The driver changes for the 2013 F1 season – Formula 1 Special – Part 1
The 2012 Formula 1 season has ended and the teams are now preparing for the 2013 F1 season. The new season will begin with some minor changes like Pirelli introducing new compounds while the car remains quite the same. The technical regulations also have
not changed much but the changes which are of much more significance are the drivers who will be making their F1 debut.
F1 teams who will be beginning the new season with these new drivers include Sauber F1, Williams F1, and Marussia.
Sauber F1 has picked Esteban Gutierrez who is a Mexican racing driver. He has the experience of competing in many categories of motorsports that include Karting, Formula BMW Series, Formula 3 Euro Series, GP2 and GP3. He is the winner of the Formula BMW
European championship and was only 17 years old at that time which makes him the youngest Mexican driver ever to win an International racing competition.
He had tested for the Sauber F1 team in December 2009 and was later announced as the reserve driver for them. Gutierrez will be joining Nico Hulkenberg who has transferred from Force India so Sauber will be racing with a completely new driver line up in
2013. The team will most likely benefit from Hulkenberg’s pace and Esteban’s young talent.
Williams F1 is continuing with their Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado who surprisingly won the Spanish Grand Prix this past season bringing the team’s first victory since 2004. However, they have replaced his teammate from 2012, Bruno Senna with Williams
former reserve driver Valtteri Bottas.
Bottas has performed in Formula three Euro Series and GP3. The Finnish driver had been on contract with Williams F1 in 2012 to drive Senna’s car during 15 Friday practice sessions. His experience of the tracks through the practice sessions is bound to help
the team to perform even better next year.
Marussia has chosen Max Chilton who will be joining as another British driver of F1. Chilton has performed in Karting, Formula three, GP2 Series and Formula Renault 3.5 Series. He also comes from a background that is enthusiastic of racing; his father being
the proprietor for Carlin Motorsports.
Marussia is one of the three teams that debuted in 2010 but have failed to make it to top ten yet and nearly missed the tenth place to Caterham at the end of the 2012 F1 season. British drivers like Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton have already won the F1
championship once in their careers and it remains to be seen if Chilton will be able to follow in their footsteps.
Unfortunately, there are also drivers who will not be seen performing in 2013, while the above young drivers will be having their first taste of driving for F1. These include Sauber F1’s Kamui Kobayashi, Williams F1’s Bruno Senna, HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan
and Pedro de la Rosa, and of course the legendary Michael Schumacher.
Kamui Kobayashi lost his chance with Sauber F1 after they selected their new driver line up but after that he could not bring the required sponsorship to secure any other racing seat either. Kobayashi tried to raise money through his personal website and
was successful at gathering €8 million. He also gained support of some Japanese companies but it was too late so he finally announced that he will not be in action for the 2013 F1 season. The Japanese recently denied taking part in any other racing categories
while thanking all the people who had donated the money.
Continued in part 2...
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