The early season was tumultuous, with seven different drivers winning the first seven races of the championship; a record for the series. It was not until theEuropean Grand Prix in June that a driver,Ferrari'sFernando Alonso, won his second race of the year, and with it, emerged as a championship contender. Alonso maintained his hold on the championship lead for the next seven races, taking his third win inGermany and finishing on the podium in theUnited Kingdom,Italy andSingapore. However, costly first-lap retirements inBelgium andJapan allowed his rivals to catch up, and defendingWorld ChampionSebastian Vettel – like Alonso, a two-time title winner – took the lead in thesixteenth race of the season. Vettel, too, encountered difficulties throughout the season; contact with a backmarker left him to finish outside the points inMalaysia, whilealternator failures at the European and Italian Grands Prix cost him valuable points and exclusion from qualifying inAbu Dhabi led him to start from the pit lane. Vettel enteredthe final race of the season with a thirteen-point lead over Alonso. Alonso needed a podium finish to stand any chance of becomingWorld Drivers' Champion, but in a race of attrition that finished under the safety car, Vettel finished in sixth place, scoring enough points to win his third consecutive championship, becoming just the third driver in the sport's sixty-three-year history to do so. In theWorld Constructors' Championship,Red Bull Racing secured their third consecutive title when Sebastian Vettel finished second at theUnited States Grand Prix.
This was the last season for 7-time world champion,Michael Schumacher as he announced his retirement from Formula One for the second time, after the2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.
The following twelve teams and twenty-five race drivers competed in the 2012Formula One World Championship.[5] The FIA published a provisional entry list on 30 November 2011,[6] and the grid was finalised on 17 February.[7] All teams competed with tyres supplied byPirelli.[8]
At the November 2011 meeting of the Formula One Commission in Geneva, several teams were given permission to change their constructor names – the name recognised by the FIA as the entity that effectively owns the team, and to which all results for that team are credited[36] – with final approval from theWorld Motor Sport Council granted in December of that year:[35][37]
Renault changed its constructor name toLotus afterLotus Cars expanded its title sponsorship program to include teams in Formula One and support seriesGP2 andGP3.[40]
As a result of the name changes, Team Lotus and Lotus Renault GP declared that theirongoing dispute over the use of the Lotus name was over after they had reached an "amicable conclusion".[43] Although the exact terms of the settlement were kept confidential, the joint statement detailed the transfer of the rights to the Lotus and Team Lotus names to Group Lotus's ownership.[44]
Williams announced that they would be usingRenault engines for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, with an option to use Renault engines again in 2014 under the next generation of engine regulations.[45] Renault had previously supplied engines to Williams from1989 to1997, when the team won fourWorld Drivers' Championships and fiveWorld Constructors' Championships. Following their worst season in their thirty-year history[46] – in which they finished ninth in the World Constructors' Championship with just five points – the team underwent a technical review, employing formerMcLaren designerMike Coughlan (having served his suspension for his role in the2007 Formula One espionage controversy) as Chief Designer, and promoting Jason Somerville to Head of Aerodynamics.[47] Likewise,Marussia (then known asVirgin Racing) underwent a restructuring, splitting withWirth Research mid-season after a technical review by Marussia Motors and the board of directors.[48] The team also announced a technical partnership withMcLaren that granted them access to McLaren's testing facilities as well as the purchase of Wirth Research facilities.[49]
In the week before the2011 Indian Grand Prix,Force India announced that theSahara Group had purchased a 42.5% stake in the team, valued at US$100 million.[50] The investment gave the Sahara Group and team principalVijay Mallya an equal stake in the team, with team directorMichiel Mol controlling the remaining 15% of the team. Under the terms of the sale, the Sahara Group became Force India's naming-rights sponsor.Mercedes GP also changed the name of their team, announcing that they were to become known as Mercedes AMG. The new name originates fromAMG, Mercedes-Benz's performance and luxury road car brand.[51]
HRT team principalColin Kolles formally left his position, with the team citing the relocation of their headquarters to Spain as the reason for the separation.[52] FormerMinardi driverLuis Pérez-Sala took Kolles's place as team principal.[53] In January 2012, the team relocated to a new facility inValencia[54] before settling at a permanent facility inCaja Mágica,Madrid.[55]
Peter Sauber formally stepped down from his position as team principal ofSauber F1 in the week before theKorean Grand Prix, appointing the team's CEO,Monisha Kaltenborn as his successor.[56] Kaltenborn's appointment made her the first female team principal in the sport's sixty-three-year history.[57]
Like Räikkönen and Grosjean,Nico Hülkenberg also returned to Formula One, joiningForce India alongsidePaul di Resta.[20]Adrian Sutil left the team, having spent six years with both Force India and its previous incarnations,Spyker andMidland.[20] He initially sought a drive withWilliams, before negotiations collapsed in December 2011.[62] Sutil was later the subject of criminal action, charged withgrievous bodily harm after allegedly assaulting a senior Renault team member witha glass in a Shanghai nightclub following the2011 Chinese Grand Prix.[63] Sutil was found guilty, and was sentenced to an eighteen-monthsuspended jail sentence and ordered to pay a €200,000 fine.[64] Despite this, Sutil rejoined Force India for the2013 season.[65]
Pedro de la Rosa andNarain Karthikeyan returned to Formula One withHRT.[26][27] De la Rosa had been without a full-time drive since the2010 Italian Grand Prix, having spent the majority of the2011 season as a test driver forMcLaren and makingone appearance racing forSauber; Karthikeyan was dropped by the team before the2011 British Grand Prix in favour of Ricciardo. He, too, made a one-race appearance at theIndian Grand Prix, before leaving the team until the 2012 season began.Vitantonio Liuzzi, who drove for HRT in 2011, joined the Indiani1 Super Series.[70] The series was later postponed until 2013,[71] but Liuzzi was unable to retain his seat with the team. At the launch of theHRT F112 in March, Liuzzi was confirmed as one of the team's testing and reserve drivers alongside both formerGP2 Series driverDani Clos andMa Qinghua, the first ever Chinese driver to step into a Formula 1 car.[33][72]
The season only saw one driver change, which was brought about whenLotus driverRomain Grosjean was found by race stewards to be responsible for causing a multi-car pile-up at the start of theBelgian Grand Prix. He was given a one-race ban and a €50,000 fine for his role in the collision, forcing him to miss theItalian Grand Prix.[74] He was replaced by the team's testing and reserve driver,Jérôme d'Ambrosio.[19] Grosjean returned to the team for the next round inSingapore.[75]
After the2011 Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled,[3][77] the race was reinstated for the 2012 season with a provisional date in October.[78] The final version of the calendar brought the race forward to April.[79]
In May 2010, it was announced thatAustin, Texas would host the return of theUnited States Grand Prix, the first sinceIndianapolis in2007. Known as theCircuit of the Americas, the venue will be a brand-new, purpose-built permanent circuit designed by event promoterTavo Hellmund and1993Grand Prix Motorcycle World ChampionKevin Schwantz[81] with the assistance of German architect and circuit designerHermann Tilke.[82] In November 2011, Bernie Ecclestone expressed "minor" doubt over the race going ahead after what he described as "disagreements inside the [management] company"[83] and gave the circuit owners and race organisers a deadline of 7 December[84] – coinciding with the meeting of theFIAWorld Motor Sport Council and the release of the final 2012 calendar – to sort out their differences or else risk losing the event entirely.[85] The final calendar included the race,[79] with Ecclestone confirming that a new arrangement had been made, and that the event organisers had paid their circuit sanctioning fees for 2012.[86] The race was originally scheduled to be held in June, but was moved back to become the penultimate event of the season in response to concerns over the heat of the Texas summer and its effects on teams, drivers and spectators,[87] and the failure of race organisers to meet a key deadline for the race sanctioning fees.[88]
TheTurkish Grand Prix was firstly included in the provisional calendar,[89] but then it was removed from the calendar afterFormula One Management and the event organisers could not agree on a renewed contract. In August 2011, organisers of the race revealed that they were negotiating withBernie Ecclestone to resume their place on the calendar.[90] However, the race was removed from the calendar later that month.[91] It would eventually return in2020 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[92]
The banning of exhaust-blown diffusers meant all teams had to redevelop the exit of the exhaust.
