Formula One 2012 Preview: Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso

The 2012 Formula One seasons starts next week in Melbourne, Australia. How are the teams looking ahead of the new season? In this section we look at the midfield scrap between Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso.

Force India

The battle between Force India’s 2012 drivers will be fascinating. Paul di Resta and Nico Hülkenberg are both are young, fast and intelligent. In theory, they should be very evenly matched. But if one gets a run of results the other has to keep his head and respond.

The team must be praised for its investment in young drivers, and they are reaping the reward with this dynamic lineup. Di Resta proved himself to be very fast and capable last year and will look to gain consistency in his performances through 2012. He will also look to keep his nose clean, but the few incidents we saw him involved in last year can be put down to the Scot refamiliarising himself with single-seater racing.

Like Di Resta, Nico Hülkenberg is probably going to prove himself to be a great asset to the team. He raced with Williams in 2010, learning not just from the experienced Rubens Barrichello, but from the likes of experienced engineers Patrick Head and Sam Michael. The season before that was spent working at the Williams factory in Grove. This makes Hülkenberg a highly-educated young driver.

The car looks good too. At Barcelona it looked easy to push to the limit and the drivers reported a good balance. Whereas the Sauber and Williams cars were missing apexes and exaggerating their turn-ins, the Force India looked much more like the Lotus (ex-Renault) and the Mercedes when it was at the limit.

The only question about the team is the ownership situation. Sahara came on-board towards the end of 2011 and it’s unclear exactly where the money will come from. The team desperately needs a good development budget in place as they showed last year that with the ability to invest in the performance of the car, they can move up the grid as the year progresses.

Force India’s third driver is the promising Frenchman Jules Bianchi. He will get a lot of Friday practice throughout 2012. This is important because with Felipe Massa and Mark Webber possibly moving on at the end of 2012, the big teams will be looking at both of Force India’s young chargers as possible replacements.

Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso is the junior team on Red Bull and so it's quite apt that some of the biggest stories of the offseason focused on their driver lineup.

The decision to drop both Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari was a surprise. By dropping both drivers they lose the yardstick with which to compare the new guys. They also lost the engineering continuity that comes from having at least one driver staying from year to year.

Developing a car can be a painful experience when the drivers have nothing to compare it to.
The team is obviously confident in its choice though, and the battle between the two will be just as intense as that over at Force India.

The new drivers, Frenchman Jean-Éric Verge and Australian Daniel Ricciardo, are clearly talented and have strong junior formula pedigree. Ricciardo drove in 11 grands prix last year for HRT and so he at least has some F1 experience.  Vergne finished a close second in the highly competitive Formula Renault 3.5 series.

The team is a serious outfit, despite its 'junior' tag, and will hope to be ahead of Sauber and Williams. The midfield battle is ultra-competitive, and has been for a number of years now. The battle between Vergne and Ricciardo will be just as tight and impossible to predict.

Sauber

Sauber has been in Formula 1 since 1993. The Swiss team has spent much of that time being rather anonymous, rarely escaping the midfield.  

The glory days the team experienced when BMW had control from 2006 until 2009 are over. Since then Sauber has had to downsize. This is a painful process for any company and it’s vital to keep hold of the best engineers. Whether Sauber has managed to do this is debatable, but the midfield scrap looks to be enveloping them once again.

The team have the facilities to design and build a strong car but they’re engulfed in the frenetic midfield battle that is modern day Formula 1. With few retirements in the races, the team has to out-develop their rivals and get to the position of at least fifth-best if they are to consistently score points.

The Ferrari engine is strong and while Saubers lack investment, they have two young and fast drivers.

Kamui Kobayashi’s form dipped in the second half of last year, but he has the speed to go along with his highly-regarded racecraft. The Japanese driver has a clear understanding of race strategy and will never hang around behind another driver for too long.

Perhaps he struggled slightly to get the best out of the Pirelli tyres in 2011. His performances across this season will be of great interest, especially when compared to other Pirelli tyre-strugglers Mark Webber and, perhaps, Felipe Massa.

Sergio Perez is highly rated and he will need to keep getting the maximum from his car if he is to realise his potential. If the young Mexican has a strong year then he is likely to step up the grid for the 2013 season. A lot depends, as ever, on the car. But Perez stood up very well to Kobayashi last year, and another season of beating the Japanese driver could, perhaps, convince Ferrari, Lotus or Mercedes to sign him up. Perez’s drive in Australia last year – his Formula 1 debut – was one of the best of anybody all season. So expect him to be on it from the very start of the season.