The 2013 Formula 1 season is upon us! This weekend, the entire caboodle will converge upon Melbourne and the Albert Park circuit for what is sure to be a thoroughly exciting season again.
The past few seasons had not seen many driver changes but since the final race in Brazil last year, a significant reshuffle has taken place. The HRT F1 team has wound up, meaning only 11 teams will compete this season. Also, what was widely expected to be a 20 race calendar has been fixed at 19.
First up, the major changes involve McLaren, Mercedes, Sauber and Force India. With Lewis Hamilton moving to the Mercedes factory team alongside Nico Rosberg; McLaren chose Sauber’s Sergio Perez to partner Jenson Button, with the Mexican having put up quite a display of talent this past season. Sauber have roped in Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and have promoted their former test driver Esteban Gutierrez by offering him the second race seat. Kamui Kobayashi, who raced the team last year, even started a ‘racing fund’ which collected almost £1 million. However, he failed to secure a racing seat this year. Force India, after much delay, announced that Adrian Sutil would drive for them this year, partnering Paul di Resta. Jules Bianchi, who was in for the running, was left without a race seat, but his luck seem to have turned with Marussia Racing. Marussia had earlier signed up two rookies for their 2013 campaign – Max Chilton and Luiz Razia. However, after complications with Razia’s sponsors, he was very unceremoniously replaced by Bianchi. Charles Pic, who drove for them last year, has been snapped up by Caterham, who have also replaced both drivers from last year. Former test driver Giedo van der Garde will pilot their second car. Williams are yet another team promoting their reserve driver to a race seat with Pastor Maldonado leading their charge and rookie Valtteri Bottas replacing Bruno Senna.
The rest of the teams remain unchanged with world champions Red Bull Racing keeping their winning duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber intact. Fernando Alonso and Felipa Massa continue at Ferrari. One of the surprises of last season, the Lotus F1 team will continue with the hugely popular Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, who everyone hopes has learned a lot since last season. Finally, the Toro Rosso team retain Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.
The 2013 calendar includes 19 races, with the season opener being held on March 17th at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia. The season will end at Interlagos in Brazil on November 24th. With news of Austria and Turkey set to host a race this year, it was expected to be a 20 race calendar, but none of them made it to the final draft.
There have been some interesting pre-season practice sessions with Pirelli introducing newer compounds to make for more competitive racing. Of course, it’s only when the lights go off in Albert Park that we will see how much the teams have really changed on pace. Qualifying is this Saturday, the 16th of March, with the race on Sunday morning. Remember, this is the last year that Formula 1 will be using V8 engines; 2014 will see all teams switching to 1.6L turbocharged V6 units. Here’s hoping for an action-packed season ahead!