The2011 season saw teams running "off-throttle blown diffusers", which created downforce by forcing fuel through the engine to produce exhaust gases and directing it over the diffuser when the driver was not applying the throttle. This concept was originally banned in incremental phases, with increasingly restrictive rules on what teams could and could not do, with a full ban to be applied from the2011 British Grand Prix onwards. However, the incremental ban was controversial, with several teams applying for and receiving permission to circumvent the total ban. After discussion between the FIA and engine manufacturers, the original regulations were restored, with the full ban delayed until 2012. The regulations in 2012 governed the design of the exhaust with the teams agreeing to strict constraints on the position of the exhaust tailpipe. This resulted in the exhaust exiting the bodywork much higher up than in 2011, and no longer in the vicinity of the diffuser.[93] Several teams, includingWilliams[94] andMercedes[95] used the Young Driver Tests inAbu Dhabi as an opportunity to test parts for the 2012 season in the face of the ban. In October 2011, a clarification to the amended rules was issued, effectively banning "exotic" engine maps;[96] in November, further amendments were introduced, completely banning the practice of blowing exhaust gasses over parts of the car to improve downforce, following a bid by several teams to allow it under certain conditions.[97] Further amendments were made in February 2012 whenMercedes alerted the FIA to a loophole in the regulations that would allow teams to continue using a partially blown diffuser. The FIA responded by re-writing the software governing the engine's Electronic Control Unit to close the loophole.[98]
At theGerman Grand Prix in July,Red Bull Racing were referred to race stewards after FIA Technical DelegateJo Bauer noted that their engine maps had the potential to violate the technical regulations.[99] Red Bull stood accused of manipulating the relationship between the torque produced by theRed Bull RB8 and the degree to which the throttle was open – particularly in medium-speed corners – thereby allowing more air to pass through the exhaust and over the diffuser, generating more downforce. Red Bull were cleared of wrongdoing, as, in the stewards' words, they had not technically broken any rules, but the FIA announced plans to rewrite the regulations governing throttle mapping so as to outlaw the practice entirely ahead of theHungarian Grand Prix one week later.[100] The rule changes required teams to submit an engine map used during one of the first four races of the season, which became known as the "reference map". Any subsequent changes to the throttle map would require the approval of the FIA, provided that the torque output above 6,000rpm was within two percent of the output specified on the reference map.[101] Further changes would be allowed at races with "exceptional atmospheric conditions", as designated by the FIA.[101]
In January 2012, the FIA banned the use of "reactive ride-height".[102] The system, first proposed byLotus in 2010 (but not applied until 2012),[103] used hydraulic cylinders located in the brake calipers and suspension push-rods to make minute adjustments to the ride height of the car, thereby keeping the ride height at an optimal level throughout the race and providing stability during braking.[104] The FIA initially approved the device as being legal,[105] and several teams, includingFerrari[106] andWilliams,[107] submitted plans to the FIA for their own versions of the device before it was banned one week later. The FIA later confirmed that the reactive ride-height systems violated Article 3.15 of the technical regulations, which states that "any aerodynamic effect created by the suspension should be incidental to its primary function" and "any device that influences the car's aerodynamics must remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car"[108] and further noted that the system's primary purpose was achieving aerodynamic gains as opposed to providing stability under braking, and that the use of reactive ride-heights could also be challenged under Article 10.2 of the technical regulations, which govern suspension systems.[109]
The reduction in the height of the nose led to several teams using a "platypus" nose design, as seen in theForce India VJM05 (top). However,McLaren did not use this design, as evidenced in theMcLaren MP4-27 (bottom).
Technical regulations for 2012 include the reprofiling of the car's nose. The pre-2012 regulations allowed the nose to be as high as 62.5 centimetres (24.6 in) above ground, but the revisions to the sporting code lowered the maximum allowable height to 55 centimetres (22 in) 150mm ahead of the front bulkhead.[110] This resulted in cars being launched with a "platypus" nose, as teams designed cars with a visible change in height along the nose assembly of the car.[111]Mercedes AMG team principalRoss Brawn explained the distinctive nose shape as having come about from "several teams" wanting to use their 2011 chassis as the basis for their 2012 cars.[112]
Drivers were no longer permitted to have a "joker" gearbox change. Prior to 2012, drivers were entitled to change their gearboxes once over the course of the season without incurring a five-place grid penalty. This system was abandoned in 2012, with drivers only being allowed to change gearboxes once every five races.[113]
Starting in 2012, all cars were required to pass their mandatory FIA crash tests before being allowed to take part in pre-season testing.[114] Previously, passing the crash tests was only a requirement prior to the first race of the season. Crash tests for the 2012 season will also be more rigorous than in previous years.[115]
At the meeting for the Formula One Commission in Geneva in November 2011, the use ofhelium in air guns used to change tyres during pit stops was banned. Despite increasing the rotation speed of the air guns by up to 30%, the practice of using helium was deemed to be too expensive to continue for the competitive gains it offered.[116]
At the2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the FIA banned the use of "trick brake" devices, which used a bi-metallic strip that changed shape when heated by the brakes to open or close off braking ducts and improving braking efficiency under certain conditions. This was deemed to be in breach of Article 11.4 of the Sporting Regulations, which states that the only permissible changes to the braking system while a car is moving must be directly controlled by the driver.[117]
After being banned in2009, in-season testing returned in 2012, with a test held atMugello on 1 May ahead of the European leg of the 2012 championship.[118] As teams were only permitted to do fifteen days of testing over the course of the season, the pre-season winter testing schedule was cut back to accommodate the Mugello test.[119]
At the September 2011 meeting of theFIAWorld Motor Sport Council, representatives of the member organisations voted to amend the rules fordouble-waved yellow flags in all FIA-sanctioned championships. The amendment means that double-waved flags will be shown when a track marshal is working on or beside the circuit.[120]
Tyre supplierPirelli revised their tyre compounds for the 2012 season in an effort to encourage teams to use each of the compounds supplied for individual races.[121] Pirelli predicted that the changes would translate into 0.7 seconds' difference per lap between the harder and softer compounds, down from 1.5 seconds per lap in 2011.[122] According to Pirelli, the hardest tyre compound available is just 31% harder than the softest compound on offer; by comparison, the hardest tyres used in 2011 were 70% harder than the softest.[123]
Faced with several constructors applying for name changes,[124][125] teams requested a clearer definition of what constitutes a "constructor".[126] Under the rules set out in theSixth Concorde Agreement, several teams have been forced to compete under names that do not necessarily reflect their ownership—such asSauber competing as "BMW Sauber" in2010, despiteBMW withdrawing from the sport at the end of the2009 season—in order to preserve their status as a current constructor and their claim to a share of the television rights paid to teams that placed in the top ten in the final World Constructors' Championship standings.[127][128]
At the final meeting of the World Motorsports Commission in December 2011, a series of amendments to the sporting regulations were published. Chief among these is the re-introduction of a rule that will allow all lapped traffic under thesafety car (which remained theMercedes-Benz SLS AMG introduced in 2010)[129][130][131] to be released from the queue before the car returns to pit lane, allowing the drivers to unlap themselves and to ensure a clean restart.[132]
Drivers were not permitted to leave the confines of the circuit without a justifiable reason, following a spate of incidents in2011 when drivers were sighted using access roads around the circuit to shorten their reconnaissance and in-laps in order to preserve their fuel and tyres.[114] Similarly, drivers will not be allowed to return to the normal racing line should they choose a defensive line going into a corner.[133]
Races were run to a maximum four-hour time limit to prevent the indefinite suspension of a race. This will stop the theoretical possibility of a race lasting more than eight hours. This rule was introduced in response to the rain-interrupted2011 Canadian Grand Prix, which set a record forthe longest race in Formula One history, at four hours, four minutes and thirty-nine seconds.[133]
Any driver in the pit lane when a race is suspended was permitted to return to the circuit and take up the position on the grid that they were running in at the time of the suspension.[114]
In July 2011, a joint broadcasting deal forFormula One in the United Kingdom was announced betweenSky Sports and theBBC.[136][137] The announcement was controversial, being met with highly negative reactions from fans and observers[138][139] as it had previously been believed that the terms of theConcorde Agreement prevented Formula One from being broadcast exclusively on pay-per-view, but the Agreement did not prevent a shared broadcast such as the proposal made by Sky Sports and the BBC.[140] The controversial nature of the broadcast deal led to theCulture, Media and Sport Committee of theHouse of Commons callingBernie Ecclestone and "senior BBC figures" including director-generalMark Thompson to answer questions over the details of the broadcasting arrangement.[141]
In December 2011,Red Bull Racing andScuderia Ferrari exited FOTA, theFormula One Teams Association, following prolonged debate over the implementation of the controversial Resource Restriction Agreement,[142][143] though Red Bull team principalChristian Horner reaffirmed his team's commitment to cost-cutting measures and highlighting the team's concerns over certain loopholes in the Resource Restriction Agreement that they felt teams and manufacturers would willingly exploit.[144] One week later,Sauber also left the organisation, though the Swiss team did not publicly give a reason for ending their membership.[145] In February 2012, Red Bull Racing's sister teamScuderia Toro Rosso was also reported as having left the organisation since the first schism in December.[146]
The 2012 season was preceded by three test sessions; one at Jerez de la Frontera and two in Barcelona. These sessions gave the teams and drivers the opportunity to familiarise themselves with their cars, though the teams downplayed the accuracy of testing times as being representative of the running order for the season.[147] At the second test in Barcelona,Lotus F1 discovered a critical fault in the build oftheir chassis that forced them to miss four days of running,[148] while bothHRT andMarussia were unable to complete any mileage with their 2012 cars after both theHRT F112 andMarussia MR01 failed their crash tests, though both teams were able to complete shakedowns of their cars.[149][150]
"We are all terrified that somebody will unlock the secret and win everything. Unless, of course, that's us!"
