well. The race car showcased some failures, which forced drivers to run a defensive race. Maybe the English Team’ choices for the 2013 racing season were driven by economic needs rather than by technical needs. At the end of the year the team will have to replace Vodafone, so this could be the reason why they chose Perez as a driver, giving the fact the Mexican enjoys the support of the richest man in the world. As a consequence Hamilton considered worthwhile to take a look around choosing Mercedes, a car company whose performances got better than in the past season. The car is good in the single qualifying lap, but it has to improve reliability and racing speed.
Grosjean closed up the top team and the score zone. The Frenchman drove a race like a team’s second driver. He didn’t want to take any risk at the beginning and scored one point.
Talking about qualifying again, I think that Charlie Whiting & C were too much precautionary. I think they should have been more respectful towards those people who paid the ticket to see qualifying. They had to wait many hours under a heavy rain.
In seven days drivers will be back on track at the Sepang circuit, in Malaysia, where they will have the use of different compounds (P Zero Orange hard and P Zero White Medium). Only after the first few races, we’ll have a clearer overview of the situation. After the Malaysian GP the season will have a three-week-stop before the Chinese race to be held in Shanghai, where the teams will display all their car developments.

 
 
 
 
 
Melbourne – Gara
1. Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus-Renault – 58 giri
2. Fernando Alonso – Ferrari – +12″4
3. Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull-Renault – +22″3
4. Felipe Massa – Ferrari – +33″5
5. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – +45″5
6. Mark Webber – Red Bull-Renault – +46″8
7. Adrian Sutil – Force India-Mercedes – +1’05″0
8. Paul di Resta – Force India-Mercedes – +1’08″4
9. Jenson Button – McLaren-Mercedes – +1’21″6
10. Romain Grosjean – Lotus-Renault – +1’22″7
11. Sergio Perez – McLaren-Mercedes – +1’23″3
12. Jean-Eric Vergne – Toro Rosso-Ferrari – +1’23″8
13. Esteban Gutierrez – Sauber-Ferrari – +1 giro
14. Valtteri Bottas – Williams-Renault – +1 giro
15. Jules Bianchi – Marussia-Cosworth – +1 giro
16. Charles Pic – Caterham-Renault – +2 giri
17. Max Chilton – Marussia-Cosworth – +2 giri
18. Giedo van der Garde – Caterham-Renault – +2 giri
 
 

Bet on Melbourne – a winning Button

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The first race of the upcoming season will start in a short time at the Albert Park. In few hours we will see the green light switched on at the Australian circuit, where the first of 19 GP will take place. In the past season, the McLaren duo, along with the Red Bull team started the racing season by getting a podium finish; Jenson Button won the race, Vettel finished 2nd and Hamilton 3rd.  The 2009 world champion was the first of 7 winners who would have won different GP throughout the season.

Even this year the English driver is considered to be successful at the wheel of the MP4-28. That is due to his way of driving, which is so respectful towards the Pirelli tyres, as declared by Gian Carlo Minardi to the website www.minardi.it. The manager from Faenza contested 21 world championships with his Minardi Team: “Jenson Button is the favourite driver among top teams, because in 2012 he showcased his ability in managing and using Pirelli tyres, especially medium and super soft, which will be used in Australia. I’m expecting drivers to pit at least 3 times. An exciting struggle will be undertaken by Ferrari and Red Bull to get onto the podium. The Australian GP will be full of uncertainty and in qualifying both Lotus and Mercedes could bring attention to them. After the first four races, we’ll have a more precise overview of the situation.”

The Australian GP meant happiness and regret to the Minardi Team, for the results obtained and for the ones missed: “For us, it was always an interesting GP, even because it was the last race before the beginning of the racing season. I have good memories, but sometimes bad luck was at our side like in 1989, when Martini qualified 3rd behind Mansell and Senna, after having had a wonderful warm up performance. Unfortunately our work was ruined by heavy rain, so we finished 6th, scoring one point. Before the Australian race we got important results, such as the 5th and 6th place in England, the 5th place at Estoril and set the best time at Jerez.

