Everything You Need To Know About The 2017 Formula 1 Season
As we head into the 2017 Formula 1 season starting with the new car launches next week and winter testing soon after that, we take a look at the Formula 1 drivers and teams to watch our for this season. Bear in mind that the list has been prepared in no particular order.
Drivers to look out for in the 2017 Formula 1 Season
Valtteri Bottas (Finland) – Mercedes AMG Petronas
©Valtteri Bottas/ Facebook
Valtteri Bottas was parachuted from Williams into Mercedes in the aftermath of World Champion Nico Rosberg’s shock retirement last year. Bottas has been an important part of Williams’ comeback bid to the sharp end of the grid having scored 9 podiums in his time at the team.
Bottas is on a 1-year deal with Mercedes and he will be keen to extend that contract. He has an ultra-competitive teammate in the other Mercedes AMG Petronas car – Lewis Hamilton, who will be keen to not let an encore of last year happen when Nico Rosberg snatched the championship away. Bottas’ 1-year contract also gives Mercedes the option of looking at Sebastian Vettel for 2018 who, as we speak is out of contract with Ferrari at the end of the year. Vettel is less than happy at Ferrari is quite well known and to add heft to the thought is the fact that the Daimler board in Stuttgart will not be averse to another German (after Rosberg) driving for the team. Added to this will be the marketing prospect of having 2 world champions (Vettel and Hamilton) drive for the team.
In a nutshell, the Mercedes seat is Bottas’ to lose. He must match or outperform Hamilton while also keeping an eye on developments at Ferrari.
Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium)- McLaren Honda
©Stoffel Vandoorne / Facebook
A product of the McLaren Young Driver Program which also gave the team Lewis Hamilton, Vandoorne is the driver who stood in for an injured Fernando Alonso at last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix and finished 10th. He has also been McLaren’s reserve driver since 2014 in addition to being the 2015 GP2 Champion.
Fernando Alonso, the team’s other driver will be watchful of Vandoorne’s on track performance as he will be keen to avoid a repeat of his single volatile 2007 season at McLaren when rookie Lewis Hamilton turned out to be a championship rival. Having said that, Alonso is in some ways a mentor to Vandoorne for the last 2 seasons, so it will be interesting to see how this team rivalry plays out.
Max Verstappen (The Netherlands) – Red Bull Racing
©Max Verstappen / Facebook
Max Verstappen will start his first full season at Red Bull this year on the back of a hugely successful 2016 season which saw him win a race and take 4 podiums. Verstappen, who will turn 20 in September was last year’s standout talent and is known for his aggressive driving style. If Red Bull builds a true challenger to Mercedes, Verstappen will be a title contender who will be very difficult to pass on the track.
Nico Hulkenberg (Germany)- Renault Sport F1 Team
©Nico Hulkenberg / Facebook
Hulkenberg who has been passed a fair number of times for several big team drives is now the de facto leading driver at Renault. With a career spanning 8 years in F1 and a Le Mans championship to boot, Hulkenberg is a consistent and experienced driver with an ability to score points. With Renault out of a difficult first year after their return to F1 and investments being made to the F1 operation both in terms of infrastructure and personnel, Hulkenberg may well be at the start of a winning phase in his career. While Renault may not be a frontrunner immediately, one can look forward to the team fighting for the occasional podium by the end of the year.
Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)- Red Bull Racing
©Daniel Ricardo / Facebook
With 1 win, 8 podiums and 3rd place in the Drivers’ Championship last year, Ricciardo equaled his best F1 championship position. If Red Bull gives him a car capable of taking the fight to Mercedes, expect Ricciardo to be a tough (yet smiling) competitor to Hamilton and Bottas. He will also have a competitive teammate in Max Verstappen to contend with.
While Ricciardo is a fundamentally fast racer, he must keep an eye out for any perceived preference the team may give Verstappen since Helmut Marko holds him in high regard. While Ricciardo has a contract with Red Bull until the end of 2018, there has been an occasional rumour that McLaren may be interested in hiring him if Alonso decides to hang his boots. Ferrari are another team that has evinced interest in him in the past and they are out of contract with both drivers at the end of the year.
Lewis Hamilton (United Kingdom)- Mercedes AMG Petronas
©Lewis Hamilton / Facebook
After losing the championship to Rosberg last year, Hamilton will be keen to re-establish his claim on it starting at the first race since the pecking order at the top of the grid is not expected to change. His team dynamics have also changed with Bottas coming in, and Hamilton will be eager to lay down a performance marker at the other side of the garage. While he has hinted at unfair treatment last year at the hands of his team, 2017 sees him as the undisputed team leader which may strengthen a brilliant triple world champion. That is if he stays focused on racing.