HRT failed to qualify for the Australian Grand Prix for thesecond consecutive year.Jenson Button (on the podium) won the first race of the season. He never led the championship again for the rest of the season.
The season began in Australia.Jenson Button took an early lead from pole-sitterLewis Hamilton and theRed Bull cars while the rest of the field was bottle-necked by contact in the first corner. Button remained unchallenged throughout, even after a mid-race safety car to retrieve the strickenCaterham ofVitaly Petrov. Button went on to take his third victory at theMelbourne circuit, ahead ofSebastian Vettel, who profited from the safety car to pass Hamilton.[152]McLaren team principalMartin Whitmarsh later admitted that Button was "more than marginal" on fuel after the team made a mistake in calculating their fuel loads for the race, forcing Button to use a "severe fuel-saving mode" from the eighth lap of the race.[153] Hamilton came under threat fromMark Webber in the late stages of the race, but held on to secure third place. Webber finished fourth – his best result in his home Grand Prix – whileFernando Alonso finished fifth, having endured pressure fromPastor Maldonado for the last half of the race. Maldonado's race ended when he crossed onto the astroturf on the final lap and spun into the wall.[154]Kimi Räikkönen finished seventh after a poor qualifying session saw him start the race seventeenth, taking advantage of a chaotic final lap to make up two places, whileFelipe Massa andBruno Senna both retired after a bizarre collision that saw their cars tangled up in one another.[155]HRT failed to qualify for the race for thesecond consecutive season after driversPedro de la Rosa andNarain Karthikeyan failed to set a lap timewithin 107% of the fastest qualifying time.[156]
McLaren locked out the front row of the grid for the second race in succession, withLewis Hamilton once again on pole. BothHRT cars qualified for the race, but filled out the final row of the grid almost two seconds behindMarussia'sCharles Pic in twenty-second position.[158] In the race, Hamilton made a better start thanJenson Button, but his lead was short-lived; heavy rain interrupted the race, forcing the suspension of the Grand Prix.[159] When the race restarted an hour later, Button was involved in contact withNarain Karthikeyan that forced him to make an unscheduled stop for a new front wing, while Hamilton had a slow pit stop and was held in the lane while other cars passed.[160]Fernando Alonso inherited the lead, withSauber'sSergio Pérez a surprise second, having made an early stop for extreme wet weather tyres and then taking advantage of a rush to the pit lane to position himself in third at the restart. As the race wore on, Pérez began to quickly catch Alonso on a drying track.Daniel Ricciardo was the first driver to pit for dry-weather tyres on lap 38, triggering another round of stops. Sauber and Pérez initially looked as if they had left their stop too late when Pérez emerged from the pits five seconds behind Alonso, but he began catching thetwo-time World Champion at the same rate as he had before. Pérez closed to within half a second with seven laps to go, but ran wide at turn 14 and lost five seconds, later admitting that it was his mistake.[161] He was unable to close the gap, and Alonso went on to win the race by two seconds, the win giving him a five-point lead in the championship.[162] Pérez was second, taking his first podium and Sauber's best ever result as an independent team.[163] Hamilton finished third ahead ofMark Webber andKimi Räikkönen, while Button had to settle for fourteenth.Bruno Senna finished in sixth, scoring more points in a single race thanhis team scored in2011.[164]Sebastian Vettel finished outside the points after making contact with Karthikeyan and developing a puncture.[165]
The legality of theMercedes F1 W03's rear wing was an ongoing issue early in the season.
The championship resumed three weeks later in China, with the lead-in period to the race marked byLotus F1 protesting the legality ofMercedes'srear wing design.[166] The FIA rejected the protest, and with Mercedes allowed to continue racing with their car unchanged,[167]Nico Rosberg took his – and the team's – first pole position since their return to Formula One in2010,[168] while a penalty toLewis Hamilton for a gearbox change promotedMichael Schumacher to second on the grid.[169] Schumacher would ultimately retire from the race after the first round of stops when it was discovered that one of his wheels had not been attached properly. Rosberg took an early lead in the race, and while his attempt to complete the race with only two pit stops came under threat from second-placedJenson Button, a mistake by Button's pit crew during his final stop handed Rosberg a nineteen-second advantage overKimi Räikkönen.[170] Räikkönen was attempting a similar two-stop strategy, but his tyres wore out seven laps from the end of the race, and he lost eleven positions in a single lap. This forced Rosberg to drive conservatively to preserve his tyres while Button recovered from his disastrous pit stop to passSebastian Vettel for second. Button was held up by the incumbent World Champion long enough for Rosberg to preserve his tyres, and he became the103rd person to win a Grand Prix.[171] The result was also Mercedes's first win as a constructor sinceJuan Manuel Fangio won the1955 Italian Grand Prix. Button was second, with Hamilton scoring his third consecutive third place, giving him a two-point championship lead over Button;Fernando Alonso, who had been leading the championship before the race, finished ninth. After two retirements in the opening rounds of the championship,Romain Grosjean scored his first points in Formula One by finishing sixth.[172]
In the face of ongoing media speculation and public pressure to cancel the race due toongoing political instability in Bahrain,[173][174] the FIA released a statement at the Chinese Grand Prix confirming that the Bahrain Grand Prix would go ahead as planned.[175] The week preceding the Grand Prix saw a renewed wave ofprotests against the government's attempts use the race to "tell the outside world that the whole thing is back to normal",[176][177] while human rights organisations includingAmnesty International criticised the decision to hold the race amid the violent crackdowns.[178] Three days before the race, a group ofForce India mechanics travelling in an unmarked hire car were involved in apetrol bombing incident at an impromptu roadblock and were briefly exposed totear gas fired by security forces.[179] There were no injuries or damage, but two of the mechanics involved chose to leave the country.[180] The team later announced their intentions to race despite the incident.[181]
Sebastian Vettel qualified on pole, his first since the2011 Brazilian Grand Prix.Heikki Kovalainen qualified sixteenth, the second timeCaterham (and its predecessor,Team Lotus) advanced beyond the first qualifying period in dry conditions.[182] Vettel went on to win the race[183] – becoming the fourth winner in as many races – after spending much of the race defending againstKimi Räikkönen. Having started eleventh, Räikkönen used an extra set of soft tyres to move up through the field. His team-mate,Romain Grosjean, finished third. Grosjean had initially shown the pace to challenge Vettel's lead, but unlike Räikkönen, he did not have an extra set of fresh tyres, and lost touch with the reigning World Champion after the first set of stops.Lewis Hamilton finished eighth, once again hampered by slow pit stops.[184] He was later involved in an altercation withNico Rosberg that saw Rosberg referred to the stewards for forcing Hamilton beyond the boundary of the circuit while defending his position, but he escaped without penalty.[185] Hamilton went on to finish eighth, while team-mateJenson Button was forced to retire two laps from the end of the race after reporting an unusual vibration from the differential.Daniel Ricciardo was involved in early contact that saw the Australian driver slide down the order from sixth at the start to fifteenth by the end of the race, having spent most of the Grand Prix caught behindVitaly Petrov. Vettel's win gave him a four-point lead in the championship over Hamilton, whileMark Webber's fourth consecutive fourth place secured third overall.[186]Red Bull Racing took the lead from McLaren in the World Constructors' Championship, whileLotus's double podium moved them into third overall.[186]
Sebastian Vettel won his first race of the 2012 season in Bahrain.
