David Hobbs' Notes on 2011 F1

The 2011 season starts with a clean sheet of paper as a number of rule changes were instituted during the off season.

The biggest change is that long time tyre supplier Bridgestone, has been replaced by Pirrelli. This is a huge change and will be a challenge for all the teams to make their cars match the tyres construction and compounds.

The big diffusers have also been banned, so a lot of downforce has gone away, which all the engineers will be trying to make up again.

KERS are being reintroduced. Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems were used by some teams in 2009. Mercedes and Ferrari seemed to have the best systems. They have been brought back to make F1 greener and more relevant. They are like a Hybrid as they store energy which the car throws off in braking and running and can then be released in short bursts to help overtaking.

Last year the driver could change the angle of his front wing. This year this is banned but he can now open the slot in his rear wing. This is also to assist in overtaking, but the rules that apply as to when you can use it are pretty mind numbing and we will have to wait until after the first race to see how well it will work in practice.

Finally, McLaren came up with a device in 2010 called the F duct. This was driver operated and spilled air over the rear wing causing less drag on long straights. It was very dubious from the start as movable aerodynamic devises are not allowed, except of course now the rear wing, however I digress. In spite of everyone's doubts about the legality, nothing was done by the governing body and so by the end of the year everyone had Fducts. Well now they are banned.

In spite of the major technical challenges presented to the teams as we go to press - the Red Bull engineering department seems to have come out completely unphased.

2010 was one of, if not the most exciting and closely fought championship ever, with the ultimate Champ, Sebastian Vettel going into the last round in third place. This was only about the second time in fifty years that this has happened.

Red Bull was certainly the team to beat last year although both Ferrari and McLaren had some very good multi race runs but Red Bull was always strong and won both the drivers and constructors championships. Unfortunately, for the others, that is history looks like it may repeat itself.

The teams are in the middle of a four day test, the last test of the year, at Barcelona, and things are looking very good for Red Bull again. Both drivers have taken turns at being quickest over the last two days and were on top in the previous tests. I would have to say this makes Vettel favourite for the title again as he has more speed in him than Webber.

Now so far we have only seen testing but the real test of course is racing itself so things will become much clearer after the Australian round in two weeks.

So far Red Bull are looking very strong but Ferrari too seem to have come up with a stronger package than last year and Fernando Alonso could have a crack at a third title if car development continues well. He has a great feel for changes and works very well with his engineers at development. Felipe Massa is going to find this a very trying year as he struggles to keep up with Alonso and may well end up driving for his job.

McLaren have got off to a terrible start, they made a lot of radical changes to the car for the 2011 season and the car has not been very fast. Worse it has been very unreliable and they have completed less than half the laps of either Red Bull or Ferrari, both of which have been very reliable. Neither Jenson Button or Lewis Hamilton both World champions, have given up yet, nor have McLaren but if they lose too many points early on it will be impossible to catch up.

Renault had a very different exhaust system on for the first test in Valencia which seemed to work very well, as on the opening day Robert Kubica, one of the four fastest drivers on the grid, set the top time. Disaster struck the team though before the second test as Robert had a huge accident driving a rally car and nearly had his arm torn off. He had many hours of surgery but it is doubtful if he will make the grid this year. His old teammate when they both drove for BMW, Nick Heidfeldt, is filling the seat while Kubica recovers. Nick too has been quite quick in testing, so Renault are in there.

Williams too have made some big changes to their car. They have an ultra small and low gear box.  This allows very low bodywork at the rear, keeping more air over and under the rear wing. They ditched their rookie driver Nico Hulkenberg at the end of last season - in my view a terrible mistake as he showed a lot of form towards the end of the year, taking pole in very bad conditions in Brazil. They replace him with another rookie, last years GP2 champ, Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado. He comes with 15 million Us dollars so it was a bit of a no brainer but he is not the driver that Hulkenberg is.

Mercedes Benz have the same driver line up as before, 7 time World champ Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. This team is run by Ross Brawn, who helped Michael win those championships at Bennetton and Ferrari. Brawn bought the team for one dollar from Honda, who in 2009 funded the team, now with Mercedes power and with Button at the wheel Ross won the world championship again. Mercedes have now bought the team from him no doubt for many millions, so all in all Ross has done very well!! The car has shown some form in testing but according to Ross they need to find another second. That is a lot of time in racing!

Force India also with Mercedes and McLaren running gear has been going quite well but they will be struggling for points. They have taken on Scot Paul Di Resta to join Adrian Sutil as their driver line up. Di Resta won last year's DTM (German Touring Car) championship driving for Mercedes and 4 years ago beat Sebastian Vettel to the F3 title so the lad obviously has speed. Will he be able to show it in a Force India though. His main task will be to beat Adrian Sutil. Di Resta is the cousin of Dario Franchitti, another Scot with an Italian name. Dario is the current Indy 500 and Indycar series champ.

Scuderia Torro Rosso with their Ferrari engines have been showing some pace. Their drivers remain the same. Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, this team will be duking it out with the Sauber team, also with Ferrari power for best of the rest. Sauber have the youngest driver line. Mexico is again on the grid with driver Sergio Perez, one of last years top GP2 drivers, he has big backing from the worlds richest man - Carlos Slim.

The rest I'm afraid will probably remain the same as last year, all newcomers to F1 in 2010 and none of these teams scored a point. They are Lotus, which now has Renault power not Cosworth, Hispania Racing with Cosworth and Virgin racing, also with Cosworth, I suspect all these teams will find it very difficult to make any meaningful impression on the championship this year. Lotus with Renault probably have the best chance.

Looking forward to another exciting season. See you on SPEED.

David Hobbs