Fernando Alonso (Spain)- McLaren Honda
©Fernando Alonso / Facebook
Alonso starts the 3rd year of his 2nd McLaren stint on the back of 2 mediocre years spent in the midfield. That’s a tough pill to swallow for a double world champion. 2017 marks the final year of his McLaren contract and with Honda finally appearing to make progress on their engine, hopes are high for a good showing this season. The important question- will this be Alonso’s final year in Formula 1? Will he be motivated to stay ?
Cars and teams to look out for in the 2017 Formula 1 season
The 2017 season will see the biggest rule changes since the 2009 season. There are significant changes in the aero, bodywork and tire regulations with the intention of increasing the racing spectacle for fans (implying more overtaking) and make races less predictable. In the past, years with major rule changes in F1 have seen teams observing each other’s cars keenly and validating data during testing, for breakthrough solutions followed by correspondence with the FIA on the validity of these solutions before adopting or developing similar ideas for their cars in the 2nd half of the season. Sometimes, an idea’s validity (like the double diffuser in 2009) may be contested by the teams with the FIA which adds delays to adoption by the other teams giving the pioneering teams(s) an even bigger advantage as the season progresses.
The on-track performances of the following teams will be interesting to follow this season; bear in mind again that the list has been prepared in no particular order.
Red Bull Racing- TAG Heuer
Red Bull Racing- TAG Heuer 2016 RB12 car.
Red Bull finished the 2016 season in the 2nd spot behind Mercedes. Red Bull will be an interesting team to follow due to the new regulations coming into effect and technical chief Adrian Newey’s habit of producing winning cars (by way of innovative, sometimes controversial design solutions) when there is a rule change. Red Bull have had a strong chassis last year and if the Renault engine was stronger, it may have been a regular challenger to Mercedes. The noise coming out of Renault’s engine operations in Viry, France over the winter has talked about a big step in the performance of the engine so Red Bull will be hopeful of a better performing engine. Red Bull also have an extremely strong driver pairing in Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, who between them took 2 race wins last year.
Williams Martini Racing
Williams had a disappointing 2016 season indicating that the return to the head of the grid may be more difficult than fans of the team imagined. The key reason for this subpar showing was a shortfall of development of the car which may also have been because of the team deciding to switch its resources to the 2017 car early in the season. Williams will be keenly watched in the 2nd half of the season due to the arrival of the ex-Mercedes tech chief Paddy Lowe in a senior technical role in March.
Lowe has worked at Williams during the early part of his career before enjoying a long successful stint at McLaren before heading to the championship winning Mercedes. He has been an important contributor to Mercedes’ success over the last 3 years and while his move to Williams may not show results immediately, his inputs will be visible in the 2nd half of the year and considering his talent, Williams may just start becoming a regular podium contender once again.
Sahara Force India Mercedes
Sahara Force India VJM10
After the high of 2016 when it finished 4th in the championship, Force India will want to show the world and the F1 paddock that it can maintain that position and maybe improve on it (though that will be difficult). The team have a few things going for it- a strong Mercedes engine, a driver hungry for success in Sergio Perez and new rules which level the playing field.
What may not work in the team’s favour are the legal and financial troubles of its owners Vijay Mallya and Subrata Roy Sahara. Force India will need to spend its way developing the car through the season if an encore of 2016 is needed. Mallya and Roy will need to dig into their deep though troubled pockets to fund this. There are also rumours since last year from Diageo, which has taken over a part of Mallya’s spirits business and which is also a sponsor to the team may take over Force India.
McLaren Honda
2017 McLaren Honda MCL32
It’s been all change at McLaren Honda over the winter following the departure of Ron Dennis and the arrival of Zak Brown who has taken over as the executive director of the company. Jost Capito, the ex Volkwagen motorsport boss who was brought in by Dennis in September last has also departed, and so has the team’s long standing marketing chief Ekrem Sami. It has also lost team manager Dave Redding to Williams.
With the team influx, will it be another difficult year in the midfield, or will Honda finally deliver an engine that can take the fight to the Mercedes team? There have been press releases from Honda detailing a change of philosophy in the design of the engine. The McLaren chassis was generally accepted as a strong one last year and the rule changes mean the design team now have a chance to build a winning chassis. The team also have a strong driver line up in Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne. A strong Honda engine may see McLaren taking podiums this year.