The decision to hold the race despite the ongoing protests made it one of the most controversial Grands Prix in the sport's sixty-year history.[187][188][189][190]
Starting on 1 May, the teams conducted a three-day test at theMugello Circuit in Italy ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. The test gave teams the opportunity to assess major aerodynamic upgrades before racing them.[191][192]HRT elected not to take part in the test, instead choosing to concentrate on establishing themselves at their new headquarters inMadrid.[55] BothLotus's trackside operations director Alan Permane andRed Bull Racing driverMark Webber questioned the value of testing at the Mugello circuit as the characteristics of the circuit were unlike any of the circuits the championship was due to visit after the test,[193][194] whileCaterham driverVitaly Petrov was critical of the choice of Mugello as a testing venue as he felt it was not safe enough for Formula One.[195] Petrov's comments came shortly afterFernando Alonso crashed on the final morning of the test.[196] Red Bull Racing and Lotus team principalsChristian Horner andÉric Boullier were also critical of the test as they felt that the costs of conducting in-season testing outweighed any benefits, with Horner stating his opposition to continuing mid-season testing in the future.[194][197]
"We drive like on raw eggs and I don't want to stress the tires at all. Otherwise you just overdo it and you go nowhere."
Following criticism over the sensitivity of their tyre compounds,[198][199][200] tyre supplierPirelli announced changes to their tyre allocation for the Spanish Grand Prix, making pit strategy the focal point of the Grand Prix.[201] Pirelli would later diagnose the problems with the tyre compounds as originating from developing them on a testing chassis that wastwo years out-of-date at the time.[202]Lewis Hamilton took his third pole of the season, edging outWilliams driverPastor Maldonado by half a second, while Maldonado's team-mateBruno Senna was eliminated early when he spun.[203] Hamilton was later excluded from the qualifying results afterhis car did not have enough fuel to return to the pits for scrutineering, promoting Maldonado to pole position[204] and moving Hamilton to the back of the grid.[205]Fernando Alonso took the lead of the race at the first corner, but Maldonado reclaimed it during the second round of pit stops, when his team forced Ferrari to pit early while Alonso was held up by theMarussia ofCharles Pic.[206] Maldonado maintained a lead of seven seconds over Alonso, but a mistake by his crew during the third pit stop cost him time and left him vulnerable to the Ferrari driver in the final stint of the race. Meanwhile, third-placedKimi Räikkönen moved to an ambitious strategy that would see him attempt to force Maldonado and Alonso to race beyond the life expectancy of their tyres, allowing him to swoop in at the last minute to steal first place. Räikkönen's strategy failed as Maldonado withstood pressure from Alonso for fifteen laps, winning the race by three seconds and becoming the first Venezuelan driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix.[207] It was Williams's first win in one hundred and thirty Grand Prix starts; their previous race win wasJuan Pablo Montoya's victory at the2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.[208] Lewis Hamilton recovered from twenty-fourth on the grid to finish eighth, whileSebastian Vettel overcame a drive-through penalty and an unscheduled stop for a technical fault that forced his team to replace his front wing[209] to make a late move onNico Rosberg for sixth place that would preserve his championship lead.[210]
Although Schumacher qualified in pole, he received a five-grid penalty due to a collision with Bruno Senna. He also retired from the race.
For the second consecutive race, the fastest driver in qualifying did not start the race from pole.Michael Schumacher set the fastest time, but a five-place grid penalty[211] left him sixth overall. Two hours before the race, protests against parts introduced onto the floor of theRed Bull RB8[212] left team principalChristian Horner with a choice: to change the offending parts and start both cars from the pit lane, guaranteeing that any result the team recorded would be preserved; or to leave the parts on the car, allowing both drivers to start the race from the positions they qualified in, but risking a post-race exclusion. Horner ultimately chose the latter option, andMark Webber started from pole,[213] establishing an early lead overNico Rosberg as a first-corner accident eliminated four cars.[214] The race was run under the constant threat of rain, with drivers trying to extend the life of their tyres to avoid being forced to make an additional stop and falling down the order. The rain never materialised, thoughJean-Éric Vergne was observed using a set of intermediate tyres late in the race.[215] The variety of strategies used by the front-runners resulted in the last ten laps being contested with the top six cars running nose-to-tail. Webber visibly faded in the final laps, but held on when the following cars were momentarily pinned behind the slow-movingHeikki Kovalainen. Webber won the race – his second on the streets of Monaco – with Rosberg second andFernando Alonso third,[216] the result giving Alonso a three-point lead in the championship.Red Bull Racing maintained their lead in the Constructors' Championship as rival teams chose not to follow through on the threat of their pre-race protest,[217] while Kovalainen finished thirteenth to see Caterham overtake Marussia for tenth place.[218] Elsewhere, Spanish Grand Prix winnerPastor Maldonado was given a ten-place grid penalty for an incident that saw him clipSergio Pérez.[219][220] Combined with a five-place penalty for changing his gearbox, Maldonado started from the back row of the grid[221] where he was eliminated in the first-corner accident.[214]
"It really pisses me off, to be honest, because the car has passed every single technical regulation after the race. All of the teams that were against it did not make any protest after Monaco. The car passed the test after Bahrain, the car passed the test after Monaco, and now there has been a clarification on the rule. And the rule now is different. We had a car which was legal for the first part of the season. And now the rule has been changed and we'll start again."
