Driver-by-driver 2013 season review
From Sebastian Vettel to Max Chilton, we dissect and rate how the 22-man class of 2013 fared during the season just gone
Thursday 28 November 2013 10:58, UK
Fernando Alonso
Championship position - 2nd; Points - 242; Best result - 1st (x2)
It was another impressive season for Alonso, even though Ferrari once again failed to deliver the car the Spaniard needed to challenge Sebastian Vettel for the title - his comment of wanting "someone else's car" for his birthday sums up the Scuderia's recent offerings. He dominated the intra-team battle, finishing with over twice as many points as Felipe Massa, proving how much more he was extracting from the F138. Moves such as the overtakes on Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap in Barcelona on his way to victory also underlined that Alonso had lost none of his natural racing ability. An area where the 32-year-old needs to improve, however, is qualifying having been beaten eight times by Massa this season and failing to make it onto the front two rows of the grid between Bahrain and Brazil. WE
2013 rating: 8/10 Felipe Massa
Championship position - 8th; Points - 112; Best result - 3rd
Two highlights of Massa's season instantly stand out: third place in Spain, accounting for his only visit to the podium, and the news that he will still be on the grid in 2014 with Williams. Ultimately, it's the lowlight - confirmation that he would be departing Ferrari - that offered the most succinct assessment of a year in which Massa didn't do nearly enough to retain his seat or make a conspicuous impact. It began brightly enough, with the Brazilian ahead of Alonso on the grid in Australia and Malaysia, but thereafter it fizzled out in downbeat fashion. Tellingly, there were few complaints at Ferrari's decision to jettison their popular stalwart in September. Yet there's still life in the old dog: the threat of F1 redundancy appeared to galvanize Massa and, even if the results didn't follow on race day, the Brazilian did enough as he regularly out-qualified Alonso in the final throes of the campaign to indicate Williams were right to offer the veteran a 2014 lifeline. A new year, a new challenge and a new team may be just what Felipe requires. We'll soon see. PG
Rating: 6/10 Jenson Button
Championship position - 9th; Points - 73; Best result - 4th
Having outlasted Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, this was supposed to be the year when Jenson Button had his best chance of challenging for a second title. In the end a fourth-place finish at Interlagos was cause for celebration and said all you needed to know about McLaren's fall from grace in 2013. There was little more Jenson himself could have done in a car which was one of the worst in the team's history. Inevitably, given the nature of the underperforming, initially very inconsistent, MP4-28, there were some low-key weekends through the year but still a decent number when Button, usually on a different tyre strategy to try and compensate for his car's outright lack of pace, produced some very impressive drives - his run to fifth in China, sixth in Germany and that surge from 14th to fourth in Brazil last weekend chief among them. Although not his specialty, one uncomfortable statistic from the year that may linger is the fact that the Briton lost what will prove his one qualifying head-to-head with Sergio Perez, whose general level of performance was deemed insufficient for a contract renewal. McLaren's bold decision to promote the untried Kevin Magnussen means Button, who turns 34 in January, takes on even greater responsibility next year and will have to be right at the top of his game if the MP4-29 facilitates a return to the winner's circle. JG
2013 rating: 7/10 Sergio Perez
Championship position - 11th; Points - 49; Best result - 5th
Following stunning drives to the podium for Sauber in 2012, and as the man chosen to replace Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 2013, it seemed everything was looking up for Sergio Perez going into this season. However, things quickly turned sour when it became clear his performances were not up to the standard McLaren expected straight out of the box - think back to Martin Whitmarsh's "get your elbow out" comments ahead of the Bahrain GP. However, having failed to take points from five of the seven races between Monaco and Italy whilst Jenson Button continued to harvest up the top tens in a difficult car, the writing was on the wall for the Mexican. Alongside the most experienced driver currently in F1, it also appears McLaren were concerned about Perez's lack of technical feedback and ability to learn as the season progressed and this is an area he will need to work on if he finds himself on the 2014 grid. WE
