A Red Bull Racing mechanic works on wheels and Pirelli tyres in the paddock during practice for the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix on April 19, 2013 in Sakhir, Bahrain. (Getty Images)

It is that time of the year, the start of the long European leg of the Formula 1 season, when big teams are traditionally known to come up with significant upgrade packages and a chunk of updates to their cars. Cars that show genuine pace in Barcelona tend to carry forward the advantage for the remainder of the season.

The tyres this season have been the in the centre of a lot of attention, with teams still trying to wrap their heads around this issue of ‘Excessive Tyre Degradation.’ The root cause of all of this is quite obvious; the tyre compounds in use are comparatively softer than they used to be last year. The Soft compound this year can typically gain around 1-1.5 seconds over the Medium compound during Qualifying.

During the race, it can have a considerable performance advantage over Medium/Hard compound for a maximum of 4-6 laps, till it reaches its peak, after which its performance graph does a free fall. The issue here is not the free fall in its performance; rather, it is that window of optimum tyre performance that has become the talking point. Now, who decides the degree of degradation of a particular tyre compound is really mysterious.

Version 1: Pirelli makes its own decision regarding longevity of the tyre compounds they supply

Pirelli recently announced their decision of slightly tweaking the hard compound tyres for the remainder of the season. Now if people at Pirelli are solely responsible for the decision making regarding the compounds, why wouldn’t they prefer a much smoother run in the sport, considering the fact that their contract runs out this year. There has been a lot of criticism from various sections of the Formula 1 fraternity regarding current scenario, which certainly would not do any good to their popularity in the tyre market.

Version 2: Bernie and his men call the shots and Pirelli simply respond to his demands

This seems like a much more realistic version of how things stand. These tyres have made the races a lot more exciting to watch with a lot of strategy options available to the drivers before Qualifying. The significance of qualifying performance has dropped drastically from what it used to be a few years back. Gone are those days when you used to see drivers pitting in on the penultimate lap, just because the rules demanded it and not because of worn tyres. Yes, the races used to be exciting even then; it is just that these Mickey Mouse tyres have added to the drama of an already artificial ‘DRS-ed’ racing. The races have become more exciting. The money is flowing in. What else could matter for Bernie?

A Pirelli technician works on tyres in the paddock during practice for the European Formula One Grand Prix at the Valencia Street Circuit on July 24, 2011, in Valencia, Spain. (Getty Images)

Whether Pirelli play any role in deciding the longevity of a particular compound is questionable, but something which I hope isn’t questionable is the role they play in deciding the tyre allocation for the races.

Here are the tyres allocated to the teams for the first four races of the season.

Now how is the issue of tyre wear affecting the whole scheme of things:

Qualifying

Tyre management has become an important key, and one way drivers do so it is by doing a single lap run in Q3 instead of doing a banker lap on a scrubbed set. The banker times were mostly useless, but added another dimension to qualifying when you had those odd banker times remaining at the top in the end. What we see now is an empty track with drivers sitting it out in the pit for more than half of Q3 to have a single lap shoot out at the end. Even worse, if a driver decides to start on Prime tyres, he could even think about not having a Q3 run at all without losing much ground. That simply sums up the state of things.

Possible Alternatives:

i. Change the tyre allocation rules for qualifying and allow a fresh set for the race or bring back the multi compound Qualifying cum race tyres. It would encourage more Q3 running and would discourage drivers from skipping Q3 to get an advantage of starting on a fresher set on Sundays.

ii.  Make Q3 running mandatory or have a grid penalty for the drivers skipping it. A driver who set hasn’t set a Q3 time has effectively not set a time in the FIA Qualifying Classifications, so why encourage this practice.

Race

The teams and drivers have the option of starting the race on the Option or Prime tyres with both having its set of advantages. The popular trend is to start on Option tyres, which gives the driver a better chance of qualifying higher up the order, but with the disadvantage of having to pit in early during the race.

Starting on Prime tyres gives an advantage of staying out for a longer first stint and having a real pace advantage in the final stint on Options over the Prime runners.

Pirelli tyres are seen in the paddock during qualifying for the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix  on July 28, 2012 in Budapest, Hungary. (Getty Images)

There is no doubt that these tyres have made the racing a lot more exciting. The amount of passing has increased with the drivers running with different tyre strategies and wear level throughout the race. It is a lot better than seeing a Button doing a 50-lap stint on a set of Softs on an abrasive Albert Park with absolutely no sign of tyre degradation. The races now are certainly better from a spectator’s point of view, if you manage to keep track with the fast pace of events.