One week before the Canadian Grand Prix, the FIA declared the floor used byRed Bull in Monaco to be illegal, forcing the team to change the offending parts for the Canadian Grand Prix.[224] Despite the ruling, the team's results were kept intact.[225] The team was also forced to change the design of their axles, after FIA Race DirectorCharlie Whiting felt that holes in the axles contravened the technical regulations.[226] Nevertheless,Sebastian Vettel comfortably took pole position by three-tenths of a second.[227] Vettel controlled the early phase of the race, but was caught and passed byLewis Hamilton before the first round of stops, whileFernando Alonso slipped through shortly afterwards. All three drivers were using a two-stop strategy at the time, but as Hamilton made his second stop, both Alonso and Vettel shifted to a one-stop strategy,[228][229] with Alonso's team resorting to discussing strategy options in his nativeSpanish to prevent their rivals from overhearing their plans. Hamilton had twenty laps to make up a twelve-second deficit, and he easily reeled Vettel in; in response, Red Bull pitted the reigning World Champion, and Vettel fell to fifth. Hamilton's next target was Alonso, whose tyres lost all grip and he fell victim to Hamilton,Romain Grosjean,Sergio Pérez and Vettel in quick succession. Hamilton won the race, becoming the seventh winner in seven races and taking a two-point lead in the championship.[223] Grosjean's second place sawLotus take third place in the Constructors' Championship fromFerrari.[230] Both Grosjean and Pérez expressed surprise at finishing on the podium,[231][232] while2011 winnerJenson Button finished sixteenth in what he described as his "worst race in years"[233] andMichael Schumacher suffered a hydraulics failure that left hisdrag reduction system (DRS) device jammed in the open position.[234]
Fernando Alonso became the first man to win two races in 2012 at the European Grand Prix in Valencia,[235] scoring his first home win since the2006 Spanish Grand Prix. Starting eleventh,[236] he was forced to navigate his way through traffic, narrowly avoiding early contact betweenBruno Senna andKamui Kobayashi asSebastian Vettel broke free of the field to establish a twenty-second lead by the first round of stops. Vettel's lead was quashed whenHeikki Kovalainen andJean-Éric Vergne made contact, triggering the deployment of the safety car to clear debris from the circuit. Alonso found himself third at the restart and pounced on a mistake by second-placedRomain Grosjean to lead the chase against Vettel. Vettel pulled away once more, but his lead was short-lived as he lost drive and his engine shut down on lap 33.[237] Grosjean attempted to challenge Alonso, but was forced out of the race with an alternator problem seven laps later,[238] leaving Alonso in the lead, four seconds clear ofLewis Hamilton andKimi Räikkönen. As the race entered the final laps, Räikkönen forced his way past Hamilton to secure second place, butPastor Maldonado's attempts to take third place ended with Hamilton in the barrier and a broken nose for theWilliams driver. Maldonado finished tenth, but was given a post-race drive-through penalty and was classified twelfth.[239] Meanwhile,Michael Schumacher andMark Webber had started to carve their way through the field by virtue of a late pit stop and easily picked off the minor points positions and taking advantage of the Maldonado—Hamilton collision to finish third and fourth behind Alonso and Räikkönen. It was Schumacher's first podium since the2006 Chinese Grand Prix. Alonso's win cemented a twenty-point lead in the championship, whilst Vettel's retirement relegated him to fourth overall, twenty-six points behind Alonso.[240]
Heavy rain forced the suspension of qualifying for the British Grand Prix.
Difficult conditions greeted the teams upon their arrival at theSilverstone Circuit,[241] as parts of theMidlands received a month's rainfall in the space of two days.[242] The torrential rain lasted throughout the weekend, forcing qualifying to be suspended for ninety minutes,[243] before race day dawned clear. The circuit was declared dry, allowing the drivers to start on the tyre compound of their choice, with Alonso on the harder tyre streaking away at the start whilePaul di Resta crashed at Aintree on the first lap after making contact withRomain Grosjean.[244] As the leaders settled into a rhythm,Pastor Maldonado andSergio Pérez collided at Brooklands, prompting an angry response from the Mexican driver.[245] Perez's teammateKamui Kobayashi also ran into trouble, locking his tyres as he entered his pit box and hitting three members of his pit crew, though none were seriously injured.[246] The race was ultimately decided by the choice of tyre in the first stint as Alonso moved onto the softer option and Webber onto the harder prime for the final phase of the race. Webber caught Alonso with five laps to go, passing him on the Wellington Straight. Webber held on for his second win of the season, with Vettel third andFelipe Massa in fourth, his best result since achieving a podium inSouth Korea in 2010.[247] The result meant Webber closed to within thirteen points of Alonso's championship lead, with both drivers breaking away from third-placed Vettel. After showing early promise in the wet conditions,McLaren went backwards in the dry, losing second place in the Constructors' Championship toFerrari and third toLotus.[248]
Limited running in practice and a wet qualifying session meant that teams had to improvise their strategies at theHockenheimring.Fernando Alonso controlled much of the race from pole position, only relinquishing the lead when he pitted, and he went on to take his third victory of the season.[252]Lewis Hamilton's one hundredth Grand Prix started with a disaster when he picked up a puncture on the third lap and spent most of the race at the tail end of the field before retiring on lap 56 with a suspension problem. Confusion briefly reigned when Hamilton, in seventeenth place at the time, began lapping faster than the leaders and sought to unlap himself.Sebastian Vettel later claimed that this was a ploy byMcLaren to force both him and Alonso to drive defensively against Hamilton, slowing them down enough to allow team-mateJenson Button to leap-frog them at the second round of stops;[253] Vettel lost a position to Button, but Alonso was unaffected, as Ferrari pitted him before Hamilton could interfere with his race. Button briefly looked as if he had the pace to pass Alonso for the race lead, but the race was deadlocked in the final twenty laps, and Button began to fade in the final five laps of the race. The race was marked by another technical dispute regardingRed Bull Racing, who were referred to the stewards by FIA Technical DelegateJo Bauer for what he felt was an illegal engine map in use on theRed Bull RB8.[249] The stewards elected to take no action against Red Bull, stating that the team had not violated any of the technical regulations, but noted that they did not accept all of the arguments presented by the team when asked to explain.[254] The stewards were less forgiving of Vettel, who ran wide at the hairpin while trying to pass Button and could only complete the pass outside the limits of the circuit. Vettel had twenty seconds added to his race time as a penalty, demoting him to fifth overall. With Button promoted to second,Kimi Räikkönen inherited third place andKamui Kobayashi was classified a then season-best fourth.[255][256]
Following the mid-season break,Ferrari'sFelipe Massa was in fourteenth place in the championship, 139 points behind team-mate and championship leaderFernando Alonso.
As the championship moved into the second half of the season,Fernando Alonso maintained a thirty-four-point lead over his nearest rival,Mark Webber, withSebastian Vettel a further ten points behind.[257] Alonso's outlook for the race was dour, qualifying sixth and pinning his hopes on a wet race[258] asLewis Hamilton continuedMcLaren's mid-season resurgence, returning to pole position for the first time since the Malaysian Grand Prix.[259] Following an aborted start triggered byMichael Schumacher lining up in the wrong grid position and then shutting his engine off in the confusion,[260][261] Hamilton and Grosjean lead the field away. After prematurely movingJenson Button onto a three-stop strategy, McLaren gave Hamilton the order to hold position as the tight confines of theHungaroring circuit forced the teams to try to make up positions in the pits. This was evidenced byKimi Räikkönen, who inherited the lead after the first set of stops and produced a series of fast laps that allowed him to rejoin in second, coming dangerously close to team-mate Grosjean under brakes as he emerged from the pit lane.[262] Despite taking two seconds out of Hamilton's lead within five laps of rejoining the race, Räikkönen was powerless to reel Hamilton in any further. Hamilton won the race, the nineteenth of his career, with Räikkönen second and Grosjean in third.[263] Hamilton's victory brought with it twenty-five points that put him back in championship contention, while a late decision by Red Bull to move Mark Webber onto a three-stop strategy saw the Australian slip further behind Fernando Alonso, as the Spaniard extended his championship lead to forty points.[264]
Lewis Hamilton's future was a source of ongoing speculation during the second half of the season, amid contract negotiations withMcLaren andMercedes.[265][266]
The championship resumed one month later in Belgium.[79]Jenson Button qualified on pole[267] and broke away at the start while a four-car pile-up started behind him whenRomain Grosjean made contact withLewis Hamilton and they both slammed intoFernando Alonso andSergio Pérez, eliminating all four on the spot and triggering the safety car.Kamui Kobayashi's car was also damaged, andPastor Maldonado was spun around amidst the chaos. Grosjean was later given a one-race ban for causing the collision,[74] becoming the first driver ineighteen years to be banned from racing.[268] Maldonado retired shortly after the restart with a broken front wing after making contact withTimo Glock,[269] whileNarain Karthikeyan spun off at Stavelot mid-way through the race when his wheel came loose.[270] Button controlled the race from the front and was unchallenged throughout, whileSebastian Vettel clawed his way up to second from tenth on the grid.Kimi Räikkönen started and finished third, let down by a conservative pit strategy that forced him to make a second stop late in the race in order to use both compounds of tyre as per the rules – even when it became apparent that Button and Vettel were racing on a one-stop strategy – andNico Hülkenberg finished in a career-best fourth place.[271] Button's win allowed him to regain precious ground on the championship fight, while Alonso's retirement from the race and Vettel's second place moved the reigning World Champion to within twenty-four points of the championship lead.[272]Scuderia Toro Rosso scored their first points since theMalaysian Grand Prix, withJean-Éric Vergne andDaniel Ricciardo finishing eighth and ninth respectively. Further down the order,Caterham was summoned to the stewards on charges of an unsafe pit release whenHeikki Kovalainen was released directly into the path of Karthikeyan and the team was given a €10,000 fine for the incident.[273]
"When you love racing this is very hard. I accept my mistake. We know that La Source is a very tough corner. [...] I did a mistake[sic] and I misjudged the gap with Lewis [Hamilton]. I was sure I was in front of him. So a small mistake made a big incident. I didn't change my line, I went from left to right. I was not really wanting to put anyone in the wall – I'm not here to stop the race in the first corner. I'm very, very sorry and I'm glad that nobody is hurt. But I have to say it is a very, very hard decision to hear."
