Many are calling the 2012 F1 season a lottery but on close inspection it’s quite clear that it isn’t.
Pirelli’s apparently mysterious tyres have been cited as the main factor for the competitive season that we are having. Whilst the tyres are indeed proving to be a major challenge, there are other factors that have created a very open championship.
The current arrangement regarding tyres is also fairer in comparison to the years when we had a tyre war.
There is no doubt that this year’s rubber is proving very hard to get a handle on. All the teams are struggling to fully understand them. Just a slight change in track temperature has been catching teams out.
Although the tyres are causing the formbook to change from race to race you still need a fast car to win races. Calling the 2012 season a lottery suggests that anybody on the grid can win a race, and that obviously isn’t the case.
If it was a lottery then the likes of Caterham, Marussia, and HRT would be challenging for race victories. They are not.
It wouldn’t matter if they understood the tyres better than their rivals they are still going to be at the back of the field, as their cars are currently just not quick enough.
On the same token if someone had come up with a car that is the same distance ahead at the front, as the backmarkers are behind the midfield teams, they would still be winning most of the races despite the tyres.
The teams that have won races this season are: McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and Williams. They are all very strong teams who have decent cars at the moment.
With the exception of Williams you can’t really say any of those victors are much of a surprise. There are familiar names there who have been a regular fixture at the front end of the grid.
The only real surprise winner has been Pastor Maldonado for Williams (© Williams, LAT Photographic).
Williams’ victory certainly wasn’t expected but it’s not as if 2012 is the first time we have seen surprises in F1. Let’s remember that as recently as Spa 2009 Giancarlo Fisichella put a Force India on pole position in dry conditions, and then finished second in the race.
You get days where a midfield team gets everything perfect, whilst a couple of the top teams have a bad weekend.
The stability of the aerodynamic regulations and the banning of the blown diffuser are the key contributors to how close the field is at the moment.
The depth of quality in Formula 1 is simply very impressive at the moment. We have four or five very strong front teams, which hasn’t been the case for many years. We also have three or four midfield teams who are also extremely capable and efficient.
A season like with this with lots of different winners has been on the cards for a while, and now we are witnessing it.
Even if the tyres weren’t as difficult as they are we would still be witnessing an exciting season with different winners. F1 is just genuinely very tight at the moment.
With a field that is so close the race winner will be the team that does the best all round job setup wise, tyre wise, and strategy wise plus a strong performance from the drivers to match.
When a team makes a wrong turn at the moment, or hasn’t got the setup regarding the tyres right, the penalty is much more dramatic due to the tightness of the field.
The grid is so tight this season that understanding the tyres makes the difference.
In previous seasons it might have only made a difference of two or three places rather than nine or ten. When the field is so tight it only takes a couple of little things to shuffle the order.
The fact that Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez finished on the podium in Montreal was because they made their strategies work brilliantly, not because their numbers came up in a tyre lottery.
The standings in the driver’s championship are further proof that 2012 isn’t a lottery. Many consider Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel to be the best three drivers in Formula 1 at the moment.
At the present time they are the top three in the championship. That shows that it doesn’t matter what the rules are, or how the tyres are behaving, the very top drivers are so talented that they will still rise to the top of the pile.
If the sport was a lottery their supreme skills would count for absolutely nothing, and they would have no control on their position in the championship table. However that clearly isn’t the case here.
In the eyes of some the current Pirelli tyres are too influential, and they decide a team’s destiny at each weekend. However the tyres are the same for every team in the pit lane.
Every team has the same opportunity to extract the most out of them and understand them. If a team misunderstands the tyres and has a bad race as a result then they have themselves to blame.
Button locks up the front and rear tyres as he struggles with his car.
We sometimes forget the tyres are the only part of the car to touch the ground. They will always be important.
Ross Brawn says: “You either can complain about it, or keep your head down and do a better job than anyone else. That is what we are faced with, because the tyres will not change dramatically this year.”
Mark Webber has the same kind of sentiments: “Tyres have always been an important part of Formula 1. Things were probably a little less punishing in the past to get them right, but now you need to be right there and, if you aren’t, it can be quite tricky.”
He added: “Everybody has the same stuff to deal with so you have to get on with it. We just drive the cars and do the best job with what we have.”
There have been times when the tyres haven’t been a level playing field, and where the term lottery could be more appropriate.
Back in the 2001-2006 era Bridgestone and Michelin were embroiled in a fierce tyre war. Throughout these seasons races were regularly decided by which tyre manufacturer had brought the better tyre to the track.
It didn’t matter how strong your car was if your tyre partner wasn’t winning the tyre war that weekend, you were not going to win. Teams went into each race weekend hoping their tyre manufacturer would be on top.
Schumacher and Bridgestone enjoyed a ‘special’ relationship (© Bridgestone Motorsport).
Bridgestone put nearly all of their focus on Ferrari. The end result was they got much better tyres than the other Bridgestone teams, and those that were on Michelins.
This played a major part in Ferrari’s dominance. Therefore tyres caused Ferrari’s rivals to go into battle with them with effectively one hand tied behind their back.
The reason why some within the sport have moaned about Pirelli’s tyres is simply that they are finding the challenge difficult, and it’s frustrating. The pressure is immense in F1, so anything that makes winning harder is always going to be as welcome as a cup of cold sick.
Therefore they have to work much harder to get to grips with them. That isn’t a bad thing at all. F1 is supposed to be challenging, not a walk in the park.
Paul Hembrey says: “Probably the teams that are more vocal in their struggles are the ones that maybe had a handle on the blown diffusers and the downforce that those created and it’s opened up a new area of work down the paddock.
“Some teams are saying that they haven’t seen any difference and that they were always in this situation. At the end of the day sport is all about winning and if you’re not winning you’re not going to be happy.”
It’s no surprise Schumacher doesn’t like the Pirelli tyres. Let’s not forget that during the tyre war years Bridgestone made tyres specifically to suit his driving style. He doesn’t have that advantage anymore and has to adapt to Pirelli’s control tyre like everyone else. So as far as he is concerned what’s not to hate?
At the end of the day there will always be people that moan no matter what is happening. They will moan when one driver is dominating, and then complain when the top drivers aren’t winning every race. Soon teams will have gotten to grips with the tyres, and there will be something else to moan about you can be sure.
What’s important though is at the end of the season the team/driver that have done the best job will be the one that wins the title as has always been the case. It’s just that teams and drivers are having to work much harder for it.
The title won’t go the luckiest team/driver which is what would happen if F1 really was a lottery as many are currently describing it as.
This is a season that we should all be savouring.