Scuderia Ferrari
2017 Scuderia Ferrari SF70H
Ferrari had a lackluster season last year finishing 3rd which also saw the exit of its technical chief James Allison who has now joined Mercedes. There was public bickering between Sebastian Vettel and team principal Maurizio Arrivabene which gave the impression that the team needed to set its house in order. Expect a transitional year for Ferrari both on track and off it while the team decides on its long-term driver strategy (Sergio Perez is a likely target) and its technical team as it lacks the firepower to take on Mercedes and Red Bull. Vettel’s relationship with the team will also see media attention as will track rivalry between Vettel and a resurgent Kimi Raikkonen both of whom are probably in their last year as teammates at the team.
Mercedes, the reigning F1 champions are expected to have a strong year and there are noises coming from the team base at Brackley and their counterparts at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains at Brixworth on how the team have improved on ‘every’ aspect of their engine while also designing a competent chassis. While they may have lost Nico Rosberg over the winter, his replacement Valtteri Bottas is a gifted driver. Hamilton, who had difficult moments with the team last year is now the undisputed lead driver for the moment and this will play to the team and his strengths. James Allison, who has come in from Ferrari is a gifted engineer and will bolster the technical team.
What can go wrong for the Silver Arrows this year? Adrian Newey may have something to say about that!!
Racing circuits to watch out for in the 2017 Formula 1 Season
This year, the Formula 1 Championship consists of 20 races starting in end March in Australia and ending at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in end November. As F1 expanded from its traditional home in Europe in the 2000’s the series lost a fair number of its traditional races. These were replaced by tracks in Asia and the Middle East predominantly. While some of these tracks produced memorable races and race weekends (think Singapore, Sepang) the experts and purists were categorical in slamming some of these new tracks in countries with little or no motorsport history or local following.
We now look at the races in 2017 that you must not miss.
Belgian Grand Prix (August 27th)
Belgian Grand Prix. ©Spa Francorchamps / Facebook
The Belgian GP hosted at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is a classic race at the daunting 7KM long circuit that has witnessed memorable racing over the years. The circuit is so vast that at times, racers have seen rains at one part of the circuit while the rest of the circuit remained sunny! The track is a test of a driver’s skill with parts like the famous Eau Rouge/Raidillon combination at the beginning of the lap followed by the Blanchimont high speed turn towards the end of the lap.
Monaco Grand Prix (May 28th)
Monaco Grand Prix. ©Scuderia Ferrari/Facebook
This is perhaps the most famous and glamorous race of the F1 calendar. The race is conducted on the narrow streets of the principality of Monaco and is considered the ‘home race’ of several F1 drivers (such as Lewis Hamilton) since they live in the principality. While the race speeds are lower than a regular F1 track, the narrow streets call for close racing which may then invite safety car periods which adds to the spectacle.
Canadian Grand Prix (June 11th)
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. ©Grand Prix Canada / Facebook
The Canadian GP held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was the only race in the North America until the Austin GP was started a few years back. A regular track on the F1 calendar since the 1960’s the track is famous for its high-speed nature with cars usually running low downforce setups. The track is famous for the ‘Wall of Champions’ which is after the final corner on the pit straight where cars come millimeters close to the wall; carrying too much speed into the straight may cause cars to brush the wall or lose the rear of the car and crash into it. Champions who have crashed into the wall include Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve.
Japanese Grand Prix (October 8th)
Japanese Grand Prix. ©Suzuka Circuit / Facebook
The Suzuka circuit, venue of the Japanese GP is owned by Honda who use it as a test track. The track is unique in that it is F1’s only figure 8 track with an overpass. The track is, by nature a fast one with tricky corners including the legendary ‘130R’. Suzuka was also the last race of the championship for many years which means it has witnessed many championship deciding duels.
Italian Grand Prix (September 3rd)
Italian Grand Prix. ©Autodromo Nazionale Monza / Facebook
The Italian GP held at the Monza circuit is one of the oldest races in the F1 calendar. It is also Ferrari’s home race with the ‘tifosi’ turning up in large numbers to cheer the team. Monza is again, a high-speed track with cars running ultra-low downforce setups. The track is usually a test of horsepower with the most powerful engines stealing a march over the less powerful ones.
Feature Image: ©Red Bull
The post Complete Guide To The 2017 Formula 1 Season appeared first on ColumnM.