7 Most Impressive Drivers So Far: Paul di Resta

Despite numerous and unforgivable mistakes from his team, Paul di Resta has shown grit and determination to bring positives out of entirely negative situations. 

Overall the Scot is a real hardened racing driver, something lacking in today's modern times. He pushes the car hard when he's given the opportunity and when the current formula is all about tyre management, he is considered one of the best when it comes to looking after the rubber.

His stand out performance has to have been Bahrain where he came incredibly close to securing a maiden podium, only to be ousted by Lotus's Romain Grosjean in a thrilling scrap. It just goes to show, the pace is there and the ability is constantly on show. But the one element letting him down and possibly the biggest component is the support of his team.

I'm not talking about lack of support like the kind Mark Webber and Felipe Massa have, I'm talking more along the lines for fortune and decent management. Di Resta has been let down massively by the team.

In Monaco, the team opted to stay out on inters after Paul had put in some front running lap times, a decision which cost di Resta to bow out in Q1 as low down as P17, somewhere were no driver wants to be. di Resta blamed it on poor decision making and called for the procedures to be cleaned up in order to prevent such mistakes from happening again. How did the Scot respond? By pulling major overtaking manoeuvres in places where no man thought possible.It was every other lap where he was taking someone on the outside of turn 1 which eventually lead him to secure P9 and 2 points for himself. Imagine what he could have done if his team had been on the ball.

You would then expect a team to go out and improve qualifying performance, but oh no. Someone clearly let monkey loose in the Force India garage after the team decided to alter a gearbox setting in Paul's car in the Canadian GP. This meant he missed optimum track performance and once again he missed the Q2 cut. The angry driver described the latest blunder as "unacceptable" and publicly blasted his team.

Rightly so, it's not on to make these mistakes back to back when you're racing in the pinnacle of motorsport, idiots who make these decisions need to be sat down and educated on what their blunders are doing to the team. Nevertheless, di Resta soldiered on to finish in 7th place, a master drive from a master-class driver.

Bizarrely, Paul was disqualified from qualifying at the British GP despite qualifying 9th. It was found that the Force India car was 1.5kg lighter than it should have been. It still remains a mystery whether Paul had some disastrous dinner the night before, resulting in him dropping a load of weight in the toilet, or if the team had made a blunder. Once again, he came back and finished in the points.

Qualifying still haunts di Resta and it is a real shame considering the potential of the car at the start of the season. Hopefully when he comes back he finds some magic and starts scoring big numbers.

On the bigger picture, he seems needs to be getting noticed. Already on the Ferrari and Red Bull shortlists, opportunities could also present themselves at Lotus and McLaren too. Paul has been very very good to Force India and this year they haven't really treated him the way he deserves. It's time he got into a race winning car soon and I believe his time is coming soon.

The Story So Far... Part Two

Last time out, I covered the progress of the majority of the rookie drivers in the Marussia and Caterham teams, along with Valtteri Bottas and his experienced team mate Pastor Maldonado in the Williams.

The midfield last season was extremely tight with Sauber making an immense leap forward in terms of pace and podium finishes. Force India showed us how far they have come and Toro Rosso put their young talent on display with just the one driver breaking through. All these teams (excluding Toro Rosso) have swapped about drivers but no driver change was as big when it was announced Lewis Hamilton would take over from Michael Schumacher who was forced into retirement by the move. 

Toro Rosso
The Red Bull feeder team has always been known for hiring rookies to promote to the bigger team, but in recent years they have failed to find any talent worth of replacing Mark Webber.

Last year, Daniel Ricciardo was heavily promoted as the more talented driver but he was consistently beaten by Jean-Eric Vergne's driving ability. This year the team has made a much improved leap forward, the same can be said for both drivers.

Eventually, Toro Rosso will ditch these two boys, I reckon they won't have bother finding work in Formula 1.

Daniel Ricciardo
His season didn't get off to the best start with the first two races, but his qualifying magic was duly present in China this year when he qualified 7th and finished 7th. Usually when a team achieves that kind of result on Saturday, it turns out to be a nightmare on Sunday, so he done a great job holding it all up.

With more people noticing JEV's talents, the pressure has been lifted off Daniel, which can only be a good thing.

He needs to focus on trying to beat his team mate. When a seat eventually becomes vacant at Red Bull, this is how he will be judged, and at the minute, the ball is in JEV's court.