2013 rating: 5/10 Kimi Raikkonen
Championship position - 5th; Points - 183; Best result - 1st
2013 was a season of sharp contrasts for Kimi. The first four races accounted for almost 40% of his overall tally, the middle period proved to be a damp squib as the Finn failed to extract any competitive qualifying pace from his Lotus, and the end of the campaign witnessed a swift and rather unseemly divorce from the team which had reignited his love affair with F1. Ultimately, both parties were made to pay for a lack of funds - or, in the case of Kimi, not paid - and that harsh financial reality was the driving force in his decision to depart for Ferrari and surely played a pivotal role in the acrimonious nature of his exit. The story of Raikkonen's 2013 is thus one of what might have been. The feeling persisted from early summer onwards that Raikkonen, for understandable reasons, was a driver marking time after losing patience with Lotus and realising he was fighting a losing battle with Sebastian Vettel. A battle with Alonso in 2014 should be just the tonic. PG
2013 rating: 8/10 Romain Grosjean
Championship position - 7th; Points - 132; Best result - 2nd
As transformations go, Romain Grosjean's was both 2013's most dramatic, and to his Lotus bosses and those who have rated him highly since starring in the junior formula, overdue. F1's marked man of 2012 - the "first-lap nutcase" as memorably and, given the crime sheet, reasonably labelled by Mark Webber - flourish into one of 2013's fastest and most composed front-running stars, particularly from mid-season onwards when the changes to the tyres helped swing the intra-Lotus pendulum back the Frenchman's way. While Vettel stole the show from the summer break, Grosjean was the grid's fourth-highest points scorer and only finished off the podium once in the five flyaways between Korea and the USA. It should still be noted, that for all Grosjean's immeasurable improvement, he was still outqualified (11-6) and outscored (183 v 132) by Kimi Raikkonen over the season - the Finn missing the final two rounds to boot. It therefore means 2014, when the 27-year-old as the man in situ is likely to at least start the year as effective team leader at Enstone following the Finn's departure, will be the first acid test for his candidature as a serial race winner, and perhaps even a future World Champion. JG
2013 rating: 9/10 Nico Rosberg
Championship position - 6th; Points - 171; Best result - 1st (x2)
On the face of it, sixth in the Drivers' Championship and two places behind his newly arrived team-mate looks like a bad season, but that would be far too simplistic a view. Instead, this was an impressive year for Rosberg - two wins make him the joint second most successful driver in terms of race victories behind Sebastian Vettel and those came at the blue-riband Monaco and British Grands Prix no less. His points deficit to Hamilton can also be partly explained by having triple the number of retirements the Briton had, however, unlike the 2008 World Champion, none of these were down to driver error. Given the limited input Hamilton would have had in the W04, Mercedes' progress this year is also testament to Rosberg's development skills, whilst he also showed mental strength following the Malaysian GP by not letting his head drop, despite being ordered to not overtake Mercedes' high-profile new recruit. This really was a breakthrough year for Rosberg, who finally announced himself as a top F1 driver - just.WE
2013 rating: 8/10 Lewis Hamilton
Championship position - 4th; Points - 189; Best result - 1st
Contrary to popular myth, 2013 was a positive year for Lewis Hamilton as both he and Mercedes - winners, lest we forget, of just a single race in the previous three years - comprehensively exceeded expectations. Although Nico Rosberg achieved the greater number of victories, the salient fact of the matter is that Hamilton out-qualified, out-pointed and thus out-performed an established and fully-acclimatised team-mate in his first season outside the comfortable confines of McLaren. And all this while struggling to master the W04's braking system in a car built for Rosberg and previous incumbent Michael Schumacher. Don't be fooled by Hamilton's status as the most divisive figure in F1 or even his own downbeat post-mortem, the 2008 World Champion ended the year with his reputation enhanced. The peaks - victory at Hungary, pole at Spa and Silverstone - far outweighed the blips. It could have been better, but in what was first and foremost a bedding-in season, that inevitable conclusion is already 12 months old. In the final reckoning, Hamilton's 2013 can only be properly assessed at the conclusion of 2014. PG
