In recent years, we have seen the number of companies supplying power units drop all the way down to 4 – Mercedes, Renault, Ferrari and Cosworth. The latter of these is reducing its involvement with the sport, with Caterham and Williams having switched to Renault power in the last few seasons. Now only supplying Marussia, it is very clear that they will most likely not survive the switch to the V6 engines next year. To have only 3 different types of engine on the grid for too long would be a disaster for the sport.

However, this Honda deal has revitalised the engine market. With Renault upping the prices for their turbocharged units next year, teams like Lotus, Williams and Caterham might be encouraged to switch to the Japanese company from 2015 onwards.

Other manufacturers such as Audi and Volkswagen have previously expressed interest in returning to F1, and it’s always possible that we’ll see more suppliers arrive in the next few years. All of these signs clearly indicate that the FIA’s new engine formula is already proving to be successful.

The FIA’s aim was to encourage large manufacturing corporations back into the world of F1, while also presenting a new technical challenge that keeps the teams on their toes. While it remains to be seen how the on-track racing is affected by these new changes, I believe that the new engine suppliers will provide a huge boost to Formula 1′s credibility and excitement in the coming years.

They last partnered McLaren from 1983 to 1992, resulting in several utterly dominant years with clearly superior turbocharged engines. The 2014 V6 formula has clearly piqued Honda’s interest, with president and CEO Takanobu Ito stating:

The new F1 regulations with their significant environmental focus will inspire even 
greater development of our own advanced technologies and this is central to our 
participation in F1.

“We have the greatest respect for the FIA’s decision to introduce these new regulations 
that are both highly challenging but also attractive to manufacturers that pursue 
environmental technologies and to Formula One Group, which has developed F1 into a 
high value, top car racing category supported by enthusiastic fans.

Honda dropped out of F1 after 2008, after a second dreadful season in a row. Their last engine supplier deal was to Jordan and BAR in 2002, but it seems that the McLaren-Honda releationship is a match made in heaven.

It’s clear that many fans are angered by Pirelli’s approach – by creating tyres that deliberately generate extra pit stops, they were always going to come under fire at some point. But the complaints against them are becoming increasingly irritating, and I’m starting to feel that their detractors are missing the point.

Look back to Spanish Grands Prix several years ago, as recent as 2009. There was absolutely no on-track action, as every single position change was managed through the pit stops. It’s not a recent thing either – the 1999 Spanish Grand Prix saw ONE overtake in the entirely of the race. Just one.

Pirelli have completely revolutionised the way F1 races, and for the better. Fernando Alonso may have jumped Sebastian Vettel in the stops, but it wasn’t completely necessary, seeing as how easily he and Vettel soon dispatched with Nico Rosberg. Overtaking is finally possible in tracks like the Circuit de Catalunya for the first time in years, and it has benefited the sport massively.

Nevertheless, the argument that the tyres are “artificial” won’t go away. More worryingly, even some drivers complain that they’re only pushing at 90% during the race, conserving tyres instead of pushing as hard as possible. Vettel was the clearest example of this today, not even opposing several drivers and letting them past.

However, it’s important to remember that the winning driver did none of this. Fernando Alonso pushed as hard as he needed to, utilised a 4-stop strategy without breaking a sweat, and reaped the rewards. It’s quite clear nowadays that the drivers that win races and the drivers that sit around and complain about the tyres are mutually exclusive. I’m looking at you, Webber.

The best drivers will win races regardless of the circumstances. Alonso knows this, and so does Kimi Raikkonen. Both drivers have proven to be excellent at mixing tyre management with searing pace, ignoring delta times (target lap times) and just focusing at the job in hand. Their efforts have been rewarded, and we will see more of this as the year goes on.

But at the same time, complaints about Pirelli still won’t go away. An excellent article by Will Buxton today demonstrates why this doesn’t matter:

Formula 1 loves a villain and this year Pirelli has been cast into this pantomime 
role. But, as I explained at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix in my final thought 
on the NBC Sports Network, the job of a Formula 1 team is to design a car around 
the variables which are unchangeable. Hermann Tilke used to get the blame for 
ruining the show for his apparently dreadful circuit design. But is it not the job 
of the teams to design a car for the circuits on which the championship races? Of 
course it is. Just as it is the job of the teams to design a car that maximizes 
the tyres on which it runs.