Romain Grosjean's response to being given a one-race ban for causing a multi-car pile-up at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix.[274]
The final race in Europe took place atMonza.Ferrari's early bid to putFernando Alonso on pole position by way of usingFelipe Massa to offer him aslipstream ended in disaster when Alonso's rearanti-roll bar failed in the final period of qualifying,[275] leaving the championship leader marooned in tenth whileLewis Hamilton took pole.[276] Hamilton asserted early control over the race, and while Ferrari made significant ground early on to be running second and third – despite losing the data uplink between their cars and the pit wall that provided them with telemetry[277] – it wasSergio Pérez who proved to be Hamilton's biggest challenge.[278] Starting outside the top ten, Pérez elected to start on the harder compound tyres and complete one stop, producing fastest lap after fastest lap as McLaren's confidence was broken whenJenson Button's car was paralysed by a fuel pressure problem.[279] Hamilton would ultimately prevail, but he was forced to push in the final few laps to maintain his lead, and won the race by four seconds as Pérez claimed his third podium of the season with second place. Alonso went on to finish third, benefiting from Button's retirement and a drive-through penalty forSebastian Vettel when the reigning World Champion forced him so wide through the Curva Grande that Alonso was forced off the circuit.[280]Bruno Senna later criticised the race stewards for not penalisingPaul di Resta for a similar altercation on the approach to the Variante della Roggia early in the race.[281] Meanwhile, withRomain Grosjean serving his suspension,Lotus enlisted formerMarussia F1 driverJérôme d'Ambrosio as their second driver for the weekend.[19] He qualified sixteenth, and went on to finish thirteenth overall.[282]
Red Bull Racing suffered a double retirement, with Vettel falling victim to another alternator failure andMark Webber spinning violently at the Ascari chicane, with the resultant damage to his tyres sending vibrations through the car that forced him to retire. This allowed Hamilton to leapfrog both drivers andKimi Räikkönen – who finished the race fifth – to take second place in the World Drivers' Championship, with the result enabling McLaren to close the gap to Red Bull in the World Constructors' Championship.[283]
As the teams returned to Asia, the focus shifted to the championship race.Lewis Hamilton put himself in the ideal position to take the fight toFernando Alonso, qualifying on pole whilst Alonso could only manage fifth place.[284] In the physically most demanding race of the year, the teams jostled for position through the first phase of the Grand Prix, trying to position themselves for the final ten laps. Just as the drivers established a rhythm, Hamilton's gearbox failed, forcing him out of the race and handing the lead toSebastian Vettel.[285] The race was shortened by two laps to fit the two-hour time limit for a Grand Prix following a pair of lengthy safety car interventions; first,Narain Karthikeyan understeered into the barriers under the grandstands on lap 30, forcing the safety car to be deployed. The drivers had little opportunity to get comfortable on the restart, asMichael Schumacher misjudged his braking point at the end of the Esplanade Bridge, careening into the back ofJean-Éric Vergne and triggering the safety car for the second time in an accident that was a near mirror-image of his collision withSergio Pérez in2011. He was later given a ten-place grid penalty for theJapanese Grand Prix.[286] Vettel controlled the race from the second restart, beatingJenson Button to the line, for his second win of the season and his first since theBahrain Grand Prix five months previously.[287] Alonso completed the podium, retaining his championship lead after defending fromPaul di Resta late in the race.[288] Elsewhere, a string of retirements – including a late engine problem forBruno Senna, which left the Brazilian with minor burns to his back[289] – and a series of altercations involvingMark Webber,Nico Hülkenberg,Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Pérez as they fought over the minor points positions allowedTimo Glock to finish twelfth, the result seeingMarussia retake tenth position in the World Constructors' Championship fromCaterham.[290]
Romain Grosjean (left) was criticised for his role in causing another first-lap incident, this time spinningMark Webber around at the start of the race.[291][292]
Fernando Alonso was the victim of a dramatic first corner clash, spinning out when he made contact withKimi Räikkönen and paving the way for his championship rivals to make considerable inroads into his twenty-nine-point championship lead.Mark Webber was also caught up in the opening lap melee when he was hit byRomain Grosjean; Webber was forced to pit straight away, while Grosjean was given a ten-second stop-go penalty for causing yet another first lap incident.[291]Bruno Senna also ran afoul of the stewards, hittingNico Rosberg whilst trying to avoid Grosjean and Webber and earning a drive-through penalty for his troubles while Rosberg retired on the spot.Sergio Pérez added his name to the growing list of early retirements when he slid off at the hairpin under brakes and into the gravel trap whilst trying to force his way past a strugglingLewis Hamilton.Sebastian Vettel won the race from pole position, having led every lap of the race and setting the fastest lap time in the process to complete his secondGrand Chelem.Felipe Massa finished second, his first podium result since the2010 Korean Grand Prix,[293] whilstKamui Kobayashi claimed the first podium of his career – and the first podium for a Japanese driver at theSuzuka Circuit sinceAguri Suzuki finished third in1990[294] – after withstanding late pressure fromJenson Button.[295]
With Alonso retiring and Vettel taking a full twenty-five points for victory,[296] the championship fight became as close as it had been all season long.[297]
"It's five races to go, it will be like a mini championship, because we start with the same points and we need to score one more point [than Vettel] in five races. So we will try to do it."
