It has been a winter of attrition so far for Formula One.
We've lost BMW, Bridgestone, and Toyota so far. BrawnGP has taken the dowry and will now change its last name to Mercedes Grand Prix.
With the re-introduction of Cosworth this year, it has shaken up the engine market. For example, this is how the grid is shaping up for next year in terms of what lug is behind the driver.
Mercedes-Benz: Mercedes-Benz Formula One, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, Force India F1
Cosworth: Williams F1, USF1, Campos, Manor, Lotus F1
*Pending the teams, FOM, and the FIA comes to their senses and let them in.
We are left with four engine manufacturers in the sport for 2010. In my view this isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, there was a period in the 1970's and 1980's where 80% of the grid used the same Cosworth DFV engine. That was one of the most fascinating and innovative periods of grand prix engineering and racing.
However, all of this means that USF1 will be stuck with Cosworth for the near future. The three most likely engine manufacturers that would of sign a deal with USF1 (BMW, Honda, and Toyota) are all gone. Mercedes is locked up for the next few years. Renault isn't a viable option since that automaker is not currently in the U.S.. Ferrari is a possiblity but if Sauber does come back and reform the Ferrari/Sauber relationship they had in the 1990's, then I don't see Ferrari supplying to anyone else.
The thing that has me worried about the team outside of their finances is the Cosworth engine. In the last few years they were in the sport, the Cosworth engine proved extremely unreliable. With a different person ahead of the FIA, who knows how flexible they will be to bring the Cosworth up with the rest of the field.
There is always that scene in a disaster movie where the person who underestimates the potential of the disaster or discounts the dire warnings of the film’s protagonist faces the full realities as the disaster unfolds before them. The scene usually ends with them saying something like “My God!” before they are swept away by whatever.
Let us start with what he has done. In 2002, he was the Italian Formula Renault champion. He followed this up with the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup championship in 2003. He continued his path upwards by entering Formula 3000 in 2004 where he took sixth in the championship. He continued with the series as it was transformed into the current GP2 series. In two seasons, he won one race and five podiums. After his time in GP2 he went on to race in the American LeMans Series and the FIA GT Championship. However, most of his efforts have been in his home country of Argentina’s TC2000 touring car series where he has just finished-up his second consecutive TC2000 championship.
Bless me readers for I have sinned. I have a confession to make... I love the off-season.
Maybe a bit more than the regular season.
It's the time when every armchair expert in Formula One gets to make their dream team. Can we have Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso re-unite at Ferrari? Can Hankook and Yokohama be the next great tire war? Will the cyborg known as Michael Schumacher finally have his carbon-fiber neck repaired by his masters at the CIA so he can team up with Ross Brawn and Mercedes next season? Will Vijay Mallya lose his Force India F1 team to Prince Albert of Monaco because he bet a little to heavily in India beating South Africa in cricket? Will USF1 switch to Renault as the French car maker makes an assault on the U.S. market? Will David Coulthard be on the cover of every tabloid magazine because he saved a bus full of orphans trapped under a frozen lake by using his jaw to chisel away the ice? Was the real reason why Luca di Montezemolo resigned from the FOTA chairmanship is to get some driving lessons?
Anything and everything is possible in the off-season. Any spark can cause a fire. Especially with new communications tools that allow almost immediate communication combined with competitive journalists and speculative fans. I say this as a student of grand prix history, this might prove to be the craziest silly season of all time. Never before has there been a mixture of intrigue, open seats, new teams, more intrigue, and just general ape-s**t craziness.
Jenson Button going to McLaren sealed it for me last night. Is there any sane reason why Jenson should go to McLaren or why McLaren would want him? Jenson will be the number two driver at McLaren even if his car says number one. He left one of the most successful engineers of all time and in a team where he would be the focus as the lead driver. For what? A few million dollars? Ego?
For McLaren, it's a waste of money and a potential nightmare in the paddock. Without a shadow of a doubt Lewis will completely and totally dominate the team leaving Button angry and bitter as he fails to match the pace and talent of his new teammate. I can already see GMM writing 15 "news" articles about how Jenson is unhappy at McLaren.
For me at least, the only way that this deal makes sense is that it is a case of two teenagers wanting to get back at their parents at Mercedes-Benz for taking away the car on Saturday night. That just an example. Don't get me started on Toyota, Bridgestone, BMW, new teams, driver rumors and such because I need to go work tomorrow.
I love all of it. Anything and everything is possible. This is what the off-seasons in Formula One used to be like before the corporatist attitudes of the manufacturers took over the grid. Its like the heady days of the late 1980's and early 1990's where drivers, engines, and staff would change at the blink of an eye. Teams would rise and fall faster than Usain Bolt being chased by a Siberian Husky. Its where the insanity of competitiveness between people with too much money ruled the day.
