Preview of the 2012 Formula One Season

The 2011 F1 Season ended with Sebastian Vettel dominating the season. He won the Drivers’ Championship title and his team, Team Red Bull, took the Constructors’ Championship title. The 2011 season was marred by bad behaviour, primarily from Lewis Hamilton, and on-again off-again regulations on the use of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and the return of Michael Schumacher, who had a dismal season. Although naysayers say the domination of Vettel and Team Red Bull is making racing boring, the 2012 Season will see six world champions driving, which should put some tough competition on the top of the grid.

The 2012 F1 Season will be the longest in F1 history, featuring 21 races, starting with the Australian Grand Prix and ending with the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Turkish Grand Prix will dropped this season, with the US Grand Prix back on the F1 schedule. It is the first time since 2007 and will be held at the purpose-built Circuit of America track in Austin (Texas), instead of at Indianapolis. With the Turkish Grand Prix dropped, the Bahrain Grand Prix will take its place as the fourth race. Bahrain used to be the season-opener but was cancelled in 2011 due to the political unrest and this will be the first year back after last year’s cancellation. Therefore, just as in 2011, the Australian Grand Prix will be the opening race. The Indian Grand Prix will host its second race this season.

As with every F1 season, drivers have been shuffled around teams. Although slightly unusual, there are only a couple new-comers: Roman Grosjean for Lotus, Charles Pic for Marussia and Jean-Eric Vergne for Scuderia Toro Rosso. Exists include Rubens Barrichello, Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Nick Heidfeld, Jerome d’Ambrosio and Jarno Trulli. Last season saw the almost absolute domination of Sebastian Vettel from start to finish. It will be interesting to see if Vettel can repeat his stellar performance this season. He will no doubt be chased by familiar rivals Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Michael Schumacher has displayed disappointing driving last season, has he lost his touch?

As with the 2011 season, four engine suppliers will be supplying engines to teams: Cosworth, Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault. This seems to have worked well last season, although many criticised the exit of BMW and Toyota last season, reducing the number of suppliers from six to four. However, this season, the mix of teams using the engines has changed. Last season, it was evenly divided among the twelve teams – three teams each using the same engine – this year, the mix has changed, with only two teams using the Cosworth engine (HRT and Marussia), three teams using the Mercedes engine (McLaren, Mercedes, Force India), three teams using the Ferrari engine (Ferrari, Sauber and Toro Rosso) and four teams using Renault engine (Red Bull, Lotus, Williams and Caterham). Tyres will remain unchanged, with all teams using Pirelli tyres.

The 2012 F1 Season will begin on March 18th with the Australian Grand Prix and end with the 21st race taking place in Brazil – making this the longest F1 seasons in the history of F1 racing. The usual starting race of the Bahrain Grand Prix is moved to the 4th slot and the US Grand Prix added to the penultimate slot. Under the agreement with the F1 organisers, the German Grand Prix this season will move to the Nürburgring – alternating with the Hockenheim circuit, which hosted the German Grand Prix last season.

Team Changes

There have been no major changes in teams from the 2011 season. The total will remain at 12 teams, the same as last year, with just some superficial team name and ownership changes. No new teams have been added to the line-up.

The biggest change will be the elimination of two teams using the Lotus name, which created confusion in the 2011 Season. Team Lotus becomes Caterham F1 and Lotus Renault GP becomes Lotus F1 Team. This is due to Team Lotus’ principle acquiring Britain’s Caterham Racing and dropping the Lotus name.

Other name changes include Marussia Virgin Racing to Marussia F1 Team, having been acquired by the Russian car maker, Marussia. The same goes for Force India, which joined the F1 circuit in 2010, changes its name to Sahara Force India F1 Team, due to the partial acquisition by the Sahara Group. The acquisition will infuse new capital into the team for 2012. Team Mercedes drops its GP and add AMG. AT&T Williams become Williams F1 Team, after the loss of its main sponsor. Team Scuderia Ferrari also drops the Marlboro name and sponsorship, to comply with new sponsorship regulations against tobacco companies.

Three teams finished the 2011 Season with zero points: Lotus-Renault (now Lotus), HRT-Cosworth (now HRT F1 Team) and Virgin-Cosworth (now Marussia). It will be interesting to see how these teams fare this season.

Technical Alterations

There are several technical changes to the 2012 F1 Season. The biggest change will be the ban of exhaust-blow diffusers. Team Red Bull made best use of these diffusers in 2011, so this will be a blow to the team. However, teams will continue to allow the use of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) and Drag Reduction System (DRS).

The next big change will be the height of the cars’ nose. The height must be dropped from 625 millimetres to 550 millimetres. This rule will change the look of the racing cars.

The use of Pirelli tyres by all teams will remain the same in 2012. There were problems at the beginning of the 2011 season, but teams learned to use pit-stop strategy to deal with the softer tyres. Pirelli has announced that they will introduce even softer tyres in 2012, making pit-stop strategy even more important for teams. Pit stops will become longer, as pit crews will not be allowed to use helium in wheel guns.

Drivers will also be able to use all the tyres allocated to them for a Grand Prix weekend. Drivers have previously been limited three sets.

Another change that will affect teams is the need to meet tighter crash test requirements for racing cars. Teams will have to pass all crash tests prior to being able to test cars on track, before a crash test was only required at the start of the season. Generally, safety of cars will be more rigorously checked.

The 2012 Season will also see the continued use of the 107% qualifying rule. This means that any driver, who is unable to qualify by a time of 107% of the fastest drivers’ time will not be able to start the race. In 2011, this has proven difficult for some of the new drivers, but has made qualifying more interesting.