Jean-Eric Vergne
I have always thought JEV (great nickname) has been a great driver. Considering he's only 3 points off last season's total already speaks for itself.

His qualifying performances have improved quite dramatically, and his scoring points more consistently is achievable because of a great car.

He is the ideal candidate to succeed Mark Webber because he has no ego and a great fan base. Should he keep this up, championship opportunities will be plentiful.

Force India
Me and this team did not get off to the best start this year. The fact they waited until the last minute to announce their second driver was extremely disrespectful.

When Adrian Sutil was unveiled, an opportunity had been missed in the form of Jules Biachi. His raw pace should have been shown in this car, not a lacklustre Marussia.

Monaco was a high point for the team with both drivers proving overtaking is possible.

Adrian Sutil
Instead of a world championship, Sutil has something more unique to his name, an ASBO. I'm not a fan of Sutil or second chances. The fact he got one annoys me when there were better options.

It's hard to argue though that this driver decision didn't work. So far he has proved he can still compete with the best that the midfield has to offer, and staying out of the spotlight has not hurt his reputation.

It's hard to say what's in store for him. The fact he has only ever driven for Force India (and their two previous outfit names) has to say something about what other teams think of him. His aim for the season should be to stay out of Paul's way.

Paul di Resta
2013 was a great start for the Scot, but then someone in his team said "let's f--k everything up." Seriously though the amount of mistakes made by his garage is ridiculous.

Then people criticise Paul for hitting out at them?! He has every right to be outraged. di Resta is going places in the world, but he is being let done by his own team. Engineers being paid thousands and then not being able to count and do their job?!

Despite all this, Paul has scored points in every round bar Malaysia. The battle is equal between him and Sutil so far, but as the season progresses so will Paul. In addition, the team will need to clean up their act pronto.

Sauber
The Swiss team undoubtedly managed to steal raw talent from Force India by recruiting Nico Hulkenberg. Granted the start to their season got off to an awful start for many reasons, Nico managed to fight back before falling into another slump.

I predicted this before the start of the season. Sauber tend to have issues when carrying over momentum from one season to another. After reaching podium heights last year, they have only managed to score 5 points so far. 

The biggest mistake was not letting go of Sergio Perez, but rather Kamui Kobayashi. The Japanese driver had huge talent but suffered at the hands of poor set up. They miss him greatly and instead, they hired what can only be described as a disaster.

Esteban Gutierrez 
The aforementioned disaster comes in the form of this furry (look at his eyebrows) little Mexican.

Like Perez before him, Sauber brought him in as the Mexican government funds the young driver, making him an extreme pay driver.

Let me assure you, NOTHING has payed off. He has proven to be an absolute danger to everyone around him. If he's not crashing into barriers he's crashing into title contenders such as Kimi Raikkonen.


He seems to have no awareness and once he's in the car, he acts like a newborn puppy, almost scared of his surroundings. Not to mention he's not even come close to scoring any points.

My hope is that he will be replaced soon. I can think of a number of better candidates, particularly Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen. His only purpose is bound to be his cash flow. Theey're probably keeping him around in order to gain enough money for next year, whenever Krazy Kob comes back (hopefully).

Nico Hulkenberg
The words; 'future world champion' come to mind, although that's based on his previous performances, this year it has not been great, that can be put down to the team though but not all the bucks can be passed.

He has been incredibly quiet this year, mostly scrapping from the back, very little opportunity to showcase true talent. He slumped after a double points finished but looked to be on the mend before he struck out in Canada. 

The move from Force India has not prospered for him at all and I feel bad for him. The only thing keeping Nico in the game is his dreadful team mate.

Just wait for Brazil though whenever Sebastian Vettel is trying to keep up with him around Interlagos!

Mercedes
The decision not to retain Michael Schumacher last year was painful. Love him or hate him, not hearing the name is absolutely crap.

Michael's departure was only the beginning of a board revolution. Followed out the door shortly by Norbert Haug, big names like Toto Wolff, Niki Lauda and reportedly, Paddy Lowe all joined to create an all star package of money, personality and brains. Team principle Ross Brawn has supposedly been cut out of the picture. His departure is still not for certain.

