Team-mate battles of 2013

[airshifter]

I'll third that notion about Perez. The guy is a racer, not just a driver. And I like racers. As much as some will blame him for the incident, I see Kimi as much at fault, and I've been a big supporter of Kimi since he entered F1. Checo made it past a one time WDC with ease, past a two time WDC with ease (and Alonso is no slouch by any means), and finally had an issue with the third WDC in the train when he and Kimi got together after the multiple pass attempts.

But he raced at Monaco. He rolled the dice and this time he lost. But in the process he made a point.

[Storm]

Being fast and audacious is better than just being reliable and plodding. Atleast for us spectators. There is still time for Perez to learn how to pick his battles and be more consistent while keeping his natural instincts to pass. I would rather see people like Hamilton (who I dislike as a personality) drive rather than someone like Button.

[lars75]

Well six races on our way!

We can make a short balance now.

RedBull - Vettel is stronger then Webber, no surprice there!
Ferrari - Alonso vs Massa the same story as RedBull, but Massa is much stronger then last season.
Lotus - Kim for champion is my opinion and with Grosjean driving like this it's just a mather off time untill Valsecchi stands in
McLaren - Button has the upperhand on Perez for now, but I see some improvement with the Mexican now some commun sence an he can beat Button
Mercedes - the people that thought Lewis had a easy pray in Rosberg must wonder now, Rosberg is performing much stronger then Lewis at this moment
FIF1 - Sutil and di Resta, I wonder who will win the season here
STR - Ricciardo vs Vergne, the same as FIF1 but I think Ricciardo is a little better
Williams - the car is rubbish and Maldonado is back were he came from, Bottas is using his head more then his experienced teammate and has a little advantage in my opinion
Sauber - Well Hulkenberg has no match in Guiterez as expacted, when it wasn't for the money the Maxican would be replaced by Frijns already
Caterham - Everybody will be thinking what is hapening here! The poor driver vd Garde was as strong as Pic in the first 3 races, Pic was much stronger with the updates in Bahrein, but vd Garde was the stronger one in Barcelona with 90% off the updates as in Monaco with the same package as Pic. He is the best driver of the little teams for the last two races. And it doesn't surprice me at all! He was better then Pic at GP2, is a great teamplayer and knows how to bring a car to the finish aswell.
Marussia - Bianchi by far!

[rjbetty]

Ok I've just looked through this and am also going to give my foolproof utterly objective tam-mate summary so far (and the fact I haven't watched any races, and only followed the first 2 on the radio will in no way impede me)

[I'm being totally sarcastic here btw]

RED BULL - Sadly Mark looks like he's had enough and has lost his steam. Young Ronny Cox is making hay, but at least his rather fake nice guy cover now appears to have been blown.
FERRARI - Happily Massa has looked much better (even though I was never much of a fan). I am so sad for Alonso, for while he now has his hands on a car that occasionally keeps within spitting distance and more of the Red Bull, he now looks to have simply tyred himself out through the years of struggle (unlike some drivers who have had it rather easier)
MCLAREN - First a word about the car: Looks like no-one learned the lesson from 2004 where Williams and McLaren went the radical route and were supposed to run away with everything whereas Ferrari were conservative and evolutionary not revolutionary. Guess who dominated everything that season? Now in 2013, things are the same for those teams, and any chance I have of success in FGP this year have long since gone down the loo. The drivers - well Button actually kinda impressed me in Malaysia but I have noticed that young Checo is really matching Jens, and more in the races. Where's Hamilton when you need him?

LOTUS - I've not been that keen on Kimi, and am still reserving judgment, but I have been quietly very impressed with what he has done since his return. He has totally outperformed Grosjean and I admire the way he keeps quietly building himself up. He looks like he is taking this seriously, which is all I want to see. I still don't much enjoy the eccentric claims that Kimi was the best driver last year despite Romain Running Rings around him much of the time... Sadly Romain is exactly as I predicted, overall much more stable, but the flair has been put out and he appears pretty slow...

MERCEDES - Well now I guess this shouldn't have been too much of a surprise. The obvious implications are that Michael wasn't that bad after all (I believe that's true), that Nico is after all a top driver - I STILL don't think he is a very transecendent driver of his cars though (look, it's 3am, I don't care if I'm not making sense - I don't have as much time on my hands anymore. ) Obviously, the Lewis haters are having a bit of a field day, but Lewis I am sure will get on top of Nico still (and we will all call Nico average again...)

SAUBER - Flipping Nora what on earth has Nico Hulkenberg done to deserve this? Still doing an exceptional job I think. Just hope he isn't forgotten. Obviously easily beating Gutierrez but I do believe Esteban has talent there (even though there are others more deserving).