Sebastian Vettel's momentum continued one week later in Korea, winning his third consecutive race and taking a six-point championship lead asFernando Alonso finished third.[299][300] Vettel overcame pole-sitterMark Webber at the start, and was aided in building up a lead by first-lap contact betweenJenson Button,Nico Rosberg andKamui Kobayashi that saw Button and Rosberg retire with damage from the collision; Rosberg pulled over on the approach to the third turn, forcing a protracted yellow flag period as marshalls attempted to retrieve his car.[301] With the sporting regulations banning overtaking while yellow flags were shown, the field was effectively thinned out in the opening laps as drivers were unable to pass one another. Tyre management became the focus of the race, as drivers reported heavy graining, particularly on the right-front tyre, which bore most of the load over a lap of the circuit.[302] Vettel ignored six radio calls from his pit wall cautioning him that a tyre failure was imminent, only backing off just enough in the final few laps to secure victory over Webber by six seconds. The team later denied that there had ever been a problem with Vettel's tyres.[303] Further down the order,Scuderia Toro Rosso'sJean-Éric Vergne andDaniel Ricciardo fought their way from sixteenth and twenty-first on the grid to finish eighth and ninth,[304] whileRomain Grosjean drove a conservative race to finish seventh, having been warned beforehand by the stewards that another first-lap altercation would likely result in his disqualification from the race.[305]Lewis Hamilton's day went from bad to worse when ananti-roll bar on hisMcLaren failed,[306] while the car handled its tyres so poorly that he was forced to make an unscheduled stop in order to make it to the finish, only to tear up a length ofastroturf that wreaked havoc on his downforce and he slid down to tenth place,[307] narrowly fending off an opportunistic charge fromSergio Pérez to take the final World Championship point on offer. Button's retirement and Hamilton's single point meant that McLaren lost second place in theWorld Constructors' Championship toFerrari,[300] and Hamilton admitted that his bid to be the 2012 World Drivers' Champion was over.[307]
Ferrari's strategy for staying in the championship battle saw them introduce upgrades to theF2012 at every remaining race in the season, starting with an extensive revision for the Indian Grand Prix,[308] but whatever advantage they offered was still not enough forFernando Alonso to catchSebastian Vettel. Vettel dominated the weekend, setting the fastest time in every practice session before qualifying on pole,[309][310][311][312] and leading every lap of the sixty-lap race,[313] though he was denied his thirdGrand Chelem whenJenson Button set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.Fernando Alonso finished second, conceding another seven championship points to Vettel. The Ferrari driver rounded up bothMcLaren drivers at the start of the race and proceeded to chase downMark Webber for second, only overtaking the Australian on the long back straight when his car developed aKERS fault fifteen laps from the end that it never recovered from.[314] Webber held off a late challenge fromLewis Hamilton to complete the podium. Further down the order,Kimi Räikkönen finished seventh after spending most of the race trapped behindFelipe Massa, and later claimed that mistakes on Saturday had robbed him of a podium on Sunday,[315] whilePedro de la Rosa retired from the race when he suffered a brake failure that saw him spin into the barriers at Turn 4. The race was marked by a series of explosive punctures after cars made light contact with one another;Michael Schumacher's right-rear tyre deflated on the first lap when he made contact withJean-Éric Vergne at the first corner;Sergio Pérez suffered a puncture under similar circumstances when he glancedDaniel Ricciardo's front wing, with the loose rubber damaging the floor of Pérez's car enough that he was forced into retirement;[316] andPastor Maldonado also had a tyre punctured when he andKamui Kobayashi touched at speed on the approach to Turn 5, forcing the Venezuelan to run wide onto the tarmac run-off, but suffering no lasting damage.[317]
Kimi Räikkönen tookLotus's only victory of the 2012 season in Abu Dhabi after he inherited the lead followingLewis Hamilton's retirement from the race.[318]
Sebastian Vettel's dominant run was derailed inAbu Dhabi when his car was found to have insufficient fuel after qualifying and he was subsequently moved to the back of the grid.[319] AsLewis Hamilton led the race away from the start, Vettel started from pit lane and took advantage of a chaotic opening corner that sawNico Hülkenberg,Paul di Resta,Romain Grosjean andBruno Senna tangle; Hülkenberg was forced out, while di Resta and Grosjean pitted with damage.[320] Vettel began to round up theHRTs,Marussias andCaterhams, but his early progress came at the expense of his front wing endplate when he made contact with Senna at Turn 8 switchback. He chose not to pit for the time being, as the race was interrupted by the intervention of the safety car.Nico Rosberg, who had been forced to pit with damage to his front wing, was in the process of overtakingNarain Karthikeyan as Karthikeyan's car began to fail and the Indian quickly slowed. Rosberg, caught unawares by Karthikeyan's troubles, was launched over the back of the HRT and into the barrier.[321] During the safety car period, Vettel was forced to pit when he swerved to avoidDaniel Ricciardo and crashed into the polystyrene bollard marking the start of the DRS zone, further damaging his wing.Red Bull Racing took the opportunity to pit him early, with the downside being that Vettel would have to do 42 laps on the soft tyre when supplierPirelli predicted they could only do 36. Meanwhile, Hamilton suffered another mechanical failure while leading the race, and was once again forced out, handing the lead toKimi Räikkönen whileFernando Alonso inherited second.[322] Vettel began to work his way through the field again, but was forced to make a second stop when his tyres started losing grip. He was saved by the second appearance of the safety car moments later, brought about when di Resta forcedSergio Pérez wide; as Pérez rejoined the circuit, he cut back across the front of Grosjean and the two made contact, which in turn forced Grosjean into the path ofMark Webber. Grosjean and Webber retired, whilst Pérez was given a stop-go penalty.[323] When racing resumed, Räikkönen began to rebuild his lead over Alonso, who was being harried byJenson Button; Button himself was being harried by Vettel in fourth. Button and Vettel's duel allowed Alonso to break free, and he started chasing down Räikkönen in the last five laps. Räikkönen held on to secure his – andLotus F1's – only victory of the season.[318] Alonso was second, while Vettel caught and passed Button to complete the podium,[324] keeping a ten-point championship lead in the process.[325] With both Alonso and Vettel finishing on the podium with him, Räikkönen's win was not enough to keep him in contention for the World Drivers' Championship, leaving the title to be fought out between Alonso and Vettel over the final two races of the season.[325]
Despite its troubled construction period, theCircuit of the Americas passed its final FIA inspection on 25 September, allowing the race to go ahead.[326][327]Sebastian Vettel took his sixth pole position of the season, whilst Alonso struggled throughout qualifying to start the race ninth,[328] which became eighth whenRomain Grosjean received a grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.[329] Amid concerns that drivers starting from even-numbered grid slots would suffer from a lack of grip as they were located off the racing line,Ferrari deliberately broke the seal onFelipe Massa's gearbox, thereby giving him a five-place grid penalty and promoting Alonso to seventh and the clean side of the grid.[330] Ferrari's fears were not without merit as the drivers starting from even-number spaces fell behind at the start of the race. Vettel quickly converted pole position into a steady race lead asLewis Hamilton fought to regain second place fromMark Webber. Moments after Hamilton caught him on lap 17, the Australian suffered yet another alternator problem, and coasted to a halt.[331]Red Bull Racing team principalChristian Horner later admitted that the team's perpetual alternator problems were a serious concern with just one race left in the championship, a World Championship at stake and very little time to diagnose and correct the problem.[332] With Webber now out of the running, Hamilton then turned his attentions on Vettel and steadily closed the gap to the lead, overtaking the World Championship leader on lap 42 when Vettel got caught behindNarain Karthikeyan in the meandering first sector,[333] which allowed Hamilton to pass Vettel along the long back straight. Hamilton held onto the lead for the final fourteen laps, but with Vettel never more than a second and a half behind him, Hamilton could not afford to relax, and he won the race by just six-tenths of a second. Alonso recovered from seventh to finish third – marking the first time that he, Hamilton and Vettel had stood on the podium together in the one hundred races all three had contested together – and forcing the title fight to extend to thefinal round in Brazil.[334] Further down the order, Massa overcame his gearbox penalty to finish fourth, whileJenson Button fell from twelfth on the grid to sixteenth at the end of the first lap, using an alternative strategy to claw his way back up to fifth.Michael Schumacher, on the other hand, went backwards; after qualifying fifth, hisMercedes chewed through its tyres, forcing him to make a second stop that sent him plummeting down the order to finish sixteenth,[335] and a clutch problem during his stop deprivedKimi Räikkönen of the chance to compete with Alonso for the final podium place. BothMarussia drivers out-qualified theCaterhams for the first time, only forTimo Glock andCharles Pic be out-raced byHeikki Kovalainen andVitaly Petrov, but the Russian team held onto tenth place in the World Constructors' Championship. Despite losing Webber to an alternator failure, Red Bull collected enough points to secure their third consecutive World Constructors' Championship title.[2]
