Team-mate battles of 2013

[kfzmeister]

I read a great article about Lewis and his not feeling super confident in the Mercedes (yet).
Apparently, the Mercedes is built and designed around Brembo brakes. Nico gets on well with them, yet Lewis is used to his Carbon Industries brakes which he used at McLaren. The engineers at Mercedes have switched his car to CI brakes, yet it is taking some time to modify the car's design to them and getting it to work in harmony. Things like redesigned brake ducts all play into this, since the physical design and how it all fits to the car is slightly different. Considering how small parts on the car work with the overall aerodynamics, it can all add up to some time on the track.
Considering all this, Lewis has rather impressed in his short time with Mercedes. I'm willing to bet that as they get everything to work better to suit his style, he should surpass Nico sometime after the midpoint of the season and finish strong.
After all, he usually right behind Nico missing just a few tenths.

[Knock-on]

Did my eyes deceive me or did Romain do rather well today? He was talking candidly about how using a sport psychologist had improved his performance and mental approach but still looked a bit downcast. Perhaps today's result might give him the lift he needs.

As an aside, from a personal perspective he came across as a nice, down to earth young man. He might be a bit of a liability on track some times but I hope he sorts it out as I quite like him.

[steveaki13]

He seems great, and on the whole this season he has calmed down, but he is not as fast.

Apart from Monaco he seems to have lost his pace for the sake of being safe. Which is sad he couldnt do both. i.e drive fast but not crash.

Today however he did a good job.

[Koz]

Did my eyes deceive me or did Romain do rather well today? He was talking candidly about how using a sport psychologist had improved his performance and mental approach but still looked a bit downcast. Perhaps today's result might give him the lift he needs.

I am not sure how much this is down to Grosjean and how much it is to do with the Double DRS system. Kimi was complaining about instability in the rear under braking.
I think this is a case of shoddy new parts.
Grosjean was as quick as Kimi on the prime while Kimi was on the options in Q1. Something doesn't seem right here.

As an aside, from a personal perspective he came across as a nice, down to earth young man. He might be a bit of a liability on track some times but I hope he sorts it out as I quite like him.

Absolutely. Seems like a fairly normal, down to earth, likable chap. Hope he regains some of last year's pace.

[jens]

Most of the season has passed, so we can make another summary.

Red Bull: Vettel's advantage over Webber this year has been more like 2011. Webber has been suffering from a fair amount of unluck, but it is worth noting that Vettel is leading qualifying battle of this pairing by an incredible 14:0! It would be a stunning achievement if he carried it till the end, especially considering, how close it was last year.

Ferrari: Same story as usual with Massa struggling to collect half of Alonso's points.

Mercedes: Up to the Canadian GP Lewis and Nico seemed roughly matched. They have seemed close to each other since the Belgian Grand Prix again, but during races inbetween Hamilton seemed to have an edge, which has contributed to the points gap the 2008 WDC currently enjoys.

Lotus: Since the German GP Grosjean has been up-to-speed and close to Kimi, but overall the damage was done and season was lost in the early part of the year already.

McLaren: There have been a fair amount of races in which Pérez can legitimately keep up with Button and compete against him. But on other occasions the Mexican has suffered from inconsistency and been left a long way behind in the points. A bit like Kimi v Romain. Sometimes the younger driver can take the fight to the leader, but inconsistency and maybe some unluck have left the junior a long way behind in points table. It is a tough job to compete against consistent drivers in the championship standings - you can't let in serious dips in forms.

Force India: it looks like once again they are pretty well-matched. Sutil is behind in points largely by the virtue of suffering a significant amount of unluck in the early part of the season, when the car was good and big points were available. Recently Force India's form has dropped, so it has become difficult to add to the tally and erase the points gap. But in any case they have been performing close.

Sauber: Gutiérrez is like Nakajima was compared to Rosberg. Sometimes he doesn't look too bad, but nonetheless is basically always behind his team-mate and struggles to get any points on board.

STR: for a moment somewhere in mid-season Vergne seemed promising, but overall Ricciardo has been more convincing. It is helped by the fact that the Frenchman still hasn't come strong in qualifying, which is a strength of the Australian and gives him a significant advantage.

Williams: it looks like there is little between them. Sometimes one guy finishes/qualifies above, sometimes the other.

Caterham: van der Garde has seemed quite close or should I say a match to Pic at least during the second half of the season.

Marussia: same story here, I have noticed Chilton has been very close to Bianchi in the second half of the season. Which makes me doubt about the hype of Bianchi that we had in the early races.

[Parabolica]

Is it really fair to call the Alonso-Massa situation a battle?

It's more like Badger Baiting.

And, like Badger Baiting, the Badger would be shot if it looked liked winning.

[Parabolica]

Is it really fair to call the Alonso-Massa situation a battle?

It's more like Badger Baiting.

And, like Badger Baiting, the Badger would be shot if it looked liked winning.

[Parabolica]

I typed that post in a cave.

That's why there was an echo.

[jens]

Perhaps the most interesting recent stories have been Grosjean and Rosberg getting on top of their team-mates. At least temporarily.

Also Massa has been outqualifying Alonso a lot, but their comparative racing is still the same we have always seen.

The last couple of races have been stronger for Pérez too, at least compared to Button. I'd say ever since the Italian GP Pérez has been very close to Button, if not roughly a match during that time. But the points-battle has already been lost basically.

In Force India it is noticable that di Resta has been able to regain decent form after a string of crashes and it can be said he is about to legitimately beat Sutil this year.

Gutiérrez has slightly improved on average, but is still behind Hülkenberg and doesn't leave a strong overall impression IMO. Clearly in the bottom six drivers on the grid for me.

The only constant we have had all year is Vettel beating Webber. Sometimes by a small margin, sometimes by a big margin, but nevertheless ahead.

Two more Grands Prix to go - any more surprises?

[555-04Q2]

For me I have been quite pleasantly surprised how Grosjean has improved this year He seems to be maturing and putting in better performances as the year is going on. Let's hope he keeps it up next year. We need more consistent, good drivers challenging up front