FORCE INDIA - Poor Nico Hulkenberg, he should be embarrassing Paul di Resta by rights. At least Paul is trying (a little too hard I think) to smile more - I don't think he needs to try that hard, just don't be miserable and feel entitled and all that. I don't know why anyone thinks Sutil (who I like) will beat Paul. Over the season I fully expect Paul to take this one. In 2011 he was behind Sutil because he was a ROOKIE.

WILLIAMS - Wow did Mike nick the 2013 McLaren design or something? (Ouch that was a real cheap shot FROM ME...) I didn't have a clue what to expect from Bottas. The people who thought he could show Pastor the way have been proved right. Bottas has looked far more impressive - great job.

TORO ROSSO - Same old, but further up than last year. I'm interested to see what these two can do later on this year. Really hard to tell who's the best, both have their highs (Ricciardo in China and Vergne's race pace in the early races)

CATERHAM - van der Garde better against Pic than I expected. Charles needs to step on it. Maybe he looks at that Marussia mournfully. Hope he doesn't become like Timo Glock and that's the end of it...

MARUSSIA - No surprise here for Jules. No disrespect to Luis Razia, but I'm glad someone can extract some sort of potential from that machine. Wish they had more money though. STOP YOUR GAMES Bernie.

[faster69]

FERRARI - Happily Massa has looked much better (even though I was never much of a fan). I am so sad for Alonso, for while he now has his hands on a car that occasionally keeps within spitting distance and more of the Red Bull, he now looks to have simply tyred himself out through the years of struggle (unlike some drivers who have had it rather easier)

That's about the worst excuse I have ever heard. Alonso had the car in 2010. His fault for not wining the championship. 2011 didn't have the car, 2012 his car didn't have the ultimate pace of the McLaren (fastest car in 2012) but it did have incredible reliability. As well, Alonso had incredible luck throughout the year. No punctures (Suzuka he drifted into Kimi it was Alonso's fault), no pit mishaps, when he won his rivals would score nothing or little. So it was all a bit skewed.

For Schumacher's first five seasons with Ferrari he never had the best car.

[henners88]

For Schumacher's first five seasons with Ferrari he never had the best car.

And for four of those seasons he didn't convert either. He also didn't have the same level of competition the drivers have now IMHO. You don't rate Hill or Villeneuve who were Michael's key opponents of the 96, 97 seasons and Hakkinen was out of sorts and considering quitting by season five. If you want to bring Schumacher in as an example, I would say it supports that Alonso isn't doing too badly right now with the resources and level of competition.

[steveaki13]

And for four of those seasons he didn't convert either. He also didn't have the same level of competition the drivers have now IMHO. You don't rate Hill or Villeneuve who were Michael's key opponents of the 96, 97 seasons and Hakkinen was out of sorts and considering quitting by season five. If you want to bring Schumacher in as an example, I would say it supports that Alonso isn't doing too badly right now with the resources and level of competition.

No Henners he's the worst on the grid, Ferrari has a car about 6 seconds faster than anyone else.

[Knock-on]

Why do people bother responding to a dick

Anyway, Nico has really upped his game and Lewis needs to get his eye in. I expect a change back to winning ways.

Checo is at a junction. He has speed but needs to temper it with a bit if nouce otherwise risk going the JPM route.

PdR looks like he's on the bounce. I hope he keeps it going.

Komi doing the biz. He's really matured as a driver although he's not really being pushed.

Alonso looked a bit out of salts in Monaco but expect its a blip. Massa having a strong showing for a lapdog.

The rest? Not bothered until something happens

[dj_bytedisaster]

One, who's been a bit overlooked is Adrian Sutil IMHO. Considering how long it took Hülkenberg to get up to speed after a year on the sidelines, it is amazing how quickly Sutil settled into the car. Drafted in at the last minute and having missed most of the winter testing, he was right up there with di Resta and more often than not even slightly faster. Were it not for rotten luck in many of the first races, he would be giving Button a run for the money.

[The Black Knight]

That's about the worst excuse I have ever heard. Alonso had the car in 2010. His fault for not wining the championship. 2011 didn't have the car, 2012 his car didn't have the ultimate pace of the McLaren (fastest car in 2012) but it did have incredible reliability. As well, Alonso had incredible luck throughout the year. No punctures (Suzuka he drifted into Kimi it was Alonso's fault), no pit mishaps, when he won his rivals would score nothing or little. So it was all a bit skewed.

For Schumacher's first five seasons with Ferrari he never had the best car.

When Schumacher won in Canada 98 it was only because his rivals were out of the picture.

Hungaroring 98, one of the best drives in the history of the sport, a person could say that Schumacher only won that because Hakkinen had gearbox issues.

It's not all as straight forward as your rosey tinted glasses might make it seem. Even the greats need some luck in order to mount a championship challenge.