Despite the heavy hitters added to the background, the biggest talent on the grid joined (Fernando Alonso is all tied up at Ferrari) in the form of Lewis Hamilton.

I'm not one bit ashamed to admit I said that Mercedes were going to buckle under the weight of their own ambition this year and to be fair, the first two races they did.

Then the string of pole positions came. I was proven wrong, they had one lap speed. But race pace? Dreadful. 

Nobody could have predicted that they would be involved in the biggest scandal so far this year, but I'll have more on tyre gate soon.

Lewis Hamilton
The move away from McLaren must have hurt Lewis at a personal level. But there is no doubt it was a lucky one. He moved from disaster into an environment where he can be Lewis.

He's still looking for this first Mercedes win, but his pole positions were quite frequent. It's just the cars awful ability to look after the tyres. The situation really came home in Barcelona when he snapped back saying [to his engineer] "I can't go any slower."

Considering the majority of the rest of the season is filled with permanent race tracks (harder on tyre wear) he will struggle to find that first win. Rest assure, it will happen.

The best thing about Lewis this season is his new dog, Roscoe. SO ADORABLE (I'm a dog lover).

Nico Rosberg
I am very, very glad Nico got the first win for the all new Mercedes this year. There was too much hype and attention over Lewis. Autosport at a four page article nearly every week about him and it got sickening.

Nico managed to achieve three consecutive pole positions and the (supposed) biggest win of the year at Monaco, thirty years after his father. 

The season has been great to him so far. His tyre management is significantly better than Lewis's, although a lot off the field.

Backing both drivers never worked for Mercedes in the past, but it's not possible to back Nico over Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher, that was never going to happen. Solace should be found in what he has achieved so far. Moving to another team around Mercedes where he is the number one focus would definitely benefit his career.

Remember, McLaren will be joining forces with Honda again and even though I am sceptical, it could bring back wonderful feelings to the team. I don't think they will want to keep Jenson Button or Perez around any longer. 

Nico Rosberg could easily find his Nirvana at McLaren.

McLaren-Honda

The BBC has yet again proven their insight to the future is precise and accurate when it comes to delivering breaking news about Formula 1. Way back in March of this year, the BBC F1 team revealed that McLaren were in talks with their former engine partners Honda about securing a new deal for a supply of engines.

McLaren have been supplied by Mercedes since 1995 and have won the constructors championship just once. They could have had two if it wasn't for the spy-gate scandal in 2007.

McLaren-Honda will always be remembered for the period of domination the pair held over the sport during 1988 until 1992, a period where they won four constructors titles. 1988 was a particular stand out season where Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won every race bar one for the Woking team.

With statistics in hand, it's easy to see why they have elected to go back to the Japanese manufacturers, but let's not forget Honda's chequered history in Formula 1. From 1964-1968 they won only two races before electing to pull out of the sport. They would continue to supply engines to teams but they entered a factory team from 2006-2008. Success would prove very minimal again with Jenson Button winning only one race. Then just as easy as a click of the fingers, they pulled the plug on Formula 1 yet again, leaving Button and his team mate Rubens Barrichello without a drive for the following season. Fortunately for them, Ross Brawn put money into the team and would go on to complete a fairy tale story in 2009.

It definitely seems that Honda should stick to making engines and engines alone, but F1 has moved on leaps and bounds from the late 80s/early 90s. There is so much more affecting cars now than engines, look at the mess Pirelli has got the sport in.

The deal is for 2015, which means for the first season of the brand new 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engines in 2014, McLaren will have to run whatever Mercedes gives them.

Renault 2014 Engine.

What happens though if things don't go as planned, what if McLaren do become the new Williams (an article you must read by my friend over at Let's Talk F1) and become a former shadow of themselves? They are very happy to end any relationship with F1 if things don't go their way. It's a very big risk and as this season has shown, big risks do not pay off for McLaren.

One of the other worries I have is that they want to keep on Jenson Button for this new era. I've had some issues with Jenson's attitude this season but setting them aside for the moment, by the time this deal comes I reckon there will be plenty of thriving talent from other drivers. Paul di Resta, the Toro Rosso boys, even Jules Bianchi in the Marussia looks good. If they are hell bent on making this an entirely new era then I say ditch Jenson. He's a great driver and a phenomenal talent, but there isn't another title fight in him. His luck unfortunately ran out with Lewis Hamilton as his team mate, and Adrian Newey gifting Red Bull with title wins for three years. 