It’s a pity that only the first six drivers could score points. Maybe, things would have changed with a system like the one we have today…..For example, in 1985 – the year that marked the debut of the Minardi Team into F1 – we ended the season by finishing 8th at Adelaide, with the driver Martini. Nowadays it would have been a great result. Thinking about more recent events, in 2002 a budding Mark Webber finished 5th in the first race”, said also the manager.   

FOCUS Melbourne

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Here we are. Winter is over, as well as the new F1 cars launch days and the 12-day-pre-seasonal testing. The teams checked the new changes to be brought on track for the upcoming racing season (or for the first races, at least), which is about to start at the Alberta Park in Melbourne.

While teams made all their evaluations and have all parts well checked, supporters and racing enthusiasts still have many unanswered questions: “How much gasoline was there in their tanks? What kind of tyres did they use? Did they push as hard as they could? And obviously……how is the new Ferrari F138?”

These are all good questions which are almost impossible to answer, as we think that teams played seek and hide with each other and tested all their upgrades separately. Sometimes they also raced on unbranded tyres and worked a lot on reliability.

Let’s start by telling some important points:

–          The new Pirelli tyres had a sudden and heavy degradation, so it will be very important to find the right moment for tyres change;

–          Compared with 2012, regulations haven’t changed so much and a technical programme has come to an end. That led teams to make their performance lever higher.

–          Talking about the Scuderia from Maranello, we have to say that the Ferrari team found a good match between the wind tunnel data and on-track data. This didn’t happen in the past racing season.

Let’s go step by step:

PIRELLI: as it already happened in the past season, the Pirelli tyres are the darkest horse of the upcoming racing season. During tests, tyres showed to have a sudden and heavy degradation, so drivers will probably have to pit many times each race. (according to the data collected in Barcelona, 4 or 5 pit-stops would be scheduled). Honestly, I’m wondering if it’s correct that all wind tunnel and on-track tests undertaken by teams in winter, were influenced by tyres degradation or performance.

FERRARI: they’re recovering from the past season shock. In fact, last year, timesheet data and car on-track behaviour were completely different if compared to simulator and wind tunnel test data. No doubt they progressed so much, but only in the first races we will see how much they progressed over rivals.

MERCEDES: they showed having their work optimised on a single qualifying lap and on super-soft tyres. Now, they have to demonstrate if they overcame the on-track and long run issues they had in the past season.

MCLAREN: it’s a balanced car. It is driven by a young driver like Perez and an experienced one like Button, who demonstrated to manage tyres so well in the past. This aspect could make the difference in the first GP and could be a winning surprise.

RED BULL: they’re the reigning champion; it’s impossible to decode feedbacks. This is the most scaring item. Their real potential is not the one displayed in Spain, and it’s also difficult to evaluate how tyres influenced car performance. Both drivers complained about tyres degradation, but this will be a common issue. They showed off self-confidence and set good times on hard tyres.

LOTUS: the new E21 is a top team car, for sure.  Raikkonen’ positive comments on the car mean that the Finnish driver appreciates his car potential so much. He will be one of the outsiders to struggle for the 2013 world title.

Besides the 5 top teams, a good struggle could be also undertaken by Sauber (which has the best car from a technical point of view), Williams, Force India and Toro Rosso to get that 6th place which is like the 1st for secondary teams. The Swiss team has to make a step forward thanks to Nico Hulkenberg’s contribution, even if Gutierrez is a “dark horse”. Finally, we have Marussia and Caterham; the Russian team has a slight advantage over the Anglo-Malaysian team.

After analyzing teams I would like also to analyse the couples of drivers who will give the best contribution to their teams, in terms of scoring.

