Red Bull
Drivers: Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber
Strengths: The support from its Red Bull owner; confidence and knowing how to win consecutive championships; the Newey expertise in aerodynamics and chassis design; the Renault engine.
Base: Milton Keynes,England
Engine: Renault
First Season: 2005
Constructors’ titles: 2
Drivers’ titles: 2
Victories: 27
Weaknesses: A new challenge to maintain the domination without losing the hunger; problems during winter testing with a new design for the exhaust system.
McLAREN
Drivers: Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button
Strengths: The best factory in the series; one of the most businesslike approaches to racing; a unity within the team; two of the best drivers in the series; the Mercedes
engine.
Base: Woking,
England
Engine: Mercedes
First Season: 1966
Constructors’ titles: 8
Drivers’ titles: 12
Victories: 175
FERRARI
Drivers: Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa
Strengths: Its budget, as racing is Ferrari’s raison d’être and the company uses sales of the luxury road car to fund the team and victories of the race car to sell the road car; the factory; the devoted staff; two of the top drivers in the sport.
Base: Maranello, Italy
Engine: Ferrari
First Season: 1950
Constructors’
titles:16
Drivers’ titles: 15
Victories: 216
Weaknesses:
Radical approaches to car design from one season to the next, which rarely produce top results.
MERCEDES F1
Drivers: Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg
Strengths: Schumacher, one of the greatest drivers ever, with his excellent technical ability to develop the car and help his younger teammate develop; the Mercedes ownership and their increased financial commitment.
Base: Brackley, England
Engine: Mercedes
First Season: 2010
Weaknesses: Perhaps too many chefs: With new management hires, they have four former team technical directors – Brawn, Aldo Costa, Bob Bell and Geoff Willis – and the most successful driver in history.
LOTUS
Drivers: Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean
Strengths: The revitalization of the team with the arrival of Raikkonen; the close working relationship with the Renault engine supplier, the team’s former owner; solid team leadership by Eric Boullier, a Frenchman now in his third year as director.
Base: Enstone, England
Engine: Renault
First Season: 2012
Weaknesses: The car’s structural problems in winter testing, when it was withdrawn for the entire second test, despite being the fastest car; the complicated financial situation of the Lotus company that owns the team.
FORCE INDIA
Drivers: Nico Hulkenberg, Paul di Resta
Strengths: An injection of money from a new partial owner last year – SaharaIndia Pariwar – helping with one of last year’s major problems: budget; the Mercedes engine; the general technical work force of the team.
Base: Silverstone, England
Engine: Mercedes
First Season: 2008
Weaknesses: Major financial problems in India of one of the two main companies behind the team, Kingfisher, that could have repercussions for the Formula One project.
SAUBER
Drivers: Kamui Kobayashi, Sergio Perez
Strengths: The team’s longstanding relationship with its Ferrari engine partner; an excellent factory, revitalized by huge BMW investment; as always, the team mastery of the art of getting more out of less budget.
Base: Hinwil,
Switzerland
Engine:Ferrari
First Season: 1993
Victories: 1
Weaknesses: The budget; possible restructuring after the departure over the winter of its technical director; relatively inexperienced drivers, although they are fast.
TORO ROSSO
Drivers: Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo
Strengths: The Red Bull ownership and commitment; two young, hungry and fast new drivers; the relationship with Ferrari.
Base: Faenza, Italy
Engine: Ferrari
First Season: 2006
Victories: 1
Weaknesses: The budget; the owner’s greater interest in seeing its other team – Red Bull – win races for the marketing value.
CATERHAM
Drivers: Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov
Strengths: The enthusiasm of the directors; excellent technical team put together by Gascoyne, a team-builder with a long history of creating success; increased budget from earnings and a new Russian sponsor.
Base: Hingham,
England, and
Sepang, Malaysia
Engine: Renault
First Season:2012
Weaknesses: Having started from scratch like the three other new teams in 2010; still much to prove for the new recruit, Petrov, who replaces Jarno Trulli, who was judged to have failed.
WILLIAMS
Drivers: Pastor Maldonado, Bruno Senna
Strengths: The new technical team and a return to the use of the Renault engine – as in the team’s glory period in the 1990s – after years with a Cosworth.
Base: Grove, England
Engine: Renault
First Season: 1978
Constructors’ titles: 9
Drivers’ titles: 7
Victories: 113
Weaknesses: The budget; many changes within the team that left something of a leadership vacuum last season and left the team needing to rebuild.
HRT
Drivers: Pedro de la Rosa, Narain Karthikeyan
Strengths: The enormous experience of the new driver de la Rosa, who has raced and test-driven for several teams, including McLaren for many years.
Base: Madrid
Drivers: Engine:
Cosworth
First Season: 2010
Weaknesses: The budget; the move to new quarters; dropping the
director; no winter testing of the new car.
MARUSSIA
Strengths: A well-run team with decades of racing behind it after it rose up from the lower series.
Base: Dinnington, England
Engine: Cosworth
First Season: 2012
Weaknesses: As in the past, a small budget; limited factory resources, without a wind t
unnel.