The 2013 F1 world championship is now 50 per-cent in the record books after last night’s Hungarian Grand Prix. As the teams head off for the mid-season break, the question on everyone’s mind is still unresolved – who will replace Mark Webber in the championship-dominating Red Bull team next year?
Webber is grinning from ear-to-ear with his endurance racing contract as lead driver for Porsche inked and in the bank. He’s scurrying off to sunny locales for a spot of mid-season fitness training.
Fellow Aussie Daniel Riccardo moved-up from the second tier Red Bull team (Torro Rosso) to test for the main team at the recent young driver/Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone and, as expected, impressed with his speed, consistency and technical feedback. In Hungary, Riccardo improved his lot further with a slick performance to qualify eighth.
Despite a good start and strong showing early last night, the pace up-front was torrid – way beyond a Torro Rosso - and Riccardo’s 12th-place finish was about as good as he could expect.
But Finnish superstar Kimi Raikkonen showed his intentions in Hungary – his personal manager arrived on Thursday night and spent much of the weekend in the Red Bull team compound.
Red Bull’s philosophy has always been about promoting young talent and despite his phenomenal credentials, Raikkonen is now 33 years old. Word on the street is Red Bull may announce the decision on who will join Sebastian Vettel in the driving lineup for 2014 as early as the first week back after the summer break.
But of immediate concern for Red Bull is straight-line speed. In a race dominated by tyre tactics, the simple fact is Vettel could do no better than third place in Hungary with his Renault-powered Red Bull not only slower down the straight than race-winner Lewis Hamilton (Petronas Mercedes-Benz) but, most disconcertingly, also Raikkonen’s Renault-powered Lotus.
Webber turned in sensational drive to finish fourth at the Hungaroring after starting from a lowly 10th on the grid. The Aussie was plagued with KERS and transmission problems in qualifying but the upside was he started the 70-lap race with four sets of tyres at his disposal.
And, clearly 10 months is a long time in F1. Just last September your CarShowroom correspondent was at the Ferrari HQ in Maranello, Italy and we personally inspected the magnificent new wind tunnel shared by both the racing team and the road car division. Now, the Scuderia is struggling as its suddenly outdated wind-tunnel is tossing up data which doesn’t translate to the actual race circuit.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso battled-on to finish fifth in Hungary with his team-mate Philipe Massa in eighth.
However Alonso is certainly still in the mix for winning the championship, as are race-winner Hamilton and Raikkonen.
After Hungary, Vettel leads the title chase with 172 points from Raikkonen (134), Alonso (133), Hamilton (124) and Webber (105).
But perhaps the biggest news to emerge at the Hungarian Grand Prix is the future of F1 racing. Simple fact is we’ve been racing all year without a formal unilateral contract between the teams, the FIA (motorsport’s governing body) and the commercial rights holder.
It’s called the ‘Concord Agreement’ and the current one actually expired on 31 December last year.
But F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was in Hungary and it seems the new Concord Agreement has been agreed to and will be signed before the end of September. The new contract takes F1 up to the end of 2020.
So while Bernie is facing an upcoming court hearing on financial matters, at least the Concord Agreement is done and even the normally dour FIA chief Jean Todt was looking happy in Hungary.
