Instead of having a thread for every year, why not just have one cumulative F1 thread? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Formula_One_season - here's how it looks so far in this off-season. As of today, Force India have NO drivers confirmed yet and the first race is only 90-odd days away - am I the only one who thinks Kobayashi and Grosjean will end up there? It looks like Di Resta has left them. I'm starting to wonder if something bad is going on behind the scenes at Force India; to have lost two drivers and not have any replacements lined up seems quite ominous for them. Lotus, Caterham and Marussia still have one seat open each, too, at this time. Will Senna find a drive? And Di Resta? Also, where will that 10th round be held? Circuit Paul Ricard? Magny Cours? I have a feeling it will be in France, but I'm hoping it won't be Magny Cours - that was usually a dull race unless weather intervened. Focus: F1 speculation, comments, pre-season, post-practice and post-race discussions, nonsense, etc.. Have at it.
I am a little surprised at that development, mostly because other, less accident-prone drivers are available (e.g. Di Resta, Kobayashi) - I mean, Grosjean was involved in or caused at least 3 accidents this year (Monaco, Belgium, Japan). Sure, Andrea De Cesaris (with the eternal nickname of De Crasheris handed to him by the late, great James Hunt, who was himself nicknamed Hunt The Shunt) was probably more accident-prone but he was driving a LONG time ago with less driver aids and WAY less stable and less reliable cars. Now that Lotus have shown faith in Grosjean (which I suspect may be more due to pressure from Renault upon Lotus more than anything else), it is time for him to shape up and stop doing stupid things on the track - I think if he has 3 or more wrecks this coming year from points-scoring positions, he will be out on his ass.
I don't know if its just my perception, or because I want to like Grosjean but I don't think he's dangerous on the track. In my eyes he has only caused one accident, and yes, it was a fucking huge one.... But putting the "accident-prone" label on him is a bit unfair I think. I think that one race penalty was over the top, and the only reason it was handed out was because Alonso and Hamilton were taken out of the race. If he would have taken out Karthekayen, Glock, or any other bottom of the rung drivers.... There wouldn't have been a penalty. Or at least not as big of one. He is an aggressive driver, and I like that about him. He needs to learn how to temper that aggressiveness. The good drivers learn when, where and how to attack. I think he needs to work on that skill. Once again, this is my perception of him. Oh, and there is one thing that isn't a perception of him. He's fucking fast. That's why it doesn't surprise me that they re-signed him.
F1's back! Any thoughts from the first race in Melbourne? It seemed like everyone was having trouble adjusting to the tires. Except for Kimi. Nobody seemed to make the reds last long which meant tons of pit stops. I gotta say, even though I've switched allegiances from McLaren to Lotus this year,,, I was surprised how pathetic McLaren is getting out of the gates this season. It looks like they are going to have a shit year. And it looks like Ferrari is going to have a very good year. If they would have had a better start to last year, we'd probably be looking at Alonso with the title and not Vettel. You obviously have to give it up for Sutil and Di Resta as well. Really good race for that team. Super surprised.
Hamilton made his super-softs last 15 laps I think? It seems like he made the jump at the right time to Mercedes - both he and Rosberg looked quick in the Friday Free Practice sessions, until he parked it in the gravel and Rosberg's gearbox seemed to let go. The Lotus and Mercedes cars look to be able to make the most of tyre life - we'll have to see how they do at Malaysia this weekend. Massa seems to be up to speed now (unlike the start of last season) and will challenge Alonso pretty hard - Ferrari have a solid and experienced test and race driver in De La Rosa too, should anything happen to Massa or Alonso; I think this title won't go to Red Bull and I think Webber will retire at the end of the season. Sutil is a damn fine driver, especially since he's been out of the car for a year and out-raced his team-mate; I think if there had been soft tyres available and not super-softs, he might well have had 5th or 4th instead. I was sad to see Kobayashi was unable to secure a drive, since he was always entertaining. I hope he will be back next year. Gutierrez looked very impressive at Australia, considering it was his first F1 race.