The Car

There has been a lot of criticism about these tyres governing the performance of the car, or the drivers not being able to drive the car to its capabilities due to the tyres. Ferrari were very quick in responding to the situation by hiring former Bridgesone F1 chief Hirohide Hamashima back in January specifically to understand this year’s tyre compounds.

More than half of the teams have joined the bandwagon in criticizing the tyres, spearheaded by Red Bull. So weren’t these teams aware of the tyre specs they were going to use this season, or is this criticism just a case of reacting late? Ferrari and Lotus have adapted well to the changes and so far seem to have the most tyre friendly cars in the field.

Tyre wear and tyre management have always been among the crucial factors deciding the capabilities of a car and a driver. It is just that some teams and drivers claim that these factors have crossed a certain limit and are now interfering with the racing.

F1: It’s not always just about how quick you go, it’s sometimes about how long you can keep it going for…#LongerLastingRubber.

Graham Hill-1963 British Grand Prix

“I am an Artist. The track is my canvas, and the car is my brush”.-Graham Hill

Career Statistics

Titles: 2

Race Starts: 176

Wins: 14

Poles: 13

Podiums: 36

Graham Hill cleared his driving license test only when he was 24 and surprisingly, within a span of five years, he got himself a Formula 1 seat. Talk about raw talent taking its course! But natural raw talent was not something he was not really associated with a lot. So what helped him fast track his way into Formula 1 in just five years? Well, it is known that he had his astute way of dealing with people and obviously his fabulous driving capabilities played a huge part in his success story. He was modest enough to accept the fact that he was not the most naturally gifted driver on the grid, but it was never something that would bog him down.

“My dad’s experience was, just because someone’s got greater natural ability doesn’t mean they can’t be beaten. It’s just going to be harder. So if you get to the same level as them but you’ve had to try harder, who’s the better driver?”- Damon Hill (his son)

Graham Hill was recruited by Lotus founder Colin Chapman, not as a driver, but as a mechanic. He earned one pound a day for the job he did under Chapman. He collected enough money to buy a wrecked up 1929 Austin to improve his driving skills and he drove the brakes off that car. Literally.

“The chief qualities of a racing driver are concentration, determination and anticipation. A 1929 Austin without brakes develops all three – anticipation rather more than the first two perhaps.”

He was known to be an opportunist not only on the track but off it as well. He had enough persuasive skills to convince Chapman for a few drives in the Cooper and Lotus sportscars in the late fifties. Hill’s driving skills impressed Chapman so much so that when he entered Formula 1 with his Lotus, he decided to have Hill as one of his drivers. For a guy who did not know how to drive a car 5 years ago, this was by no means a small achievement.

However, Hill never got things the easy way throughout his life and so was the case with his first Formula 1 drive. The Lotus failed to match Hill’s expectations in the 1958 season. He was patient enough with Chapman and his team for another season but the Lotus was miserable in its performance and reliability yet again in 1959, which resulted in Hill switching to British Racing Motors (BRM) for the 1960 season.

BRM itself was a team in crisis at the time Hill joined them. He never got the car he expected in his first couple of seasons with BRM, but he never gave up and had some spirited drives, leading the team by example. His perseverance and hard work finally paid off in 1962 when he won his first Championship. He had this ‘never say die’ attitude which played a pivotal role in his stint with BRM that led him to his title, one he claims to have developed during his time in Rowing.

“I really enjoyed my rowing. It really taught me a lot about myself, and I also think it is a great character-building sport… The self discipline required for rowing and the ‘never say die’ attitude obviously helped me through the difficult years that lay ahead.”

His following years with BRM were marred largely by a number of mechanical failures, but he continued to fight for the title finishing runner up for three consecutive years in 1964, 65’ and 66’. BRM were a team the on the decline and when Hill realized that BRM were no longer capable of giving him a competitive car, he decided to call it quits in the middle of the 1966 season.

Clark-Hill,1965

But then there was a lot more Hill had to offer to Formula 1. He reunited with his old boss Colin Chapman in 1967, pairing up with Jim Clark to complete the Lotus line up. Hill rejoined the team at a time when his team mate was at the prime of his driving career. He had a disappointing season, mostly playing second fiddle to Clark in his title bid. But Clark’s tragic death in 1968 meant that Hill was left with a mountain to climb, leading a rather rudderless team. Pushed on by his determination, he showed great character, fighting his way throughout the season for his second world championship.

