Season Review: Mercedes, Sauber, Force India and more

In the first part of our season review, we had a look at the three backmarkers – Caterham, Marussia and HRT. In the second part we focus our attention to the midfielders – Mercedes, Sauber, Force India, Williams and Toro Rosso. Thanks to the ultra-tight season and Pirelli tyres, these midfielders were able to challenge for podiums and even. Now we take a look at each of them separately.

Mercedes

Everyone has a lot of expectations from a team like Mercedes whose brand name says it all. Despite a decent budget and a team headed by Ross Brawn, Mercedes performed more like a midfielder this season. At the start of the season, they were probably the second or the third quickest car in qualifying and Nico Rosberg took pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix. He went on to win the race, the first of his career and first by Mercedes since they rejoined as constructors in 2010. The secret to their pace in qualifying was double DRS.

However, they failed in the in-season development race and, more importantly, in understanding Pirelli tyres. The team suffered from severe tyre degradation and usually had to make an extra stop than their competitors In the end, they finished the season down in 5th place.

Talking about the individual performance of the drivers, Michael Schumacher performed at the best we’ve seen since his comeback. However, he was extremely unlucky with accidents, reliability problems etc. A podium at Valencia and pole at Monaco (turned into 6th place after penalty) were the highlights of his season.

Nico Rosberg was also impressive, winning the Chinese Grand Prix in style from pole position and picking up a podium at Monaco. Elsewhere, he suffered from poor team form and could only finish in 9th place in drivers standings.

Best race finish – 1st place in China (Rosberg)Best grid position – Pole position in China (Rosberg)Highlight of the season – Rosberg scoring first win of the team at China

Sauber

2012 turned out to be the best season for Sauber since BMW left the team in 2010. The C31 was gentle on the tyres and the Swiss team exploited this advantage by taking up four podium finishes. Likewise, team was also great in terms of strategies. In Malaysia, for instance, Perez was the first to switch to wet tyres and that worked for him as he gained multiple places and fought Alonso for victory before sliding wide and eventually finishing in second place.

However, the team was inconsistent. On one day, they were on the podium and on the other day, they couldn’t even challenge for points. Qualifying is another area which the team can work on.

Malaysia, as we mentioned earlier was the highlight of Perez’s season. But there were a few more races where the Mexican impressed us. At Italy, he did a long first stint on hard tyres and then later switched to option tyres to finish in second place. Three podiums were enough to get him a drive with McLaren but since then his performance deteriorated and he failed to finish in points in last 6 races. During the same period, he was involved in many crashes.

Meanwhile, Kamui Kobayashi failed to match his teammate at the start of his season but he improved as the season progressed and finished on the podium at his home race in Japan. His drive from 12th on the grid to 4th at Germany was also impressive. He finished in 12th place in the drivers standings and is searching for a seat on the 2013 grid.

Best race finish – 2nd at Malaysia and Italy (Perez)Best grid position – 2nd at Belgium (Kobayashi)Highlight of the season – Perez nearly winning the Malaysian Grand Prix

Force India

Force India has improved every year since Vijay Mallya took over the Spyker team and the trend continued in 2012 with team scoring 109 points, 40 more than what they scored in 2011. Consistency has been the key and the team scored points in all races since the summer break. While Mercedes, Williams and Saubers were all able to score podiums, Force India had more top 10 finishes

However, the team wasn’t particularly strong in the first half of the season, but as the season continued progressed, their results improved and the Indian team nearly won the Brazilian Grand Prix. In the end, they finished the season in 7th place.

Nico Hulkenberg returned to race seat this year after spending 2011 as a test driver. While it took time for the German to get back, once he was on top he was able to beat his teammate Paul di Resta. He qualified his car in 4th place in Brazil and by sticking on soft tyres while others switched to wet, he moved into second place. He was able to overtake Jenson Button for the lead but in the latter stages he lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton and then tangled with the British driver to eventually finish in 5th place.

Paul di Resta had an impressive season with Force India in 2011, but in 2012 he failed to manage our expectations or match his teammate Nico Hulkenberg. Fourth place finish at Singapore was the highlight of his season.

Best race finish – 4th at Belgium (Hulkenberg) and 4th at Singapore (Di Resta)Best grid position – 4th at Germany (Hulkenberg)Highlight of the season – Hulkenberg nearly winning the Brazilian GP before colliding with Lewis Hamilton

Williams

Williams, one of the best teams in F1 history had a disappointing season in 2011, scoring just 5 points. But in 2012 they improved a lot and at Spain, Pastor Maldonado took the team’s first victory since 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Like Sauber, they too were inconsistent (specially Maldonado) and the tight mid-field meant they could only in 8th place in constructors standings.

Talking about individual performances, Pastor Maldonado took the world by storm by winning the Spanish Grand Prix from pole. He also showed great signs of speed in qualifying (second in Singapore, for instance) but in the race, the story was different. Maldonado was responsible for multiple immature crashes throughout the year and thus became a part of jokes and memes on social media. The Venezuelan has the talent but just needs to control his mistakes.

Bruno Senna, while couldn’t win a race like his teammate, was the more consistent of the two picking up points regularly. In the end, he finished the season in 16th place with 31 points and doesn’t have a contract for 2013.

Best race finish – 1st at Spain (Maldonado)Best grid position – Pole at Spain (Maldonado)Highlight of the season – Maldonado taking a stunning win from pole at Spain

Toro Rosso

2012 has been a disappointing season for Toro Rosso. Their car was just not good enough and new drivers Jean Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo failed to impressed us. Toro Rosso finished the season down in 9th place, only ahead of Caterham, Marussia and HRT.

Daniel Ricciardo, who moved in from HRT couldn’t do much in that Toro Rosso. He was more consistent of the two, both in number of points finishes and in qualifying. Though, he did finish behind the French in points table. Sixth place grid slot at Bahrain was the highlight of his season.

While Jean Eric Vergne was quite poor in qualifying by considering the number of times he got eliminated in Q1, the Frenchman showed better results on race day, wrapping up 16 points and finishing ahead of Australian teammate in the standings.

Best race finish – 8th place finish at multple races (Vergne)Best grid position – 6th at Bahrain (Ricciardo)Highlight of the season – Ricciardo taking 6th place on the grid at Bahrain