2013 rating: 8/10
Championship position - 2nd; Points - 242; Best result - 1st (x2)
It was another impressive season for Alonso, even though Ferrari once again failed to deliver the car the Spaniard needed to challenge Sebastian Vettel for the title - his comment of wanting "someone else's car" for his birthday sums up the Scuderia's recent offerings. He dominated the intra-team battle, finishing with over twice as many points as Felipe Massa, proving how much more he was extracting from the F138. Moves such as the overtakes on Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap in Barcelona on his way to victory also underlined that Alonso had lost none of his natural racing ability. An area where the 32-year-old needs to improve, however, is qualifying having been beaten eight times by Massa this season and failing to make it onto the front two rows of the grid between Bahrain and Brazil. WE
2013 rating: 8/10 Felipe Massa
Championship position - 8th; Points - 112; Best result - 3rd
Two highlights of Massa's season instantly stand out: third place in Spain, accounting for his only visit to the podium, and the news that he will still be on the grid in 2014 with Williams. Ultimately, it's the lowlight - confirmation that he would be departing Ferrari - that offered the most succinct assessment of a year in which Massa didn't do nearly enough to retain his seat or make a conspicuous impact. It began brightly enough, with the Brazilian ahead of Alonso on the grid in Australia and Malaysia, but thereafter it fizzled out in downbeat fashion. Tellingly, there were few complaints at Ferrari's decision to jettison their popular stalwart in September. Yet there's still life in the old dog: the threat of F1 redundancy appeared to galvanize Massa and, even if the results didn't follow on race day, the Brazilian did enough as he regularly out-qualified Alonso in the final throes of the campaign to indicate Williams were right to offer the veteran a 2014 lifeline. A new year, a new challenge and a new team may be just what Felipe requires. We'll soon see. PG
Rating: 6/10 Jenson Button
Championship position - 9th; Points - 73; Best result - 4th
Having outlasted Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, this was supposed to be the year when Jenson Button had his best chance of challenging for a second title. In the end a fourth-place finish at Interlagos was cause for celebration and said all you needed to know about McLaren's fall from grace in 2013. There was little more Jenson himself could have done in a car which was one of the worst in the team's history. Inevitably, given the nature of the underperforming, initially very inconsistent, MP4-28, there were some low-key weekends through the year but still a decent number when Button, usually on a different tyre strategy to try and compensate for his car's outright lack of pace, produced some very impressive drives - his run to fifth in China, sixth in Germany and that surge from 14th to fourth in Brazil last weekend chief among them. Although not his specialty, one uncomfortable statistic from the year that may linger is the fact that the Briton lost what will prove his one qualifying head-to-head with Sergio Perez, whose general level of performance was deemed insufficient for a contract renewal. McLaren's bold decision to promote the untried Kevin Magnussen means Button, who turns 34 in January, takes on even greater responsibility next year and will have to be right at the top of his game if the MP4-29 facilitates a return to the winner's circle. JG
2013 rating: 7/10 Sergio Perez
Championship position - 11th; Points - 49; Best result - 5th
Following stunning drives to the podium for Sauber in 2012, and as the man chosen to replace Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 2013, it seemed everything was looking up for Sergio Perez going into this season. However, things quickly turned sour when it became clear his performances were not up to the standard McLaren expected straight out of the box - think back to Martin Whitmarsh's "get your elbow out" comments ahead of the Bahrain GP. However, having failed to take points from five of the seven races between Monaco and Italy whilst Jenson Button continued to harvest up the top tens in a difficult car, the writing was on the wall for the Mexican. Alongside the most experienced driver currently in F1, it also appears McLaren were concerned about Perez's lack of technical feedback and ability to learn as the season progressed and this is an area he will need to work on if he finds himself on the 2014 grid. WE
2013 rating: 5/10 Kimi Raikkonen
