March is the time of any year that has petrol-heads buzzing. Formula One comes around after a conspicuously enticing winter season. The first third practice session of the year, becomes a must-watch event, ahead of even the first qualifying and race.
Other elements abound as well, the rules foremost. In 2014, we will see challengers drawn on a clean sheet of paper, from scratch, a promise in itself. Yet, 2013 is a special year. It is the final season for this prevalent set as most cars have turned out to be 'evolutionary'. The competition is anticipated to be closer than ever-before, once the teams do figure out the new Pirellis. Red Bull will be in the mix as always. Ferrari are expected to be there, at least Fernando Alonso is.
The testing season has given enough hints about the Bulls' pace. They have been underplaying things, covering up their cars with due diligence, doing long runs and not making too much noise. In contrast, Ferrari have made some noise, about being ahead of where they were placed same time last season. They understand their car a lot better than last year, something McLaren do not boast of.
Easily the quickest car by the end of 2012, it is a wonder why they decided not to continue evolving the MP4-27. A plausible reasoning could be that they extracted the maximum possible out of their car. As good as their development process is McLaren's reactions after testing haven't been encouraging. There is also the buzz that they have prepared a spec-B car which adheres to a different design fundamental, although it seems a bit over-reaching, both in terms of time and cost. Either Jenson Button or Sergio Perez (or both) should be in the mix for wins at some point during the year.
It will be very surprising if they aren't, for McLaren doing well is in sync with what you come to expect from any F1 season nowadays. Like, Romain Grosjean causing a huge shunt, Sauber producing a good car but somehow failing to win, Williams not fully exploiting their team's potential, Force India's form following ebbing and flowing like a tidal wave and Kimi Raikkonen giving us an uber-cool moment.
However, the probability of another duel between Sebastian Vettel and Alonso, or the poker mayhem caused by Pirellis, or comic pit-stops put out by McLaren and a zillion other certainties do not excite as much as one other happenstance. Lewis Hamilton's move to Mercedes is what makes this 2013 season stellar already, even before an engine roars out in racing anger.
His story is one of alternating emotions. Unless you were British or a die-hard McLaren fan, it wasn't one that instantly appealed to many F1 fans around the world. Here came a kid, nurtured by McLaren, and just got placed in arguably the quickest machinery on the F1 grid and had the audacity to challenge Alonso's race-craft in his first season. It seemed too easy a story to tell, enhanced more so by that narrow championship win in 2008.
In a free-wheeling chat during the inaugural Indian GP in 2011, his father Anthony talked about 'his son's desire to race', one not fuelled by means when they first started out. Over the years, with his driving and personal life under scrutiny, Lewis has been called many things. The one that rings out loudest among them is an adage not showered on many, 'a pure racer'.
Driving a McLaren Lewis was a sight to behold, mostly a silver dash with more than a hint of red. He could drive the car quick, and could go quicker thereafter. In any of his six seasons with McLaren, you will not remember one radio message that talked about saving machinery or preserving tyres. He was always pushing, on the limit. There aren't many drivers on this grid who could have hounded a weaving Michael Schumacher, liked he did at Monza (Italian GP, 2011). He never slowed down, sometimes crossing the line when Felipe Massa or Pastor Maldonado came in sight.
A school of thought says it was his decision to leave and there is no reason for McLaren to feel pressure. But here's the crux of the matter, the guy who left them was a sure-shot race-winner. In 2009, he outdrove Heikki Kovalainen in what was a very slow car, absent double-diffuser. A year later, when Bridgestone brought its snooze-fest, he pushed his non-degrading tyres to breaking point, in Malaysia, Canada and Belgium. Perez is good, he showed that amply last year, but is he as good as Lewis?
The other thought concerns Lewis' fans more pertinently. Mercedes still lack downforce, despite purple times over short-runs set in Barcelona testing. Whether they have tided over tyre-degradation problems remains to be seen. To say that a championship win is a very long shot this year wouldn't be wrong. In fact, this entire experiment might even fall flat, just as it did for Schumacher.
But here's the catch. Lewis is coming from driving a faster machinery, a car which generated good downforce and was the best among its field on several occasions. He knows what inputs to give, can generate ideas and drive Mercedes' development as their technical super-force at Brackley thinks about improving the car in any one particular direction. Is it possible that this aspect was missing from Schumacher's inputs, owing to a massive change in cars since he left in 2006 and a lack of testing round the year.
In that, there is a parallel from 2007, when the seven-time Champion first left the sport and Lewis stepped into the limelight, an unknown quantity who shone instantly in a mad world. It feels déjà vu. This time around, truth be told, things are a little different. Even so, the world is watching, with bated breath, waiting for him to drive that silver car, one with a speck of turquoise green.
Chetan Narula