What Ferrari showed in Barcelona was that yes you may have to make more pitstops 
than we’ve seen in the past, but that it is possible to push from the moment the 
lights go out to the moment that the flag falls. That so much of the press is 
decrying the race shows, I believe, a disappointing cynicism. Pirelli has become 
too easy a target.

But should we blame Pirelli for simply doing what they’ve been asked to do and 
make the tyres less durable? Or should we blame the teams who have seemingly got 
themselves into the rut of a blame culture that hides the true fact that some have 
not designed a car capable of maximizing one of the unchangeable variables that 
has defined the history of the sport?

I’m looking forward to the next batch of F1 races, and the challenges they will hold. I can only hope that the drivers and other fans do so as well.

Constructor Standings

The Mercedes drivers had an utterly torrid afternoon, only going backwards after the race began. Rosberg somehow held off 5 different drivers for the first stint, but was then swarmed by Alonso, Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in a series of corners. After that, he slid further down the order, and never challenged the frontrunners again.

Lewis Hamilton suffered even more, losing positions as early as lap 1. He finished the race in a miserable 12th place, getting lapped just before the end to inflict even more pain. He angrily exclaimed “I just got passed by a Williams” and “I can’t drive any slower” during the race, demonstrating how poor Mercedes’ race pace still is.

Vettel and Raikkonen proved to be Alonso’s only challengers this afternoon. Vettel held off the Ferrari in the opening stint, but could do no more as his Red Bull suffered adversely from heavy tyre wear. Raikkonen showed potential, briefly taking the lead on a different strategy, but couldn’t extract the raw pace to catch Fernando. He finished 2nd, ahead of Felipe Massa, leaping up from 9th at the start, and taking advantage of an early pit stop on lap 9 to obtain his first podium of the year.

Mark Webber had another atrocious start, falling all the way down to 12th by the first lap, but like Massa he took advantage of an early first stop to move up the field. Nevertheless, he never looked remotely on the pace, and 5th place was quite lucky in retrospect.

Paul di Resta took an impressive 7th-placed finish, and even put Rosberg under considerable pressure in the final laps. Jenson Button and Sergio Perez were 8th and 9th, but Perez was left fuming after he was instructed not to pass Jenson in the final laps. Daniel Ricciardo took the final point, after a brief scare where he was being caught by Esteban Gutierrez.

Nico Hulkenberg had a race to forget. He pitted 4 times for tyres, once for front wing damage after a clash in the pit lane, and a stop-go penalty for said incident. 

With this result, Alonso moves to within 17 points of Vettel, but Kimi Raikkonen is only 4 points off the lead. Felipe Massa overtakes Mark Webber for 5th, and it has become crystal clear that Lewis Hamilton has effectively dropped out of the title race.

Mark Webber wasn’t too far behind, while Mercedes appear to be dropping away from Ferrari and Red Bull slightly. McLaren brought a raft of new updates to this Grand Prix, but haven’t seen any major improvements yet.

First practice

Although Pirelli brought an extra set of experimental hard tyres for each driver to use, magnificently-timed rain ruined any hope of teams gathering data in FP1.

Intermediates were the way to go for the majority of the session, until the braver drivers tried out the slick tyres with a few minutes to go.

While Alonso led the session in the end, Jean-Eric Vergne managed third place with his final lap, gaining the rewards of being the first driver to take on the dry tyres. Jenson Button, as well as Vettel and Webber, opted not to set flying laps on the drying track, ending first practice at the foot of the timesheets.

Marussia again ran reserve driver Rodolfo Gonzalez in place of Max Chilton.