Championship position - 5th; Points - 183; Best result - 1st
2013 was a season of sharp contrasts for Kimi. The first four races accounted for almost 40% of his overall tally, the middle period proved to be a damp squib as the Finn failed to extract any competitive qualifying pace from his Lotus, and the end of the campaign witnessed a swift and rather unseemly divorce from the team which had reignited his love affair with F1. Ultimately, both parties were made to pay for a lack of funds - or, in the case of Kimi, not paid - and that harsh financial reality was the driving force in his decision to depart for Ferrari and surely played a pivotal role in the acrimonious nature of his exit. The story of Raikkonen's 2013 is thus one of what might have been. The feeling persisted from early summer onwards that Raikkonen, for understandable reasons, was a driver marking time after losing patience with Lotus and realising he was fighting a losing battle with Sebastian Vettel. A battle with Alonso in 2014 should be just the tonic. PG
2013 rating: 8/10 Romain Grosjean
Championship position - 7th; Points - 132; Best result - 2nd
As transformations go, Romain Grosjean's was both 2013's most dramatic, and to his Lotus bosses and those who have rated him highly since starring in the junior formula, overdue. F1's marked man of 2012 - the "first-lap nutcase" as memorably and, given the crime sheet, reasonably labelled by Mark Webber - flourish into one of 2013's fastest and most composed front-running stars, particularly from mid-season onwards when the changes to the tyres helped swing the intra-Lotus pendulum back the Frenchman's way. While Vettel stole the show from the summer break, Grosjean was the grid's fourth-highest points scorer and only finished off the podium once in the five flyaways between Korea and the USA. It should still be noted, that for all Grosjean's immeasurable improvement, he was still outqualified (11-6) and outscored (183 v 132) by Kimi Raikkonen over the season - the Finn missing the final two rounds to boot. It therefore means 2014, when the 27-year-old as the man in situ is likely to at least start the year as effective team leader at Enstone following the Finn's departure, will be the first acid test for his candidature as a serial race winner, and perhaps even a future World Champion. JG
2013 rating: 9/10 Nico Rosberg
Championship position - 6th; Points - 171; Best result - 1st (x2)
On the face of it, sixth in the Drivers' Championship and two places behind his newly arrived team-mate looks like a bad season, but that would be far too simplistic a view. Instead, this was an impressive year for Rosberg - two wins make him the joint second most successful driver in terms of race victories behind Sebastian Vettel and those came at the blue-riband Monaco and British Grands Prix no less. His points deficit to Hamilton can also be partly explained by having triple the number of retirements the Briton had, however, unlike the 2008 World Champion, none of these were down to driver error. Given the limited input Hamilton would have had in the W04, Mercedes' progress this year is also testament to Rosberg's development skills, whilst he also showed mental strength following the Malaysian GP by not letting his head drop, despite being ordered to not overtake Mercedes' high-profile new recruit. This really was a breakthrough year for Rosberg, who finally announced himself as a top F1 driver - just.WE
2013 rating: 8/10 Lewis Hamilton
Championship position - 4th; Points - 189; Best result - 1st
Contrary to popular myth, 2013 was a positive year for Lewis Hamilton as both he and Mercedes - winners, lest we forget, of just a single race in the previous three years - comprehensively exceeded expectations. Although Nico Rosberg achieved the greater number of victories, the salient fact of the matter is that Hamilton out-qualified, out-pointed and thus out-performed an established and fully-acclimatised team-mate in his first season outside the comfortable confines of McLaren. And all this while struggling to master the W04's braking system in a car built for Rosberg and previous incumbent Michael Schumacher. Don't be fooled by Hamilton's status as the most divisive figure in F1 or even his own downbeat post-mortem, the 2008 World Champion ended the year with his reputation enhanced. The peaks - victory at Hungary, pole at Spa and Silverstone - far outweighed the blips. It could have been better, but in what was first and foremost a bedding-in season, that inevitable conclusion is already 12 months old. In the final reckoning, Hamilton's 2013 can only be properly assessed at the conclusion of 2014. PG
2013 rating: 8/10