HAMILTON/ROSBERG: they’re the best couple among the 5 top teams.  This is due to their long experience and the feeling between them. Nico and Lewis raced in the same lower formulas. Rosberg can cause problems for the 2008 world champion. They can be a good duo for the constructors’ championship.

ALONSO/MASSA: Fernando’s performances are like the ones displayed last year, so he will act in the same way even in the forthcoming season. Massa’s performances are getting better and better, as he showed in the final part of 2012 championship and in the pre-seasonal tests; they will aim for scoring important points.

VETTEL/WEBBER: this is the duo to be defeated. Thanks to them, Red Bull won three constructors’ championships. They demonstrated to be the two most prolific drivers of the world championship.

RAIKKONEN/GROSJEAN: they represent the biggest wild card. If the Finnish drivers demonstrated to be able to strive for the world title, Grosjean was able to deliver good but also tragic performances. He had good performances during winter testing, so the Frenchman’s progression can be decisive to score points for the constructors’ championship.

BUTTON/PEREZ: despite the Englishman great experience, even regarding tyres management, as demonstrated by winning three GP in the past season, the McLaren duo’ general performances may not be so good; the Mexican driver’s limited experience may not be enough to confirm their position in the championship.

MALDONADO/BOTTAS: among second-category teams, the Williams drivers will be the ones who will be able to score the most. They’re young and determined and, if Maldonado is able to make some steps forward, the team will probably be the protagonist of some race.

VERGNE/RICCIARDO: they have to confirm their potential. They can both rely on one more year experience. Running for an economically speaking sixth place team, they’ll have to make a double effort to express their potential. The car was built in such a good way and, to enable one of them to get Webber’s position, they’ll have to act like top drivers.

BIANCHI/CHILTON: I think Bianchi made a good choice running for Marussia. Although he doesn’t run for a highly competitive team, he will have the opportunity to progress, thanks to a good competition with his teammate. The first year in F1 is never easy. If he had signed a contract with Force India, he would have been much more under pressure, as he would have asked to get high results, besides the fact of being competitive towards an experienced driver like Di Resta.

Gian Carlo Minardi “The truth will be discovered only in Melbourne”

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With the 4-day-test session at Barcelona, the pre-season practice stage came to an end. Now, all eyes are on Melbourne circuit, where the first F1 GP will be held. This year, all F1 races will be broadcasted by SKY and RAI and they will be live or pre-recorded. We’ll finally see all cars showing their newest changes.

Once again every squad played hide and seek with rivals, to prevent them to take advantage of new amendments on car development and see their real potential.

“Even the third session of winter testing came to an end. It was so hard, almost impossible to understand something during this four-day-session, as teams were so good at hiding car changes. I had the impression that they tested the modified cars separately, so, only in Melbourne we’ll have the opportunity to see the real changes.

I think tyres will be the protagonists of the first races, as they’re so difficult to manage. In ten days, in Australia, we’ll see cars racing on medium and super soft tyres, which caused many problems to teams and drivers during the last session. In Malaysia, drivers will race on hard and soft. So, in the first two racing weekends we’ll get an overall view of the new Pirelli compounds”, says Gian Carlo Minardi.

“I think Red Bull played hide and seek again; the Austrian team set an interesting time only once, before being on 1-1.5 sec. behind the team on top. If this is true, teams will have to be seriously concerned. 8 cars crossed the line within 1 second; they can even grow up to 16 in qualifying. In Q3 we’ll see an interesting struggle between Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes (which is so lively on a single qualifying lap); Lotus and Williams could join in the struggle as outsiders. The competition level is higher than one year ago, as shown by times, which are so close to the 2012 pole, or even faster.”

“It seems that Ferrari found a good reliability; I’m so pleased to hear Pat Fry and the Ferrari staff saying that they’ve finally found a good match between the wind tunnel testing (virtual reality) and on- track testing(reality). This is so important, especially for a team which has always considered development as its flagship.”