FP1 times:

Pos Driver                Team                   Time      Gap     Laps
 1. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1:25.252          20
 2. Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1:25.455  +0.203  20
 3. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:25.667  +0.415  25
 4. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1:26.042  +0.790  21
 5. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:26.212  +0.960  24
 6. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes               1:26.374  +1.122  19
 7. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault       1:26.456  +1.204  20
 8. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1:26.614  +1.362  21
 9. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1:26.621  +1.369  21
10. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1:26.755  +1.503  16
11. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:26.940  +1.688  26
12. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari         1:27.061  +1.809  24
13. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes       1:27.135  +1.883   6
14. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari         1:27.250  +1.998  26
15. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1:27.576  +2.324  24
16. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1:28.373  +3.121  14
17. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault       1:28.600  +3.348  19
18. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth      1:28.887  +3.635  14
19. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1:29.457  +4.205  11
20. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1:29.473  +4.221  21
21. Rodolfo Gonzalez      Marussia-Cosworth      1:30.314  +5.062  13
22. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       N/A                6

Second practice

After Hamilton and Rosberg briefly took top spot, it was Webber and Alonso who battled it out for the first part of the session, with Fernando eventually winning out.

Vettel then set a 1:22.808 to pip the Ferrari to the top spot, with only 0.083 seconds separating the top three drivers.

Hamilton spun at the beginning of second practice, while Paul di Resta’s Force India suffered a third Pirelli delamination in two races.

McLaren could only take 12th and 13th places, and it remains to be seen how effective their new updates will fare around the downforce-heavy Circuit de Catalunya.

FP2 times:

Pos Driver                Team                  Time      Gap     Laps
 1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1:22.808          34
 2. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1:22.825  +0.017  35
 3. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1:22.891  +0.083  36
 4. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1:23.030  +0.222  32
 5. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1:23.110  +0.302  37
 6. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1:23.140  +0.332  35
 7. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1:23.398  +0.590  45
 8. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1:23.840  +1.032  37
 9. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:24.058  +1.250  31
10. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1:24.104  +1.296  25
11. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:24.175  +1.367  32
12. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1:24.306  +1.498  35
13. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1:24.854  +2.046  31
14. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1:24.888  +2.080  38
15. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1:25.167  +2.359  38
16. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1:25.321  +2.513  32
17. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1:25.441  +2.633  37
18. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1:25.851  +3.043  35
19. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1:25.963  +3.155  30
20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1:26.078  +3.270  31
21. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault      1:26.930  +4.122  35
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1:26.970  +4.162  25

Allison is one of the most highly rated engineers in the F1 paddock, and it was well known that many rival teams were trying to lure him away from Enstone. It is unclear which team – if any – have  offered him a better contract, but it is understood that Allison was the one who made the decision to leave Lotus.

His replacement has already been announced as Nick Chester, who has been at the team since 2000.

This move will only unnerve Kimi Raikkonen, who is yet to decide on his future at the Enstone squad. Key figures like Allison are absolutely crucial in constructing a winning car – as important as the driver itself – and Kimi will now begin to question if Lotus can continue to supply him with competitive machinery into 2014.

Constructor Standings

Alonso’s DRS jammed itself open on lap 8, forcing the Spaniard to pit for quick repairs. However, the exact same thing happened on the following lap, and the Ferrari driver’s race was ruined.

Vettel took the lead from Nico Rosberg in the opening laps, after an enthralling battle with Alonso and the Mercedes. Both drivers disposed of Nico, and after Fernando’s DRS failure, Sebastian was unmatched for the rest of the afternoon. At the back, a first-lap clash between Giedo van der Garde and Jean-Eric Vergne put the Toro Rosso out of the race on the first lap.

Rosberg later slipped further down the order, being carved up by the midfield and falling to 6th place.

Paul di Resta and Kimi Raikkonen emerged at podium contenders throughout the race, utilising 2-stop strategies to slip ahead of the Mercedes cars after the first round of stops. However, Di Resta was caught by Romain Grosjean in the closing laps, and the Scot will have to wait a while longer for his first podium finish. Teammate Adrian Sutil incurred a puncture on the first lap after contact with Felipe Massa, and could only recover to 13th place.

McLaren saw a fascinating inter-team battle develop, as Sergio Perez fought bravely with Jenson Button all afternoon. They clashed wheels on more than one occasion, earning Sergio some criticism from Jenson on the radio. Nevertheless, they stayed out of the barriers, and Perez took a commendable 6th place by the end of the race.