Don't get me wrong, he's made his own mistakes but the point I am trying to make is that a fresh perspective in driving should be accompanied by fresh driver line up. 

In my eyes, the move is too risky. I've said it many times before but 2014 will be a lottery in terms of who will be on top. I'm going with Renault because they seem to be the only engine manufacturer who have made progress, and with them looking to supply less teams in 2014, the demand will be fierce. 

I personally would have shelved the idea of bringing in a new deal with Honda. History looks good but it has also been brief and not looking great in the long term. Stability is what McLaren need, I fear with Honda they may not get it.

Team Battles Occurring Early On & Remembering Ayrton Senna

Starting off, I'd like to apologise for my lack of activity. Poor connectivity to Twitter and the internet have all resulted in an F1 blackout, plus whenever Vettel flukes a win, nobody wants to write anything. Starting today I will be posting a blog everyday. Keep up to date on Twitter @Houston60. Also over on Let's Talk F1 I'll be continuing my 'Where Are They Now?' series.

When team mates clash, the whole world suddenly stops in disbelief. "Did he just do that?" Sometimes the blame is evident, sometimes it is not. Everyone even if they were not born during the era saw the most famous crash between team mates when it was depicted in the movie Senna, whenever Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost came together at Suzuka 1989. The most famous one of my era definitely has to be Turkey 2010 whenever Sebastian Vettel saw fit to drive like a maniac into Mark Webber, and then had the audacity to blame it on Webber. Not wanting to get into that argument now but my point is they don't happen often. 

This is why it is a shock that we've seen three already this season! Is this a theme we're going to see? Will Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado play up to their old habits and take out their Finnish team mates? Will the new dangerous drivers in Esteban Gutierrez and Giedo van der Garde create grey hairs on their bosses heads? I'm gonna take a look at the team mate clashes we've had so far this season.

Malaysia - Vettel proving that he is without a shadow of a doubt, an utter bell end.

Even though they didn't physically come together, the fallout from the puppet boy's ignorance and disregard for his team and our sport proved that the fake three time world champion is nothing more than a boy in a man's world. Vettel ignored orders from his bosses to steal the win from Webber who had turned his whole car down to minimum power to save rubber and fuel. 

Given the pair's rocky history, many Formula 1 commentators (me included) predicted that the incident was the straw that broke Webber's back, and as a result foresee that Webber will find fields anew next season. Even if it's a step down, it would still be better than being oppressed by every single Red Bull employee.

China - Feel the Force... On each other?

It seems that Adrian Sutil doesn't release his inner hulk on just his rivals. he also saves a bit for his own team mate. During the opening laps Paul di Resta was battling to get up the field but was eventually pushed wide by his team mate. Contact did occur but nothing serious to damage anyone's race. Racing incident or not, it all came back to Sutil after he endured a massive shunt from the most dangerous man in 2013, Esteban Gutierrez.



Bahrain - How can it get any worse?


If it's not an absolutely dismal qualifying performance, it's poor race pace, but on this particular day it was both and worse. McLaren have always had a "no team orders policy," one which we all thoroughly enjoy. But I guess Jenson Button only enjoys it when it's going his way. For the first time this season, Sergio Perez showed his class and produced a near classy drive. That was until he got too greedy and suddenly wanted a bite out of Button's car. The Brit was quick to get on the radio and complain, but that was the only speedy aspect of his race. it was only a little push, these things happen all of the time, and to tell your boss to tell your team mate to slow down is very Vettel-ish, and therefore frowned upon. Jenson needs to grow up quick and realise that it's a team effort in order to turn their season around. Checo's performance in this race was just what they needed. Combine that with Jenson's master-class and some big updates at Barcelona, and you've got yourself a tidier package. 

Three consecutive races with three consecutive team mate incidents is a heart stopping scenario, especially for the team bosses. Like me, they (and the rest) will be hoping they don't see any repeats. But can that be guaranteed? 

We all know Perez has A LOT on the line, and Webber WILL be looking for revenge. 2013 could throw up just about anything at the minute, but inter team collisions is something nobody wants.

Gone But Never Forgotten

RIP Ayrton Senna.

On the 13th of May 1994, not only did Formula 1 lose its leading light, the world lost a wonderful human being.

