2011 Formula One World Championship

The 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 65th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. The original calendar for the 2011 Formula One World Championship consisted of twenty rounds, [ 1 ] including the inaugural running of the Indian Grand Prix [ 2 ] before the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix . Pirelli returned to the sport as tyre supplier for all teams, taking over from Bridgestone , marking their return to Formula One for the first time since the 1991 season . [ 3 ]

Red Bull Racing and their driver Sebastian Vettel were the defending Constructors' and Drivers' Champions respectively, Vettel being one of five World Champions appearing on the grid. Vettel defended his World Championship at the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix , becoming the youngest driver, at 24 years and 98 days, to do so while helping Red Bull Racing defend their Constructors' Championship. It would also be the last season for veteran race winner Rubens Barrichello and the first season in which th...

Teams and drivers

After a dispute between the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) and the FIA in the first half of 2009 , a new Concorde Agreement was signed on 1 August 2009 by the then FIA president Max Mosley and all of the existing teams at the time. The new agreement provided for a continuation of the terms of the 1998 agreement, and was to run until 31 December 2012. [ 4 ] The FIA published a provisional entry list on 30 November 2010, which was revised on 2 December 2010. [ 5 ] All teams competed with tyr...

Free practice drivers

Six constructors entered free practice only drivers over the course of the season.

New entries process

Following USF1 's inability to make the grid in 2010 , the FIA opened a new selection process to find an additional team to occupy the empty slot, as well as possible reserve entrants for the event of other withdrawals. [ 49 ] Fifteen entry bids were reported to have been received, [ 50 ] including ART Grand Prix , winners of several championships in feeder series; [ 51 ] previous 2010 applicants Stefan Grand Prix and World Series by Renault team Epsilon Euskadi ; [ 52 ] [ 53 ] and a joint effor...

Following the confirmation that there would be no new additions to the grid for 2011, Joan Villadelprat of Epsilon Euskadi and Jacques Villeneuve of the combined Villeneuve-Durango teams both announced that they would still attempt to join the grid for 2011, [ 58 ] [ 59 ] exploring the possibilities of taking over an existing team. Villeneuve later admitted to considering possibilities outside of Formula One, including extending his NASCAR Nationwide Series campaign, or moving to Australia to pu...

Calendar

On 16 April 2010, Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that there would be twenty races in 2011; all the races from the 2010 season and the addition of the Indian Grand Prix . [ 2 ] A provisional calendar was announced on 8 September 2010, [ 92 ] which was confirmed on 3 November 2010. [ 93 ] This was later revised to nineteen races with the postponement and later cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix .

Pre-season

The Young Driver Tests were followed by another testing session – also held at Yas Marina – for the teams to test the tyres developed by new tyre supplier Pirelli . Ferrari's Felipe Massa was the fastest during the tests, with many drivers declaring their satisfaction with the new tyres, particularly given Pirelli's short development window. Sebastian Vettel experienced an explosive puncture on the final day, though an investigation by Pirelli attributed the incident to debris on the circuit rat...

The final test of the season was originally scheduled to be held in Bahrain , but was cancelled by the Bahraini Crown Prince due to a political uprising in the island nation. It was instead rescheduled to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona from 8–12 March. [ 150 ]

Report

Defending World Champion Sebastian Vettel won the opening race of the season in Melbourne after qualifying on pole position by eight-tenths of a second. [ 151 ] Lewis Hamilton finished in second place, and Russian driver Vitaly Petrov attained his maiden podium in third, with Renault hailing his dramatic off-season turn-around after a difficult debut season in 2010. [ 152 ] At the opposite end of the grid, the Hispania F111 cars driven by Narain Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi both failed to q...

Vettel continued his title defence in Malaysia , taking pole from Hamilton in the dying moments of the session by just one tenth of a second. Vettel went on to win the race by three seconds from Jenson Button , who also claimed second place in the points standings; with two wins, Vettel left Malaysia with twice as many points as the McLaren driver. Nick Heidfeld took Renault's second successive podium and Fernando Alonso made a mistake, making contact with Lewis Hamilton and forcing him to pit f...

Vettel once again took pole in China , whilst teammate Webber made a poor tyre choice and was eliminated from the first qualifying period for the first time since the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix . Vettel made a poor start in the race and was quickly overcome by the McLarens of Button and Hamilton. Button and Vettel pitted together, but Button made a bizarre mistake, mistakenly pulling up in the Red Bull pits, and allowing Vettel to get back out onto the circuit in front of him. The lead changed seve...

Sebastian Vettel earned his fourth pole of the season in Turkey , becoming the first person to start the first four races on pole since Mika Häkkinen in 1999 . Vettel led the race from the lights to the flag, ahead of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso , who gained Ferrari's first podium finish of the year. McLaren struggled with a series of slow pit stops, whilst the promise shown by Mercedes in qualifying was lost in the race when their cars were fuel-heavy and running on the harder prime tyre co...

Mark Webber ended Vettel's run of consecutive pole positions at the Spanish Grand Prix , but it was fourth-starting Fernando Alonso that led the field into the first corner and through much of the early phase of the race. He was eventually overtaken in the pits by Vettel, and slipped down the order to finish a lap behind as Ferrari struggled with Pirelli's brand-new "extra hard" compound, which was specifically designed for endurance, but was two seconds per lap slower than the softer compounds ...

Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top 10 classified finishers. [ 160 ]

Table 1

Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	No.	Race Drivers
Red Bull Racing Renault	Red Bull Racing-Renault	RB7	Renault RS27-2011	1	Sebastian Vettel[6]
Red Bull Racing Renault	Red Bull Racing-Renault	RB7	Renault RS27-2011	2	Mark Webber[7]
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren-Mercedes	MP4-26	Mercedes FO 108Y	3	Lewis Hamilton[8]
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren-Mercedes	MP4-26	Mercedes FO 108Y	4	Jenson Button[9]
Scuderia Ferrari[a]	Ferrari	150º Italia[11]	Ferrari 056	5	Fernando Alonso[12]
Scuderia Ferrari[a]	Ferrari	150º Italia[11]	Ferrari 056	6	Felipe Massa[13]
Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	MGP W02	Mercedes FO 108Y	7	Michael Schumacher[14]
Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	MGP W02	Mercedes FO 108Y	8	Nico Rosberg[15]
Lotus Renault GP[16][b]	Renault[18]	R31	Renault RS27-2011	9	Nick Heidfeld[19]
Lotus Renault GP[16][b]	Renault[18]	R31	Renault RS27-2011	9	Bruno Senna[20]

Table 2

('Constructor', 'Constructor')	('Practice drivers', 'Driver name')	('Practice drivers', 'Rounds')	('Practice drivers', 'Unnamed: 3_level_1')
Force India-Mercedes	Nico Hülkenberg	1–5, 7–13, 15, 19	nan
Hispania-Cosworth	Narain Karthikeyan Jan Charouz	10, 14–16 19	nan
Lotus-Renault	Karun Chandhok Davide Valsecchi Luiz Razia	1, 4, 8–9, 12–13, 15–17 2 3, 19	nan
Renault	Bruno Senna Romain Grosjean	11 18–19	nan
Toro Rosso-Ferrari	Daniel Ricciardo Jean-Éric Vergne	1–8 16, 18–19	nan
Virgin-Cosworth	Robert Wickens	18	nan
Sources:[24][35][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]	Sources:[24][35][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]	Sources:[24][35][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]	nan

Table 3

Round	Grand Prix	Circuit	Date
1	Australian Grand Prix	Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne	27 March
2	Malaysian Grand Prix	Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur	10 April
3	Chinese Grand Prix	Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai	17 April
4	Turkish Grand Prix	Istanbul Park, Istanbul	8 May
5	Spanish Grand Prix	Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló	22 May
6	Monaco Grand Prix	Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo	29 May
7	Canadian Grand Prix	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal	12 June
8	European Grand Prix	Valencia Street Circuit, Valencia	26 June
9	British Grand Prix	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone	10 July
10	German Grand Prix	Nürburgring, Nürburg	24 July

F1ABY Commentary

Consider this: all the talk about Vettel’s raw speed ignores the subtle choreography of Red Bull’s strategy team. They’re not simply unleashing a weapon; they’re meticulously calibrating it, aren’t they? The timing of those tire gambits – particularly in Hungary – suggests a level of data analysis bordering on… well, almost unsettling. Don’t mistake aggression for intelligence. The young German’s dominance isn’t just about pushing the limits of the RB6; it’s about knowing precisely *how* to exploit them. And let’s be frank, the whispers around Adrian Newey’s influence aren’t just about engineering brilliance. It's about control. A dangerous game, certainly.

The entire season hinged on Monaco, didn’t it? Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise – a predictable battle of attrition, fueled by whispers of Ferrari’s engine woes and Red Bull’s increasingly desperate attempts to control Vettel’s every move. Vettel’s victory in Japan confirmed it: the championship wasn’t about speed, merely about ruthlessly exploiting the vulnerabilities of the competition.

F1ABY Trivia

The air in Sepang hangs thick with the scent of burnt rubber and unspoken ambition. Vettel’s Red Bull, a 680bhp beast fueled by a 1. 6-liter V6 turbo-hybrid, was generating an astonishing 850kg of downforce – a figure that’s almost unsettling considering the planned race distance. Rumors swirling from Renault’s engineering team suggest a subtle recalibration of the MGU-H unit, aimed at maximizing energy recovery during those notoriously brutal Malaysian heatwaves. Don’t be fooled by the numbers; it's the minute adjustments, the almost imperceptible tweaks, that ultimately separate the victors from the also-rans.

Seven. Just seven poles for Seb this year. A paltry sum considering the sheer dominance, isn't it? The numbers scream a calculated strategy, a careful rationing of peak performance – almost as if he knew the inevitable tightening of the field was coming. Don't be fooled by the victories; the data whispers of control.

F1ABY Tales

The rain hadn’t washed away the stench of desperation. Vettel’s crew, a knot of frantic engineers, were arguing with a ferocity that bordered on the theatrical – a predictable reaction, perhaps, given the circumstances. Rumours, of course, had been swirling for weeks; a subtle shift in power within Red Bull, fueled by Dietrich’s increasingly… forceful directives. Young Mark, meanwhile, remained unsettlingly calm, a glacial observer in the storm. Don’t mistake that placidity for weakness. Vettel’s team, it seems, were losing the battle for control, and Mark was patiently waiting for the collapse. The Japanese Grand Prix wasn't just about a championship; it was about who held the reins.

The rain in Sepang hit like a fist. Young Nico Hulkenberg, drenched and simmering, wasn’t arguing with the mechanics about the gearbox – not overtly. He was, however, meticulously adjusting the rear wing angle, a subtle act of defiance against the prevailing narrative. You could practically smell the frustration radiating from him, a potent mix of unrealized potential and the suffocating weight of expectations. Lotus, bless their hearts, were throwing everything at it, but the Red Bull simply possessed a level of raw speed that felt… untouchable. Don't mistake ambition for desperation, though. Hulkenberg was simply refusing to be defined by anyone else’s definition of success.