It would have been the perfect occasion for Hill to hang up his boots after having achieved what seemed to be impossible with the humble beginning he had to his career. He never seemed to run short of drive or motivation even in the worst of times which, ironically, was one of the reasons that eventually led to his fall.

Apart from his on-track capabilities, Hill was quite popular with the people and media persons for his typically British sense of humor and his off-field antics.

“It’s difficult to say why he was so special, but he had such a charisma, you know, with his cap, his moustache and his sense of humor. He would sit in the sun, enjoying a beer and when the fans came he would listen to them all and have a joke with everybody.”- Rosie Bernard, proprietor of a legendary bar he frequently visited in Monaco.

Monaco was the personal favorite Grand Prix for him, where he celebrated an incredible five victories, which also gave him the nickname of ‘Mr Monaco’. Here is a video of Graham Hill describing his experience of driving in Monaco.

A few reasons why I think he is one of the greatest Formula 1 racers:

- He never got things the easy way, showed great character and fighting spirit in the most difficult times to come out on top.

- He led his team by example. He had the rare quality of picking up and motivating his team in the worst of times, a quality that played a big role in both his successful title bids.

- He is the only driver in the history of Motorsport to have won the Indy 500, Le Mans and the Formula 1 title. A feat that shows how easily he could adapt to different forms of racing.

Here is a tribute video of the great man.

Robert Kubica, Canadian Grand Prix 2008

It’s been a long 19 months since Robert Kubica encountered that horrific rally accident in Italy driving a Skoda Fabia that left him with multiple fractures in his hands and legs. Things have moved on since then, he seems to have fully recovered from the injuries he suffered which were initially feared to be career threatening, if not life threatening. It obviously has had a huge impact on his Formula 1 career but the good news is that he is back doing what he does best and for one, he does not seem to have been deterred by the accident when he chose rallying for his comeback.

There have been reports that he has been doing pretty well in his limited rallying stints and he already has a couple of wins under his belt. If that is anything to go by, he is certainly headed in the right direction after what would have been an agonizing wait to get back to competitive racing. Apparently, Kubica has had a similar scare that threatened to end his career before it even started when in 2003, he met with serious a road accident as a passenger, leaving behind titanium bolts in his arm after an operation. But obviously he did not let it have much of an influence on his career and once he got that deserved breakthrough into Formula 1, there was no looking back for him.

He is one those drivers who is capable of churning out consistent results even with an under-performing car under him, something  he made quite evident early in his Formula 1 career with BMW in 2006 after being promoted to a race seat, replacing Jacques Villeneuve for the remaining six races of the season. He was on the mark right from the onset with his impressive qualifying outings giving us a much better idea of how good the BMW was after he came on. He eventually ended the season with a point lesser than Villeneuve’s tally which included a podium in the Italian Grand Prix. His drive in Italy was probably the first time I took note of the sheer race pace the guy had and you sort of knew that this guy was here to stay. Another of the highlights of his career would probably be his miraculous escape after his huge shunt in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. He had to miss the next Grand Prix, but when you have half your leg popping out of the monocoque after a high speed crash, only a lucky guy would expect himself to be back racing within a month, and lucky he was then.

But what is ironic is the fact that the next time he came back to Canada, he defied all odds to give his team and himself a first Formula 1 victory, a victory which meant he would find himself leading the points tally seven races into the championship. It was in 2008 that you really saw Kubica come to the fore and his consistency paid dividends as he remained a dark horse for the title through until the penultimate race. Though BMW was right up there with Ferrari and McLaren in the first half of the season, their pace started dropping once we entered the business end of the championship, which had a huge impact on Kubica’s title hopes. You would have expected BMW to push to the line, considering the fantastic start to the season they had, but it was quite clear that they had given up on the development of their car to concentrate on next year’s car. While Massa and Hamilton lost points regularly, Kubica consistently chipped in with regular points finishes and got the odd podium to keep himself in the title race. BMW’s decision to cease the development in the middle of the season to concentrate on the ‘KERS powered’ 2009 car eventually turned out to be a big blunder after a disastrous season finally led to their exit from the sport.