I never got the chance to watch Ayrton drive, I only have to watch archive footage to know that he was something special.

There was more to the man than just motor racing. He was a hero, a saint to his people in Brazil. Never letting the glam and glitter of Formula 1 divert him from his true cause, helping people especially children out of poverty.

The world sorely needs more Ayrton Senna's in it. Throughout his life he emphasised that family is key to a happy and healthy life. As much as a phenomenon that he was on track, I'll chose to celebrate Ayrton Senna's life through his actions as a person during his time on Earth.

Gone, but never, ever forgotten.

Bahrain Belongs To Boring Vettel

"Leave it up to Sebastian Vettel to make winning a Grand Prix boring"

I'd like to start off by giving you my sincerest apologises for the lack of coverage this weekend. I work most Sunday's but that's not excuse for qualifying. Truth be told Bahrain bores me, and I would never have predicted Nico Rosberg getting pole.

It was actually an okay race, a great race in terms of Bahrain. But leave it up to Sebastian Vettel to make winning a Grand Prix boring. How anybody can call that a great drive is beyond me, he coasted because once again he got his luck of everybody else's misfortunes. I've now come to the conclusion that Fernando Alonso is just really unlucky, or some things are not meant to be; like winning a world championship at Ferrari.

Due to Alonso's season so far, Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen is emerging as the only challenger to the puppet boy's title.Even though a solid drive (issues with his start again) from 8th to 2nd is a great drive from my favourite driver, for the second race in a row my driver of the day (joint with the next guy) goes to his team mate Romain Grosjean. Grosjean is showing top form at the minute, like his perfectly controlled overtake on Rosberg on lap 20. He has come on leaps and bounds, and I'm really happy for him.

My other drive of the day has to go to my man, Paul di Resta! After giving off 'Kimi-style' over the radio during qualifying, the Scot took all of his talent out of the box and through it in everybody's face today.Granted with the tyres and his Force India car he was never in for the win, but his 1st podium was definitely on and in a way I am gutted for him. He will be filled full of confidence and will be coming in to Barcelona with a vengeance!

What happened to the pole sitter? The same thing that happened to his team mate (coincidently on pole in China), Mercedes do not have race pace. I knew it was too good to be true, and I thought the occasion may have got to Lewis Hamilton last week, but it's apparent now the car is a little behind in terms of out right pace. Their McLaren rivals had a better race this week. Great inter-team rivalry on track from Jenson Button and Sergio Perez was marred by Button running Sergio off the track, but the Mexican got his revenge by finishing higher than the Brit. Jenson needs to calm down but more importantly, the team need to tell themselves that if one driver has the pace during a race, the other should just fall back. More points would be guaranteed.

 After the Grand Prix Jenson has stated that Perez drove dangerously. No Jenson, he drove with a desire for success, you've gotten lazy my very beautiful friend. Get back in the game.

DANGEROUS
Move over Grosjean and Maldonado, there's new wreckin' boys. I have to say, I would not have noticed unless a friend pointed it out to me before today's race, but Giedo van der Garde is becoming a very dangerous driver. An unsafe release was one thing but he completely melted down by t-boning Jean-Eric Vergne. He's still not as bad as Esteban Gutierrez. It's time we found that wee fella's suitcase and send him back, he still has much to learn.

A NOTE TO PIRELLI
I've had enough, and I am finally on board with the rest of the F1 fans, Pirelli either need to make these tyres last or get Bridgestone to show them how it's done, because I am sick and tired of seeing a piece of rubber dictate how the best drivers in the world (and Sebastian Vettel) drive their cars.

Paul Hembry's response to Felipe Massa's wheel falling off the rim was an absolute disgrace.

"Massa's been unlucky"

Aye, unlucky to be a customer of yours you fat bast**d.

PROTESTS
I don't care what you're living conditions are, or how badly you're being treated, DO NOT bring YOUR problems into the world's stage. Sport should not be about external politics. These are politics related to a country's way of running things, and all other politics that are not involved inside the sport. Take a look at this guy:

Somebody should tell that dick his photo is from the wrong era. So not only can you not deal with your own problems correctly, you make an arsehole of yourself doing it. Ass hat.

I'm quite content with the result. I'm just gutted because I know the Lotus won't have the luck and fortune over the worlds most luckiest blond boy. I still believe Kimi is the man to win, but he will not have an easy time doing it.