Last I looked (which was yesterday) it was clear skies for practice and qualifying,, and rain like a motherfucker on race day for this weekend. So tires might only be a factor in qualifying. Shit. Now that I think about it, didn't it rain last year in Malaysia and Alonso won? I think you're spot on about Ferrari. If Massa can be as good as he was in the second half of last year and the first race of this year,, Ferrari is going to win the constructors. Especially since Webber doesn't seem to consistently score points. Word is out of the Infinity Red Bull camp was that the horrendous start Webber had last weekend wasn't his fault, but a KERS issue, makes it a little more palatable weekend for Webber, but still..... I think Ferrari is the early team to beat. I also saw Boullier blame a two stop strategy for Romain's shitty race, but Kimi had the same strategy and won the race? It smells of Boullier telling Romain to shake it off and have a better race this weekend. Isn't Webber on a year to year contract?
Webber had "KERS issues" at least four times last season (including the U.S.G.P where he retired from the race). Maybe they will just admit that he is a shoddy starter and needs to work on it a LOT? If the weather conditions are a bit changeable, surely that'd put Vettel, Alonso, Raikkonen, Sutil (a known wet weather performer), Rosberg and Hamilton ahead of the rest of the pack. Alonso is a great driver and would be in with a shout for every grand prix. I think Lotus and Mercedes (if they can keep reliability) will be strong this weekend too. Williams have a chance of some points too if they can get their acts together - Maldonado was *pissed* with the car and team in Australia and seemed to think they'd be better on track this weekend by changing the aerodynamics package on the cars.
About those shitty starts by Webber. I would think that doing some drag racing during the off season could only help a driver with standing starts. I never hear of any of them taking a drag racing course or doing anything like that in the off season or even during the off weekends. They would not have to be racing top fuel or funny cars or anything. I think a weekend spent bracket racing would help them.
I get your point, but a drag race is totally different. In drag racing (at least the NHRA) you have a series of lights (if I remember correctly its called a "tree" or "christmas tree") in which the lights progressively turn on, until the green flashes.... So you can time it. Whereas in F1, the lights go out as soon as Race Control and Charlie Whiting see's the last car on the grid come to a complete stop. So there is no way a driver in the front row can tell when the lights are going to go out and time the start properly. But I get what you're saying. The dude needs some practice. I'd personally like to know if it boils down to pure reaction time on the drivers part that leads to a good start, or if it's a combination of factors. If I remember correctly I thought that every F1 car has a race start switch on his steering wheel which they turn on to ensure that there is no wheel spin off the line. It'd be nice to hear how some drivers like Vettel make amazing starts, and guys like Webber consistently have shitty starts.
What in the Jesus Tits just happened this weekend in Sepang? Okay, I'll try to explain: Alonso hits Vettel in the first couple of turns. Apparently Red Bull does not in fact give you wings, but takes them. Alonso makes the decision to stay out on the track hoping to combine a tire change with a wing change so he doesn't end up at the back of the pack. This backfires and ends his race. Pastor Maldonado is the most consistent driver this year, beaching it twice. Hamilton forgets who he drives for and pulls into Mclaren garage, wisely he pulls away before they could fuck up his wheel nut. Force India Pits are the pits. Jesus, what a gigantic fuck up fest. I'm still not sure what they fucked up, it'd probably be easier explaining what they did right. This next line is left intentionally blank to showcase those feats: And the biggest shitfest that is happening right now is both AMG and Infiniti having a shitty time controlling and not controlling their drivers. Vettel passes teamate when ordered not to, Webber gives him the finger and in the green room asks him if he understands what "Multi 21" stands for. Both Vettel and I look perplexed at the same time because neither of us know what the fuck Webber is talking about. The same thing happens over at AMG but Nico listens and Hamilton places third instead of him. I actually think that Red Bull is happy that Vettel disobeyed orders. Who has the better shot at winning a championship,,, Vettel or Webber? Of course Vettel does. Same thing at Mercedes. Hamilton has a better chance than Nico. I also think that Webber has a right to be pissed. They told him to turn down his engines and preserve the car, he did. Seb didn't. I also think Nico has a right to be pissed. It was apparent he was faster than Lewis, and wasn't running out of gas. Anybody agree with me, or am I fucking crazy?
