Steve Slater on Formula One: Back to the future in 2014

If you had for some reason been away from Formula One news for a season or two and were to return in March next year, you might think nothing had changed. The starting grid for the 2014 season appears to have reverted back in time.

Kimi Raikkonen is at Ferrari and Nico Hulkenberg at Force India. Meanwhile Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado are trying to attract the teams with both dollars and driving skill, and the talented Paul di Resta is still trying to find a steady job.

Financial pressures have seen drivers’ career paths take a backward step, putting them back in seats they vacated years ago. It all started with Kimi Raikkonen’s decision to move from Lotus, back to his old home at Ferrari.

Much was made of the fact that Kimi wasn’t paid for much of this season. Certainly, the Lotus team has being going through financially strained times, as expected funding from an Emirati investor has been ever later in arriving.

However Kimi was equally driven by the knowledge that this parsimony meant a slow-down in development work, which means that the Lotus may not be as competitive in 2014 as it has been this year. When Massa’s former seat at Ferrari became available, Kimi pounced.

That was a bitter blow for Nico Hulkenberg. It was generally accepted that his move to Sauber from Force India at the start of this season was to gain him experience of the Sauber’s Ferrari power unit and engineers, ahead of a future move to the Scuderia.

When that path was blocked, logic should then have dictated that Hulkenberg was the ideal man for the vacant seat at Lotus. The team clearly thought so to. Hulkenberg even flew to their base in England to have a seat fitting.

However Hulkenberg has resolutely refused to meddle with complex personal sponsorship deals to bring money to a prospective team. In Hulkenberg’s case you pay your money, about 10 million dollars they say, and you get a very quick driver. Simple.

Lotus instead opted for Pastor Maldonado. They clearly decided that any difference in pace would be made up for by an estimated 35 million dollars of support from the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA.

Once again history has repeated itself. After a strong 2010 debut season, Hulkenberg was booted out of the Williams team in favor of Maldonado and his sponsor package. It led to a year in the background as a Force India test driver, before being promoted to a race seat with the team in 2012.

While it is easy to give incident-prone Maldonado the tag of ‘pay driver’ whose dollars have bought him his place, that I think is wrong. On his day he is a proven race winner, as demonstrated by his domination of the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix in the unfancied Williams.

Lotus too, has demonstrated they can handle a fast but mercurial driver. The turn-around of Romain Grosjean from hooligan to hero this season could be repeated again next year. Lotus could be the making of Maldonado.

Meanwhile Force India boss Vijay Mallya must be rubbing his hands with glee. Sergio Perez is waving his Mexican sponsors’ pesos in Force India’s direction and it seems there is a bidding war going on between Perez and Sutil for the remaining seat. The “war of the wads” though is bad news for
Paul di Resta.

Di Resta arrived in Formula One at the Mercedes-powered Force India team as a Mercedes protégé after winning the 2010 German DTM Touring Car series for the car maker. He was tipped to be the natural replacement for Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes GP team. That of course was thwarted by Lewis Hamilton’s arrival and some think his Mercedes money has reduced in consequence.

Where next? Many believe he will revert to the DTM series with Mercedes backing. Others think he may move to the American Indy Car series, where his cousin Dario Franchitti was a champion before retiring after injury this season, leaving a vacant place at Ganassi Racing. Certainly a move to either
will be that sport’s gain and Formula One’s loss.