2012 season winners and losers
- This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 10 months ago by
.
- Posts
If we go back to the pre-season, with all the hype surrounding McLaren, and the concerns regarding Ferrari, to where we are now, it has to be said that Ferrari – Alonso at least, is the big winner of the season so far, McLaren is the big loser, whilst Red Bull would be the most content, would you agree? http://real-motorsport.com/2012/06/29/winners-and-losers/
Red Bull is the best team overall. They might not have the best car, but they have a great drivers line-up and have scored just about every point possible. Apart from Vettel at Valencia, which was unavoidable from their part, they haven’t really made any real mistakes either.
Mclaren are definitely the biggest losers. Hell, they easily had the best car at the start of this season; but consistent mistakes when easy points were in the bag led them to being so far behind Red Bull and Alonso in both championships at this point. The team are constantly screwing up Hamilton, and Button’s been embarrassing ever after China. Hell, now Lotus and Ferrari, and maybe even Mercedes could overtake them.
Ferrari have undoubtedly been the winners of this season. Remember what a dog of a car Ferrari had at the start of the season? They qualified 12th and 16th in Melbourne. Not in a million years, after Australia, I would have believed if you told me Alonso would be leading the championship after Europe. Ferrari has got just about every strategic decision, and pitstop spot on this year (apart from Canada). They also employ who is in my view, the best driver on the current grid; Fernando Alonso. Massa on the other hand, has been a huge disappointment and I’ll be very surprised if he’s still with the team next year. We’ll have to wait and see.
Lotus and Mercedes both have a good car capable of taking the challenge to the top 3 teams, but both seem to be inconsistent. That Lotus only works in the heat and Mercedes only works on the cold. Neither teams have a radical car. Luckily for Lotus, and unlucky for Mercedes; there have been a lot more hot races that cold ones this season. However, that might change in Mercedes’s favour as next up on the calendar are the British and German GP; two races where it’s generally cold.
I’m not sure McLaren are the biggest losers of the field, as only a week ago Hamilton was leading the championship, though they should obviously have gotten a lot more points on Sundays.
A little further down the field, Williams have gained the most in terms of the competitiveness of their car, but they are too often let down by their drivers; even so, from a couple of low-points positions last year to winning a Grand Prix is a big step. Toro Rosso are the biggest losers of the midield, going from occasionally being at the front of the midfield last year to being right at the back of it now.
For the ‘new’ teams, both Caterham and HRT have something to be positive about, both gaining on their nearest rivals, but Marussia has been outright disappointing. What a frustrating two-and-a-half years these must have been for Timo Glock.
Toro Rosso are the biggest losers of the midield, going from occasionally being at the front of the midfield last year to being right at the back of it now.
I think that’s down to both drivers being rookies and therefore underperforming more than anything else right now. I believe that if Buemi and Alguersuari had stayed with STR, they’d be a lot higher up the pecking order right now. Don’t get me wrong, I do firmly believe both Ricciardo and Vergne have talent, but at the moment they’re both simply too inexperienced to extract the cars true potential.
To me, it seems like the STR7 has no pace whatsoever. You can’t blame Ricciardo and Vergne for not doing well when the car itself is the worst they ever made.
Buemi probably would’ve scored a couple more points by sheer virtue of his experience, but that’s it. Alguersuari would be on par with Ricciardo.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.