The final race of the season was run in conditions that were never quite wet enough for drivers to use wet tyres, but never quite dry enough for slick tyres to provide enough grip. WhileJenson Button andLewis Hamilton fought over the race lead,Sebastian Vettel was involved in a first-lap clash withBruno Senna that damaged his exhaust and spun him around, relegating him to last place. Senna retired on the spot, as didSergio Pérez, who was caught in the crossfire.[337] The race was one of attrition, withPastor Maldonado andRomain Grosjean also crashing out early. Button seized the lead from Hamilton, but soon found himself under pressure fromNico Hülkenberg and lost the lead to the German driver on lap 18, and second place to Hamilton shortly thereafter. The field stabilised themselves after the first round of stops, with Vettel in the lower points andFernando Alonso running fourth when he needed a podium to stand any chance of being champion. Hülkenberg spun on lap 48 and lost the lead to Hamilton, but caught the McLaren on lap 54 as they encountered lapped traffic. The two made contact in the first corner, forcing Hamilton out of the race and earning Hülkenberg a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident.[338] In the wake of their collision, Button re-took the lead and held on to the end of the race. Meanwhile, the rain intensified, prompting teams to scramble for tyres. Hülkenberg's penalty and Hamilton's retirement promoted Alonso to the podium, which became second place when team-mateFelipe Massa yielded for him. A slow stop for Vettel relegated him to twelfth and swinging the balance of power in Alonso's favour. In the last ten laps of the race, Vettel began to make his way back up the order until he was seventh, just enough to secure the title, but leaving him vulnerable if the damage he received on the first lap – which by now had left a long crack running along the floor of his car – got worse. Vettel's seventh became sixth whenMichael Schumacher moved aside to let Vettel through.[339] Two laps from the end of the race,Paul di Resta crashed heavily as he came onto the main straight, forcing the deployment of the safety car. Button won the race, with Alonso second and Massa third, but Vettel's sixth place was enough to secure his third consecutiveWorld Drivers' Championship.[340]Kimi Räikkönen finished the season third overall, having benefited from Hamilton's retirement to hold onto the place following a bizarre incident in which he left the circuit and attempted to rejoin by taking to the support paddock pit lane, only to find the way blocked and forcing him to double back and find another way onto the circuit.[341] In his final race in Formula One,[342] Schumacher's seventh place saw him finish the season in thirteenth place overall; his worst performance over a season since he contested six rounds during the1991 season. In theWorld Constructors' Championship,Ferrari secured second place fromMcLaren with two cars on the podium, whileKamui Kobayashi's ninth place was not enough forSauber to take fifth fromMercedes, andMarussia lost tenth place toCaterham whenVitaly Petrov secured the team's best result of the season with eleventh place.[343]Nikolai Fomenko, Marussia's director of engineering, later claimed thatCharles Pic had deliberately let Petrov through,[344] as Pic had announced his move to Caterham for the2013 season two days before the race.[345]
Three days after theBrazilian Grand Prix, reports began to surface suggesting thatSebastian Vettel's championship was under threat and thatFerrari would be filing a formal protest against the race results.[346] The challenge centred on a pass Vettel made onJean-Éric Vergne early in the race. At the time, the first sector of the circuit was under yellow flag conditions following the spin and retirement ofPastor Maldonado at Curva do Sol, theInterlagos circuit's third corner, which feeds onto the back straight. Vettel overtook Vergne along the straight, which led to claims that the pass was illegal because of the yellow flags.[347] Intense media speculation suggested that the challenge threatened Vettel's championship because as the race finished behind the safety car, any post-race penalty had the potential to demote him in the race standings, and Vettel would not have enough points to secure the title. Ferrari wrote to theFIA, requesting clarification on the matter.[348] The FIA reviewed the incident and declared that Vettel's pass was legal as a green flag was being shown by a marshal adjacent to the pit exit, meaning the track was green from that point onward; the confusion had been caused by a digital board showing a yellow flag on the exit of Curva do Sol some one hundred metres before the marshalling post.[349][350] Both Ferrari andRed Bull Racing announced that they were satisfied with the ruling, thereby preserving Vettel's championship.[351][352]
† – Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Official FIA results for the Constructors' Championship identified the constructors as "Red Bull Racing", "Scuderia Ferrari", "Vodafone McLaren Mercedes", etc.[336]
^"Pit & Paddock: Third year for Trulli and Kovalainen".Autosport. Vol. 205, no. 11.Haymarket Publications. 15 September 2011. p. 12.Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli will continue to drive for Team Lotus next season. Trulli was, as expected, officially announced as a 2012 driver by the team last weekend, while team boss Tony Fernandes confirmed to Autosport that Kovalainen will also be staying on.
^"Standing By".Marussia F1. 20 September 2012. Archived fromthe original on 7 October 2012. Retrieved20 September 2012.We are very happy to announce that rising star, Max Chilton, has been elevated from our Young Driver Programme to the position of Formula 1 Reserve Driver with effect from the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix next month and for the rest of the current F1 season.
^"2007 Formula One Sporting Regulations"(PDF).FIA. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 4 August 2011. Retrieved7 February 2012.Article 6.3: The constructor of an engine or chassis is the person (including any corporate or unincorporated body) which owns the intellectual rights to such engine or chassis. The make of an engine or chassis is the name attributed to it by its constructor. If the make of the chassis is not the same as that of the engine, the title will be awarded to the former which shall always precede the latter in the name of the car. (.pdf)
^Collantine, Keith (21 September 2012)."Vettel leads Hamilton in damp session at Singapore".F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved21 September 2012.Pastor Maldonado was fifth, the Williams driver one of several to explore Singapore's run-off areas during the session. Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean were also among those to go off, but no-one managed to hit anything.
^Strang, Simon; Noble, Jonathan (3 October 2012)."McLaren downplays potential FIA flexi wing clampdown".Autosport.Haymarket Publications. Retrieved4 October 2012.A report in respected German magazineAuto Motor Und Sport said that the FIA was set to investigate the designs of both the McLaren and Red Bull cars amid suggestions they were cleverly getting the front wings to rotate at high speed.
^Collantine, Keith (26 September 2012)."Williams positive despite 'extremely frustrating' race".F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved26 September 2012.Senna suffered burn marks on his back, which did not require treatment, during the race. As he retired the team warned him "the car is unsafe" and advised him to "jump out of the car, it could be a KERS problem". However Williams confirmed to F1 Fanatic that the KERS was not responsible for Senna's burns.
^Collantine, Keith (14 October 2012)."Vettel takes championship lead with hat-trick of wins – 2012 Korean Grand Prix".F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved14 October 2012.Nico Rosberg was also involved in the accident – his second first-lap misfortune in as many races – and his Mercedes came to a stop at the beginning of lap two. He managed to find somewhere to park it on the barrier-lined straight leading to turn two. Marshals continued to wave chequered flags at the scene of Rosberg's retirement, in the DRS zone, until lap nine.
^Benson, Andrew (14 October 2012)."Korean GP: Romain Grosjean to be retained by Lotus for 2013".BBC F1.BBC. Retrieved16 October 2012.Grosjean is under no specific threat of further punishment from governing body the FIA, nor is he officially considered to be on any kind of probation. However, he was told ahead in Korea that he would probably be disqualified from the race if he had a similar incident to his latest crash, in which he simply ran into the back of Mark Webber's Red Bull in Japan a week ago.
^"Ferrari all out with new components at private test". F1Technical.net. 22 October 2012. Retrieved24 October 2012.Italian magazine Autosprint found out new parts will be brought to every single of the 4 races left in this championship, beginning with the Indian GP in 7 days time. [...] The new parts for India, as tested by Rigon on 18 October at Idiada, Spain include a different rear wing, changed brake ducts, new aerofoils under the nose cone, changed sidepod panels and different exhaust exits.
Giedo van der Garde
Alexander Rossi
Jules Bianchi
Dani Clos
Ma Qinghua
Max Chilton
Esteban Gutiérrez
Valtteri Bottas
Australia
Malaysia
Bahrain
Sebastian Vettel
Monaco
Canada
Hungary
Belgium
Italy
Singapore
Japan
Korea
India
Abu Dhabi
Brazil