You brought up a couple of interesting points from the Malaysia G.P.. Alonso more went out through bad luck and poor timing - according to what DC said, the car should have been able to make it back to the pits with just the one support holding the wing in place. Unfortunately, this remaining support must have taken critical damage in the accident that neither Alonso nor his pit crew were aware of, which caused the wing to break on the start/finish straight. It's still baffling that he didn't come straight in at the end of the first lap. Were Ferrari ready for him? They should have been, since the incident happened in turn 3 right at the start of the lap. Maldonado complained to the press about the handling of the Williams car in Australia - he said it was terrible. Hopefully, they will be rushing to sort it out. I'm honestly not sure how much backing Maldonado is getting now at Williams - I think the death of Hugo Chavez is going to cause that team problems (PDVSA is their major sponsor, which is the Venezuelan government-controlled oil conglomerate). Hamilton into the McLaren pit was hilarious for everyone, except McLaren. Force India seemed to get back luck with a malfunctioning wheel nut gun. Not sure what happened to the other car, though. It was my feeling that Vettel knew EXACTLY what Webber was talking about, but that he clearly didn't give a fuck about it. I think Webber will either leave Red Bull or retire at the end of the season. Vettel seems to be a nice guy to the press but he races with extreme arrogance against Webber and thinks that he is the God of Red Bull. Horner seemed to remain pretty quiet other than calling what they did on the track "silly", which means he probably knew what Webber was talking about (probably a pre-race agreement that stands so that both cars can finish without the drivers crashing into one another - that the lead car stays ahead, regardless of who that is) but wasn't going to go against Vettel. Vettel there struck me as EXACTLY like the younger and very arrogant Michael Schumacher from the mid 1990's, something I was hoping he wouldn't turn into. Note how Ross Brawn directly instructed Rosberg to remain behind Hamilton, twice - the tone of his voice was clearly "do not fuck with me or this team or there will be consequences". Compare that to Horner, who simply cow-tows for Vettel and said nothing over the team radio, other than urging them to stop being "silly". Ultimately, the team principal is supposed to instruct the drivers on what they want them to do. The driver disobeying clearly shows the team that the driver thinks he is more important, which shows a serious lack of loyalty and understanding of what the team requires. Horner has insisted that Webber has "equal number 1 status" with Vettel many times before - Sunday's race shows Webber that that is a bag of hot air. Webber needs to change teams. I don't agree that Hamilton has a better chance of winning a championship than Rosberg - both drivers are equally quick and consistent, Nico possibly more consistent than Hamilton. Hamilton won in 2008 by having the the second best car on the grid and by having a team-mate who was not in competition with him for the Championship (Kovalainen), unlike at Ferrari where Raikkonen and Massa were scrapping it out. This year, it's different. However, Mercedes would rather have Hamilton win because he is costing them a LOT more money in salary than Rosberg is.
You bring up much much insight that I had not thought of.... As it relates to Alonso and the pit stop timing, or lack thereof,,,, according to the announcers I watch (on the new NBC sports station) Will Buxton reported that the Ferrari crew were ready and waiting with a new front wing for Alonso to pit. It was unclear if he was under orders to pit and ignored them, or they left the decision up to him. I thought that Hamilton's errant stop into the McLaren pits was more embarrassing for him than them... They sent out a funny tweet after the race, telling Hamilton to stop by anytime.. They'd welcome him in. I thought it was good natured. Its a shame that Force India had pit problems. With the good finish Sutil gave them in Melbourne, and how strong the two drivers were going in Malaysia, it seems like they would have had a good start to the year. I agree with you about the Infiniti and Mercedes situations. With exception that I think that Hamilton has a much much better chance to compete for the title than Rosberg. I think he has experience, is generally quicker, a better qualifyer, and is one of the best passers around. That's not taking away from Nico, I think he's good, but not on par with Hamilton. If I was laying money on a driver from Mercedes in Vegas, my money would be on Hamilton before Rosberg. But... That's completely my opinion, and in full disclosure I was a fan of Hamilton's before he left McLaren. Since the off season I've decided to root for Lotus. Question Durb: Are you more of a Maldanado fan, or a Williams fan? Because I find it very hard to root for that dude.