In hindsight, had BMW played their part in Kubica’s title bid by continuing with their development work, who knows we might have had a three-way showdown to the title in ’08. BMW’s decision to back off in the middle of the season certainly did not go down well with the Pole himself, something he made clear in an interview later in 2009:”I don’t think there was a lot to discuss. Of course we had meetings reviewing last season, but I will concentrate on this year. Sometimes it’s very difficult to accept some situations but everybody has different views, so I will accept it.“

He has been one of those drivers who has always managed to stay out of  the controversies and concentrate solely on his business of driving, and driving fast. The sad bit is the fact that he finds himself in a situation wherein he is struggling to find a Formula 1 drive. If his performances in rallying are anything to go by, he certainly doesn’t seem to have lost that touch he once had, which will certainly impress the likes of Ferrari who had earlier shown keen interest in signing him on before his accident. But realistically, there is a long way to go before we see Robert back in Formula 1, but all we can hope for is a speedy comeback to F1. And we know he is no stranger to comebacks.

Mansell-Senna Barcelona 1991

If you ain’t rubbin you aint racin’. It indeed sounds as American as apple pie and NASCAR. NASCAR’s European counterpart Formula 1 however, has always been a bit more subdued in its approach to wheel to wheel racing. You would never see paint trades, Bump and Runs or even the Push to Pass. But hold on, not long ago did F1 get its own ‘greener’ version of  the Push to Pass – the Kinetic Energy Reclamation System popularly known as KERS.

When KERS was introduced in 2009, there were a lot of hopes pinned on it to make Formula 1 more exciting. It also had a good chance to show the world that Formula 1 actually cared for the environment. But to be honest, the only things KERS managed that season was to showcase a completely uneven playing field with more than half of the teams opting not to use it. Reason? Well, the KERS added an extra 30kgs which ruined the balance of the car for the extra 80bhp it provided and it had every potential to burn a hole in some rich pockets. All in all, KERS turned out to be a complete dud. It was not a surprise to see it unanimously dropped for the next season.

When KERS was introduced in 2009, there were a lot of hopes pinned on it to make Formula 1 more exciting

Overtaking has always been the essence of Formula 1 and when there is a dearth of it, that is when you associate terms like boring and dull with it. That turned out to be the case in the opening few races of the much hyped 2010 season. Even the likes of Hamilton, Webber and ex-F1 drivers weren’t far behind in criticizing the lack of passing in the initial races. The only talking points after the initial races were Michael Schumacher slugging it out in the midfield and the general lack of overtaking. There were calls from all sections of the Formula 1 fraternity for imminent rule changes and this wake up call was enough to get Bernie’s men back to the drawing boards. Then came a much more ‘dramatic’ version of the Push to Pass – the Drag Reduction System. DRS, introduced to promote overtaking, made overtaking as easy as a push of a button, literally! With DRS, we saw a return of a movable aero device being used legally and a return to the old days, to a lot of overtaking.

With the introduction of DRS, overtaking in Formula 1 has got a completely new meaning. In this DRS age, an overtaking manoeuvre is almost like a programmed process. Basically, if you have the faster car, all you do is close in within one second of the car in front, wait for the DRS zone and press the button to complete your classic slipstream pass. But obviously, it is not as easy as that three step process sounds. The purists however, would always argue about the fact that DRS has killed the art of  defensive driving. Or lets put it this way – only the grittiest of defensive show will work in this age of the DRS. Has the beauty of natural racing been compromised for our greed for exciting racing? Would we have seen Mansell and Senna race wheel to wheel in Barcelona ’91 with DRS? Would we have ever witnessed the greatest F1 battles if we had DRS? Ah, never mind.

Shifting focus to another menace of late, to natural wheel to wheel racing – Steward Investigations. Ok, let’s spice up Spa, 2000 with the kind of stewarding we have seen recently. Mika Hakkinen closes in on Michael Schumacher for the lead of the race around Eau Rouge. The pass seems inevitable with Hakkinen clearly carrying extra speed onto to Kemmel straight before Schumacher dangerously cuts across Hakkinen, almost dragging him off track. Stewards launch an investigation and decide upon a drive through penalty for Schumacher.

