That end of term feeling

The Formula 1 season finally ended on Sunday after 35 weeks of almost non-stop action, including 19 races. It may not be the longest in the history of the sport, but it was certainly the most concentrated and the most far-flung. I cannot say I have even thought about adding up the flying mileage but these days, in my sub-conscious, I consider any flight under six hours to be “local”.

This year it was decidedly weird to be wishing our mate Dan Knutson – F1’s only proper American reporter – a cheery “Happy Thanksgiving” while Sao Paulo was dotted with Christmas trees and Father Christmases. The first Christmas card landed on my computer on the Friday. Having an F1 race this late in the year was new. Back in the 1990s we used to have races in Adelaide in mid-November, but in those days things did not kick off until the end of March and there were only 16 events, so in fact the calendar has been extended by two weeks in each direction (although this year we lost Bahrain), so we are on the road for a month more than we used to be. This is not the latest that F1 has ended in a year, that record belongs to 1962 and 1963 when the South African GP used to be in the last week of the year. And the United States GP in 1959 was held on December 12. Back then of course there were only a handful of races in the season.

Almost everyone who does all the races (and that number is dwindling) was tired and ready to go home this year. That is really not a surprise when one looks at the timezone hopping that we have been doing in recent weeks. It really is no wonder that we are all coughing and sneezing. We take all these time changes for granted these days and sometimes forget that normal people cannot do the same. I have long believed that F1 people should be studied by medical types to see how they cope with the lifestyle.

The aim now is to go home and stay there for as long as I can, with a log fire or two, a few glasses of wine and, perhaps, a little winter cooking. There is plenty to be done, of course, with the annual prize-giving season already underway and seasonal reviews, books and so on, not the mention the blog. From the 19th of December I expect that F1 will shut down for about a fortnight, although the factories will be churning out parts for the new cars so that they will be ready to run when testing resumes. In the interim there is the usual weekly tittle-tattle of drivers, teams and circuits. The F1 driver market is still somewhat fluid (more so than people realise because some of the deals announced may yet be changed). There may also be some personnel changes now that the season is done. I expect to see some action at Lotus Renault GP and at HRT.

The driver market will largely depend on two teams: Lotus Renault GP and Force India. These are the best drives available and so until they are decided the other drives will probably remain open. The decision at Lotus Renault will probably be influenced by the decision at Force India as the Silverstone team is still to officially decide what to do. It has Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg on its books and all want to race next year. I think that Hulkenberg and di Resta both have race deals for next year and that the team is now in a quandary because Sutil has come on rather more than anyone thought this year. Whatever the case three into two will not go and the odd man out is going to be in demand. Lotus Renault and Williams may be waiting to see if Sutil or Hulkenberg come onto the market.

Lotus Renault seems to have the most number of candidates for its two available seats, even given that Robert Kubica is now out of the picture for 2012. Team principal Eric Boullier wants Romain Grosjean, who he manages through Gravity Sport Management. That is probably a good choice, but there have been hints that Boullier’s position might be under threat, because of the team’s poor performances this year. It is probably not smart to add further disruption to a team that is already destabilised, but that depends on whether the board of directors believe that Eric is the best man for the job – and who might be a better choice. Vitaly Petrov is likely to continue thanks to his Russian connections, while Bruno Senna, Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen would all like to have a try, but the team is looking for someone to inspire progress. Oddly enough, in recent races Sutil has looked like the best man on the market, although his situation is complicated by the fact that Lotus Renault partner Eric Lux believes that Sutil stabbed him in the neck with a champagne glass at a party in Shanghai… Still, one could argue that it would be great PR to be seen to be forgiving and forgetting such things.

Williams seem to have the Venezuelan money to keep Pastor Maldonado, although that is really the only justification for him being there. What Williams needs more than anything is someone to inspire the troops and get things moving in the right direction. The once-great team has lost the esprit de corps that used to exist in the old days and needs a new figure to be the focus for a revival. Most people doubt that Raikkonen and Sutil are the right men for that job. Maldonado is clearly not and Rubens Barrichello has not stepped up to the plate this year in that respect. The Kimi Raikkonen deal is definitely dead, I hear because of a personality clash between those involved in the negotiations, but I keep hearing from good sources that Valtteri Bottas may already have the drive alongside Maldonado.

With HRT having decided on Pedro de la Rosa (which wins the prize for Most Bizarre Decision of the Year) and Marussia Racing having picked Pic, Jerome d’Ambrosio is floating about. Tonio Liuzzi is supposed to have a contract with HRT but I am quite sure that this will not be respected as HRT wants either another Spaniard or a thumping great pay-driver, a la Maldonado. Red Bull has been giving HRT money to run Daniel Ricciardo (22) but that is not really helping his career much because there are no real signs that the new owners at HRT understand F1. Thus Red Bull is probably looking to move Ricciardo elsewhere.

Red Bull has created plenty of problems for itself in recents years because it has promoted so many young drivers. It has so much cash that it has already axed half the generation, but it still has them stacked up looking for somewhere to drive. It reminds me a little of the problems that Elf had back in the 1980s when it had up to 10 of its drivers in F1. This meant that one or two others with real potential never got the chance they deserved.

Red Bull Racing has Sebastian Vettel (24) and Mark Webber (35). Queueing up behind these two are Sebastien Buemi (23) and Jaime Alguersuari (21), both of whom have been racing pretty well at Scuderia Toro Rosso. Behind them are Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne (21). It does not take a rocket scientist to work out that Webber’s days are numbered and that the logical choice as his replacement in 2013 is one of the four youngsters. It had been thought that Buemi and Alguersuari might get axed to make room for Vergne and Ricciardo, but they have both done pretty well this year and it is hard to clobber them (although Red Bull advisor, Dr Helmut Marko has had no qualms about torpedoing a number of careers in his time). I am now hearing that they are both likely to stay for another year. That means that Marko now needs to figure out where to put Ricciardo and Vergne.

I would guess that Jerome d’Ambrosio will take his backers with him to HRT (unless Giedo Van der Garde can outbid him) and that Vergne will spend another years in the Renault World Series, having lost out this year to Robert Wickens. Unless Wickens can find cash I don’t see him getting anything more than a reserve driver role.

I would imagine that Vergne will also be the test driver for Red Bull Racing as well. Ricciardo’s option are limited, if Toro Rosso is not available to him. How many teams are there between HRT and Scuderia Toro Rosso? Team Lotus and Williams. There is no seat for Riccardo at Williams, and the only way that he could be slotted into Team Lotus would be if the team booted out Jarno Trulli, or if Heikki Kovalainen were to be poached away by a bigger team (such as Lotus Renault).

The goal, however, seems to be for Marko to have four youngsters to choose from when it comes to replacing Webber in 2013. In the finest traditions of the British aristocracy, it is always wisest to have “an heir and a spare” in case of anything untoward.