FINAL RACE RESULTS (BBC):

1. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1hr 36min 00.498secs

2. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus +00:09.111

3. Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus 00:19.507

4. Paul Di Resta (GB) Force India 00:21.727

5. Lewis Hamilton (GB) Mercedes 00:35.230

6. Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren 00:35.998

7. Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 00:37.244

8. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 00:37.574

9. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 00:41.126

10. Jenson Button (GB) McLaren 00:46.631

11. Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 01:06.450

12. Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber 01:12.933

13. Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 01:16.719

14. Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 01:21.511

15. Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari 01:26.364

16. Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso +1 lap

17. Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham 1 lap

18. Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber 1 lap

19. Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia 1 lap

20. Max Chilton (GB) Marussia 1 lap

21. Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham 2 laps

retd Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso 41 laps

Preview: 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

UPDATE 10/04/13: The track preview would not load so I inserted a new one.

After the icy conditions on the top of the podium after round one in Australia, Kimi Raikkonen leads the driver's championship ahead of Fernando Alonso and world champion Sebastian Vettel. After the dominance of the Red Bulls in free practice and qualifying, we were shocked to see Vettel being caught by Felipe Massa of all people. The Sepang circuit hopefully will work out to be as exciting as last year, maybe even more so.

Track profile courtesy of Viva F1

The circuit is of Herman Tilke design and unlike his other anti-great-racing tracks, Sepang is surprisingly a great watch even with his signature run off areas. The wide track runs for 3.4 miles and features 15 great turns with a signature double hairpin double straight. The rules this year state each track must have two DRS zones where feasible, but for some reasons the organisers and FIA couldn't find a place to set a second one. I can see 5 places for another one but whatever.

This track debuts the orange walled hard compound tyres which will partner the option medium tyre. This will come as a relief especially to Jenson Button in his struggling McLaren who's tyres fell off after lap 4. Downforce levels are quite high along with high tyre wear, but the demand on brakes is not that hard so tyre management may play a background role this time around.

One of the worst features about the circuit is that the race takes place during monsoon season. This means I could almost guarantee you a wet race but I was wrong last week!

Last year, Fernando Alonso shocked us all in his supposedly off pace Ferrari by winning in the wet however what no one could have predicted was Sergio Perez getting his first F1 podium, from a position where he could have won hadn't he went off track. 

Preview

McLaren won't be praying for a wet race, they'll be praying for no one to show up, that's the only chance they'll get for a strong race, and even then I reckon some of the GP2 machines could challenge them.

Red Bull became the complete package last week as they showed they can finally challenge in the race, and with long straights there's a very good chance for a trademark Vettel run away, although if the right person is chasing him i.e. Kimi or Fernando, he'll not get it as easy as he used to. 

For me, last week showed none of the midfield teams made any real leaps forward, bar Force India who showed that both Adrian Sutil (to my disdain, he had a great race) and Paul di Resta can challenge the points pack. The other surprise came from Mercedes who I thought would not do as well, Nico Rosberg's retirement was bad luck nothing to do with performance. Expect effort from all these drivers.

Qualifying

A Red Bull lockout two sessions in a row? Probably, and in the wet I can't see it being any different. If Raikkonen can win from P7 though, anything can be achieved from all the guys.

The Race

If it throws up a wet one (which I hope) it'll be hard to imagine what is possible. Because of McLaren's shambles of a car, Button is out of the wet game, leaving Alonso the only expert. That being said Vettel seems to have pretty good running pace so he won't have it all his own way.

After a very quiet first round, Romain Grosjean will hope to remain incident free and will be searching for more points. Nico Hulkenberg will have his first race here after he failed to make the Aussie grid, playing catchup is never a good season starter but if any man can pull it off, it's him.

Nobody ever wants a wet race, but I think we need to see an early on in order to get an idea of how these cars perform in the race under wet conditions.

Jerez: Day Three

Day Three saw even more driver switches with some stepping into the car for the first time like, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Pic, Jean-Eric Vergne and Valtteri Bottas. This was the biggest day for me as it saw The Iceman step into the E21 for the first time and I wasn't disappointed.