Because of that extra spice added by the stewards, we never witnessed Hakkinen’s incredible double pass, largely considered as the greatest overtake of all time. Well, you might argue about the fact that the pass happened just a lap after the incident but you need look at the broader perspective. Another illustration of the double standards set by the stewards came during the recently concluded Hungarian GP when Pastor Maldonado was penalized for his pass on Paul di Resta. It was absolutely disgraceful to see the only overtake of the race being penalized. Firstly, half of the steward investigations wouldn’t have happened had it not been Maldonado who has been under a lot of flak for his ‘idiotic’ (as described by Sergio Perez) and balls-out driving. We wouldn’t have seen the penalty had the stewards seen Gilles Villeneuve battle Rene Arnoux in the 1979 French Grand Prix. I know I sound heavily biased in favour of Maldonado and I know how dangerous racing was during those days.

And the ever debatable question again. Do we really need DRS to make Fomula 1 exciting?

Never say never they say. Very few would epitomize the saying better than the way Romain Grosjean has done so far in his career. From being a Formula 1 reject three years ago, to being dubbed as a potential world champion by his Team Principal – that has been the incredible turnaround that the Frenchman has been able to pull off.

Lets rewind a few years back in time, Romain Grosjean got under Renault F1 team’s scrutiny ever since he got into Renault Driver Development in 2006. He got through the ranks and managed his first big break in Formula 1 in 2008, being named as  Renault F1 team’s Test Driver. He also managed to strike a deal with GP2 series outfit ART Grand Prix, a team that had earlier promoted the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg before their F1 debut. Things couldn’t have gone better for the Frenchman, but it did as he blew away the field in the inaugural GP2 Asia series and took the championship emphatically with four race wins.

Having stamped his authority in the GP2 Asia series, things looked rosy before the the start of the European leg, but his season was marred by inconsistency and misfortune,eventually finishing the season in fourth position. However, the Renault management felt he had done enough to fill the void left by Nelson Piquet Jr. for the remaining seven races of the season. However, he struggled every time he got behind the wheels of the R29 through to the end of the season. Suddenly, we saw a Romain Grosjean who had lost all his aggression from his GP2 days and ended up giving way to cars in the lead lap in most of the races. As it turned out, it was just a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The R29 was never a front runner and Renault already had a protege with them in the form of Fernando Alonso. Grosjean could not match up to the expectations and was comprehensively beaten by his teammate resulting in him being  dropped by Renault’s new owners for the 2010 season after being re-branded as Lotus Renault GP.

Having failed to bag a Formula 1 seat for 2010, Grosjean moved to closed wheel racing taking part in the FIA GT1 championship. He also had a stint in the Le Mans 24 hours race. He also took part in the Auto GP where he won the championship with DAMS, a team which had its roots with the GP2 series. There was another high for him as he was picked up by Gravity Driver Management headed by Gerard Lopez, chairman of  Lotus Renault GP. He had brief stints in the GP2 series in the middle and fag end of the 2010 season. For 2011, it was back to square one for the Frenchman as he made a full time comeback in GP2 with DAMS. It was the same old story as he won the GP2 Asia series and also managed to bag the Test driver’s role for Lotus GP. But this time he made it one better by winning the GP2 Series by an incredible 35 points winning 5 races en route.

His incredible performance was enough to get him a seat at Lotus GP alongside Kimi Raikkonen for the 2012 season. But the big question was, which Romain Grosjean will we see in 2012? Will it be the Grosjean who drove the R29 in 2009 or the Grosjean from the 2011 GP2 series. Well from the looks of  it, the latter seems to  have turned up for the first half of the season. He has certainly shown his class with Raikkonen himself  accepting to being a slower qualifier than him

Now whichever way it turns out, Romain Grosjean has achieved not many F1 rejects have,a second chance. And boy isn’t he making good use of it.

Sebastien Vettel has been handed a 20 second penalty on his illegal maneuver over Jenson Button in  the closing stages of the German Grand Prix. This will effectively drop him to the fifth position in the drivers classification, promoting Kimi Raikkonnen to third and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi to a well deserved fourth place after qualifying thirteenth on the grid.

Earlier, being interviewed by Niki Lauda on the podium, Button tried to evade questions on what he felt regarding Vettel’s maneuver.Vettel, however, said, “He(Button) did not complain to me regarding the overtake”.

The fifth place however would do no good to the defending champions title hopes as he is 44 points adrift of the championship leader Fernando Alonso after the German GP.

‘ Welcome to  the world of Maldonado and Hamilton, Mr Vettel.’