He became embroiled in another battle near the end, between Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber, who had absolutely no pace in comparison to his teammate. Both drivers found their way past the Red Bull on the final lap, leaving Hamilton in 5th position.

A lack of pace and a puncture resulted in no points for Felipe Massa, finishing 15th. Alonso found himself almost a minute behind the leaders after his two early stops, but bravely fought his way back to 8th place by the chequered flag. He was briefly as high as 6th, but was punished by the resurgent Perez near the end.

With Vettel amassing a comfortable 10-second lead by the end, he increases his championship lead to 10 points, ahead of Raikkonen, Hamilton and Alonso. However, it is apparent that no one driver is a clear favourite for the title yet.

Sebastian Vettel is in a prime position to attack from 2nd place on the grid, while the Ferraris are 3rd and 4th. Penalties for Hamilton and Mark Webber have elevated Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil to 5th and 6th places. Here is what happened in qualifying:

Q1

Thankfully, we didn’t see a repeat of what happened in China, as most drivers partook in the majority of Q1.

Fernando Alonso had noteworthy pace on the hard compound tyres, going faster than medium-clad Sebastian Vettel. It was immediately apparent that Lotus’ pace had slid away, as Kimi Raikkonen struggled to keep his car on track under braking, repeatedly locking up and going off the track.

Both Williams drivers set the exact same time to a thousandth of a second, but Maldonado set his time later, so he was demoted further down the order, and was eventually knocked out of Q1.

Charles Pic put Caterham ahead of Marussia for the first time this season, while Esteban Gutierrez will start from 22nd after a penalty from last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Drivers knocked out of Q1:

17) Pastor Maldonado – 1:34.425

18) Esteban Gutierrez – 1:34.730 (+ 5 positions)

19) Charles Pic – 1:35.283

20) Jules Bianchi – 1:36.178

21) Giedo van der Garde – 1:36.304

22) Max Chilton – 1:36.476

Q2

Paul di Resta put Force India firmly in the spotlight, initially leading proceedings, and eventually taking 4th place in Q2.

Romain Grosjean was all set to partake in Q3, until a mistake on his final Q2 lap put him under pressure. Jenson Button was all too willing to pounce, and was audibly delighted on the team radio afterwards.

Sergio Perez yet again failed to make the cut, while Nico Hulkenberg demonstrated Sauber’s lack of pace this weekend.

Drivers knocked out in Q2:

11) Romain Grosjean – 1:33.762

12) Sergio Perez – 1:33.914

13) Daniel Ricciardo – 1:33.974

14) Nico Hulkenberg – 1:33.976

15) Valtteri Bottas – 1:34.105

16) Jean-Eric Vergne – 1:34.284

Q3

A quick lap by Rosberg at the start of Q3 was enough to state his intentions. Alonso and Hamilton duly slotted behind in the first set of lap times.

All 10 drivers went out on track for the final 5 minutes, providing a closely-fought battle for pole. Only Jenson Button ended up not setting a time, the McLaren making a mistake on his sole lap.

Alonso also aborted his final run, leaving Vettel and Hamilton to chase the second Mercedes driver. After Nico improved his lap time again, Vettel could only get within a quarter of a second, while Hamilton could only muster 4th place.

Felipe Massa qualified 6th, but has been elevated to 4th because of other drivers’ penalties. He will start on the hard tyre, interestingly, and it will be fascinating to see how he matches up to teammate Alonso tomorrow.

The Force Indias were 7th and 8th, and Kimi Raikkonen had no pace whatsoever in Q3, a full second off Rosberg’s time.

Times from Q3:

1) Nico Rosberg – 1:32.330

2) Sebastian Vettel – 1:32.584

3) Fernando Alonso – 1:32.667

4) Lewis Hamilton – 1:32.762 (+ 5 places)

5) Mark Webber – 1:33.078 (+ 5 places)

6) Felipe Massa – 1:33.207

7) Paul di Resta – 1:33.235

8) Adrian Sutil – 1:33.246

9) Kimi Raikkonen – 1:33.327

10) Jenson Button – No time set