2013 Formula One World Championship
[40] The team needed to find a buyer by 30 November—the date by which entry fees for the 2013 were due to be paid—or else face closure and a departure from the sport.
[47] However, in the face of disappointing results over the past three seasons, Schumacher became indecisive about his future, prompting Mercedes to start searching for a new driver.
Following a protracted period of negotiation,[48][49] 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton announced that he would join Mercedes for the next three years.
[55] Nico Hülkenberg left Force India after just one season, despite having originally signed a multi-year deal to race for the team starting in 2012,[56] to fill the vacant seat at Sauber.
[25] Hülkenberg was joined by Esteban Gutiérrez, who had previously served as Sauber's testing and reserve driver in 2011 and 2012 whilst campaigning in the GP2 Series.
[28] With Hülkenberg and Gutiérrez joining Sauber, Kamui Kobayashi was left without a seat after three seasons with the Swiss team.
Williams promoted test and reserve driver Valtteri Bottas to a full-time racing seat alongside Pastor Maldonado, replacing Bruno Senna.
[29] Bottas, the 2011 GP3 Series champion, made regular appearances for Williams during the 2012 season, in official practice sessions at fifteen Grands Prix.
Faced with the loss of his seat, Bruno Senna initially sought a drive with Force India,[61] but instead moved to the World Endurance Championship, joining Aston Martin Racing.
[62] Charles Pic moved from Marussia to Caterham,[31] joining former GP2 Series teammate Giedo van der Garde.
[32] Where Pic joined Marussia for the 2012 season, van der Garde became Caterham's test driver and contested the 2012 GP2 Series with their GP2 team before being promoted to Formula One.
[33] With HRT withdrawing from the championship, Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan were left without full-time racing seats.
[76] Kimi Räikkönen was forced to miss the final two races of the season in order to undergo surgery to relieve pain from a back injury he had been suffering from for a long time and which flared up during the Singapore Grand Prix.
At the time of Ecclestone's comments regarding the length of the series schedule, the then-current Concorde Agreement was set to expire at the end of the 2012 season.
[79] The provisional calendar was announced at the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix,[80] which was approved by the FIA World Motor Sport Council on 28 September 2012.
[81] Following its removal from the calendar,[82] the schedule was reduced to nineteen races until the FIA World Motor Sport Council announced that a twentieth round would be included at a circuit in Europe, pending the outcome of negotiations between Bernie Ecclestone and event organisers.
[123] Vettel's other wins came in Bahrain, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Japan, India, Abu Dhabi, the United States and Brazil.
Their combined results allowed Red Bull to clinch the 2013 Constructors' Championship in India by opening a gap of 157 points, with only 129 still up to grab.
The Spaniard won two races, in China and Spain,[126] and scored five second-places, in Australia, Canada, Belgium, Italy and Singapore, to keep him in a strong championship position throughout the season.
The gap closed briefly after the German's gearbox failure at the British Grand Prix,[127] but the defending world champion scored eleven consecutive podium finishes after his sole retirement of the season, including ten wins, to clinch the title.
Lewis Hamilton, who scored a win in Hungary, four third places and five pole positions in 2013 with Mercedes AMG, finished fourth in the drivers' standings with 189 points.
[130] Rosberg, despite winning the Monaco and British Grands Prix,[131] finished sixth, with retirements in Australia, China and Hungary, as well as a string of bad luck preventing him from having clean races, hurting his point tally.
He also saw a return of 2012 controversies during the first half of the season after being handed a 10-place grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix, which he received for crashing into Daniel Ricciardo at Monaco.
[135] However, the Frenchman found great form and confidence afterwards to score three consecutive podium finishes and equalled his best ever result in the United States with second place.
Poor showings in Monaco, Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and Brazil saw Lotus fall to fourth in the Constructors' Championship with 315 points, 39 adrift of Ferrari for third place.
Di Resta has been very consistent during the first half of the season, claiming points in six consecutive races from China to Great Britain.
Teammate Valtteri Bottas qualified third in changeable conditions in Canada, but was unable to carry the speed into the race.
[149] Tyre issues continued to dominate headlines at the British Grand Prix when several drivers suffered explosive punctures during the race.
[131] Amid concerns that the issue would continue at the German Grand Prix one week later, Pirelli received permission to introduce an entirely new specification of tyre in time for the Hungarian Grand Prix, whilst introducing modifications to the existing tyres for the race in Germany as a stop-gap solution.