Recent years, the off-season would be a downer with Bernie or Max going off the handle or a team leaving making us think that the world is going to end. However, the difference with this off-season is that the craziness is in the right place... with the teams and drivers. Last year, no a single driver was let go and only two teams changed engine suppliers. This year... god knows. For me at least, that creates a certain air of optimism. People are trying to make it and those who have made it are trying to make themselves better at any cost. Its what Formula One should be.
True, the question of Sauber is still sort of in the air but outside of that, none of this is doom and gloom. There are so many intriguing story lines developing for next season,I am going to have to do a 1,348,723,761 part season preview to capture it all.
So I say bring on the madness. Bring on the craziness in the paddock. Bring on the anarchy. Because as Harry Lime once said...
Stubbs for USF1: Joe Saward reports on his blog that the team has hired David Stubbs as the head of its European operations. I said this in the comments to the article and will say it hear. I have a mix emotions about the the USF1 hiring so far. I am glad that they are getting people of good experience. I know there are not that many Americans who are experienced in F1. There is no doubt that car will be American engineered, I just hope that there are some Americans in the paddock as well.
What is bigger than the Oscars, the Grammy Awards, the Tony Awards, and the Taylor National Tractor Pull?
The Eaglets.
So here is my best and worse picks of this year in Formula One:
Driver of the Year: Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes
Other nominees: Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel
So how does a driver that finishes fifth in the championship and only wins two races get my nod for driver the year? Simple, no man on the grid did more change the fortunes of his team then Lewis Hamilton. The maturity and passion the man showed this year was remarkable.
McLaren could of given up after that disastrous first race. Lewis could of packed it in, complained, bitched, and moaned the rest of the season like Robert Kubica did. He could of packed it in like Fernando Alonso did halfway through this year. He didn't.
No matter what condition of development the car was in, he gave 110% each and every race weekend. He kept positive, encouraging his team on through one of the darkest starts and episodes of McLaren's history.
It took me a few days to find this clip that showed during the race. Steve Matchett "drops in" on USF1 to take a look around the factory.
I will not comment but I know that the peanut gallery is going to have a field day with this one.
I wish I could type something a bit positive but... I can't.
What a disaster of a team.
Toyota was everything that was wrong with F1 the last decade. It was a soulless team with a soulless bunch of owners. It tried to win on its' own terms and refused to bend to tried and trusted methods in Formula One. It tried to throw money at problems instead of trusting people who knew what they were talking about.
Over the course of its' existence, the team spent billions on a lame duck F1 program. In 2008 alone, they had a budget of $445.6m. That higher than Ferrari and McLaren in that same year. That is as much as Williams, Toro Rosso, Force India, and Super Aguri COMBINED for that year.
Yet the more they spent, the deeper they were stuck in the rut.
What do they have to show for billions spent? 273.5 points, 13 podiums, and 3 pole positions over eight seasons. More importantly, zero race wins. Zero constructors or drivers championships. Nada. Toyota never looked like a winner. It never looked like it would develop into a winner.
I feel sorry for the employees at the factory who might lose their jobs of this. I hope Timo, Jarno, and Kobayashi land on their feet. Especially Kobayashi who showed some real potential the last few races.
It's ironic. For years Toyota and Honda craved a young Japanese star for their F1 teams. Now that one seems to be emerging in Kobayashi, he runs out of options and a Japanese manufacturer abandons him once he starts spreading his wings a bit.
I don't feel sorry for the company however. They were stupid enough to act like a rich trust fund kid who thought he could buy everything and fails to realize that all he is doing is wasting money.
Money can buy you a lot of things but it can never buy you character, talent, success, or a soul.
Hopefully this will open up a gird spot for Peter Sauber and the rest of the ex-BMW team.
There is a lot to take from this year in Formula One. I have a few posts that I am working as I look back at this season. However, I would like to give a recap on the positives.
The independents teams like Williams, Red Bull, and BrawnGP finally made a comeback after a decade of dominance from the manufacturer teams. Brawn's run to the championship was the stuff movies were made of. Ferrari started acting like Ferrari again after masquerading as a functional team the last decade. Force India finally started to put it together even with creditors chasing them around Europe.
If that wasn't enough, there were a lot of compelling stories with the drivers. Lewis Hamilton showed us some steel and that he is more then just a fast driver but also a leader. Mark Webber finally got off the duck, Jenson Button finally showed us the talent that some of us weren't sure that was there anymore, Sebastian Vettel showed us that he is a world champion in waiting, and Rubens Barrichello showed us that he isn't ready for retirement just yet.
We had a remarkable stretch where we had six different winners in six different races. We finally got the one thing that was lacking in Formula One for the last few decades: unpredictability.
Oh yeah... Max Mosley finally stepped down from the FIA Presidency.
All of these things are very good for the sport and bodes well for the future.
There was also a great deal of ugliness this year, but let's not think of that now.
Let's enjoy this season while it is fresh in our memories.