Final Standings

1. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m17.879s
2. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m18.766s
3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m19.052s
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 1m19.200s
5. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m19.247s
6. James Rossiter (Force India) 1m19.303s
7. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m19.603s
8. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m19.934s
9. Max Chilton (Marussia) 1m21.269s
10. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m21.575s
11. Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m22.352s
12. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m23.729s

After a pretty quiet and bleak start to testing, Ferrari's Felipe Massa topped the time sheets, a stark contrast to this time last year for the team and the Tifosi. 

This was a day of many positives for a lot of teams. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel managed to repeat the similar set times by his team mate in the days before him, showing just how consistent the RB9 is at this stage. Though be under no illusion I'm sure it'll be absolutely magnificent as Newey always makes it. So long as there's no repeat of 2011 we'll be fine. Max Chilton managed to beat Charles Pic in the battle of the back markers. The greatest achievement was Nico Rosberg finally getting a good lap out of the Mercedes to go second overall.

More disappointment for Jenson Button and McLaren as his time wasn't overly quick and he stopped towards the end of the session. Valtteri Bottas (who was the subject of my very first blog) was a bit of a disappointment for me, but a reminder here that Williams are running their 2012 car with 2013 livery and some 2013 parts. We will not see the full potential until Barcelona.

Jerez: Day Two

Day two saw a few driver changes, such as Perez, Hamilton, Razia and Force India's James Rossiter got to run a few laps towards the end of the session.

Final Standings

1. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1m18.218s
2. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m19.003s
3. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m19.134s
4. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1m19.338s
5. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m19.502s
6. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m19.519s
7. Sergio Perez (McLaren) 1m19.572s
8. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m19.914s
9. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1m20.693s
10. James Rossiter (Force India) 1m21.273s
11. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m21.311s
12. Luiz Razia (Marussia) 1m23.537s

Romain Grosjean affirmed team boss Eric Boullier's prediction of competitive times when he set the fastest lap time of the session and the test so far. He was nearly 0.8s quicker than the next car down, which just happened to be another blinder of a session by Paul di Resta.

Day two was an extremely tight session with seven cars being split by under a second. Both van der Garde (typing his name out is going to be a bag of fun this season  and Razia went quicker than the teams previous times (Chilton ran day one) with the Caterham still ahead.

Without doubt the biggest disappointment of the day came from Lewis Hamilton (albeit not his fault). His maiden run for his brand new team ended in disaster when his brakes failed, rendering him a passenger as his car headed for the tyres. Luckily he was unharmed but the problem couldn't be mended in time to get him back out. Two major problems in two days is pushing it, even for testing. He remained fairly upbeat and he was posting fairly quick times before the failure. There was hope yet.

Jerez: Day One

Welcome to my take on the first pre-season test in Jerez! We got our first glimpses of the cars that will make our lives so much more interesting come mid March! Bare in mind that no matter what my opinion, I am still very adamant that there is no existing correlation between test pace and actual race pace.

Final Standings

1. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m.18.861s
2. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1m.19.709s
3. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1m.19.796s
4. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m.20.343s
5. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m.20.401s
6. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m.20.536s
7. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m.20.699s
8. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m.20.846s
9. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1m.20.864s
10. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m.21.915s
11. Max Chilton (Marussia) 1m.24.176s

Rosberg had managed to set the fastest time at one point but his running was ended whenever his Mercedes F1W04 hit mechanical issues. A fault in the car produced mass flames from the rear. This was the second time the session was red flagged. The first came whenever Button's McLaren MP4-28 showed it's consistency early on. Consistency that is in the form of reliability issues. The disappointment ended there, whenever the team managed to get the car going again he posted the quickest lap of the session.

Romain Grosjean managed to keep Lotus's brand new E21 out of the gravel and out of other cars as he produced a wonderful set of laps placing his car in third behind Mark Webber's RB9. Paul di Resta was the quickest of the midfield teams pipping Ferrari's Felipe Massa, a feat also achieved by Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo.

Giedo van der Garde started off his new career on a high after going two seconds quicker than fellow back marker Max Chilton in the Marussia.

A great crop of drivers kicked off testing, day one (like the majority of pre-season tests) is usually the day when niggles like seating issues are addressed and if things didn't go wrong, then that's when people should start getting worried. McLaren and Mercedes will have questioned why both their respective cars developed faults and how to prevent them happening again in the future. This is why for me there were no real disappoints for day one.