We get different announcers here - Ben Edwards and David Coulthard are the main two, along with the occasional technical stuff from Gary Anderson and pit wall stuff from Tom Clarkson. There's also a female interviewer but I can't remember her name now. The local South African studio guys (Sasha Martinengo, Vic Maharaj and occasionally Gary Formato) are ridiculously biased for Ferrari and rarely have anything good to say about any other team - they irritate me to the point of muting my tv set until they cross over to the British commentary. Because of the local idiots, I always hope for Ferrari to crash out - I actually like Massa and Alonso as drivers though, I just despise the Ferrari team because of the many utter fucktwats they attract (like the NY Yankees or the Steelers). I didn't see the tweet from the McLaren guys, but that does sound good-natured. I think Force India will still be strong contenders this season. Do they get the chance to change parts like gearboxes etc. if both cars retire from the race, or will it be a grid position penalty at the next race? Nico Rosberg drove pretty well last year, considering that Mercedes car was a dog and not very reliable, either - even Schumacher struggled to get it to do anything. Hamilton has always, up to this point, been in an extremely competitive car, while Rosberg has not - it's for this reason that, if push comes to shove, Nico (who is used to a bit of struggle) will prevail mentally over Hamilton. Either way, they will push each other very hard this year, possibly more so than any other team (particularly Vettel/Webber and Alonso/Massa). As for Infiniti, I don't think they supply anything but money and an additional name, which is probably due to Nissan's ongoing technical partnership with Renault. I am just a Williams fan - Maldonado is a bit nuts, but Williams have always attracted nutcase drivers (e.g. Mansell, Patrese, Nelson Sr., Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve, etc. etc.) and have not often had steady points scorers. Maldonado does have fantastic raw pace, but he's a bit too unreliable at present - I think he is only there due to PDVSA's current involvement with Williams. Bruno Senna had started to come right in the 2nd half of last season and showed similar race pace to Maldonado and then gets dropped for Bottas. That decision baffled me.
The guys on NBC (which were the same guys on Speed last year with exception of Leigh Diffey) are pretty unbiased. Although the wife and I have a drinking game in which you have to take a drink every time Steve Matchett says Adrian Newey is a Aerodynamacist genius. The Force India team can change out the gearbox without a penalty according to the rules,, here are the rules on F1's own website... Its the last paragraph Yeah,,,, I don't get why they traded in Senna for Bottas. Perplexing. Wasn't Bottas their test driver, or in FP2?
Bottas was their test driver. Senna was slow as hell for the first 7 or 8 races last season, but started to match (and finish at least once ahead of) Maldonado in the latter stages. If you did a shot for every time Martinengo or Maharaj mentioned Ferrari, Schumacher or Alonso (or even Massa) you'd die from alcohol poisoning before the race even started.
So, here's my thoughts on the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix. Spoilered for those who haven't seen it yet. Spoiler - How fucking nasty is this track that soft tyres last < 8 laps?! Good grief. The track temperature was like 27 degrees Celsius in the last 5-10 laps and the bloke from Pirelli was interviewed by Tom Clarkson and implied the tyres would only be good for 6 laps. Woof. - Vettel and Red Bull gambled and lost. That makes a nice change. The kid needs to re-learn some humility. It is not a divine right for you to win every race. - Alonso seemed to drive really well. I wouldn't know, since we hardly saw him in the TV coverage after he passed Hamilton on the 3rd or 4th lap - Raikkonen also drove really well. Lotus will probably get 3rd in constructors again after Ferrari and Red Bull if Webber could finish a race. ZING! - Drive Of The Day must go to Button. A crap McLaren this year but he really did well. - Hulkenberg also did really well. Why did Williams let him leave? Fuck, they exercise nothing besides poor judgment over there. Definitely needs a change in team manager - Sir Frank seems to have little involvement now and it shows in the lacklustre cars, drivers and performances, since he has a serious force of will to drag the team he founded to the very top in the 1980's and 1990's - a strong leader is needed before they slip further back down the grid. The cars looked fucking slow and terrible still. What the fuck is going on there?! These guys have had 3 weeks to get some better pace out of this car. Williams will do well this season to pick up ANY fucking points at this rate. - Perez must get Worst Driver Of The Day. Involved in at least 2 collisions. Yikes. Moving road hazard, like Grosjean last season. - Grosjean had a pretty quiet race and was definitely second to Raikkonen on pace this time. - Sutil was desperately unlucky. - Hamilton also seemed to lack race pace. - Massa did alright but was outclassed by Alonso. Looking forward to Bahrain next weekend now!
So, Rosberg is on pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Nice. I wonder what the bookies' odds on that were.
I was on vacation for both of the China and Bahrain races,,, but even though the Mercedes team seems to have some speed, they don't really seem to have some race pace. I think Hamilton was quoted as saying that his car got better and better throughout the race. Ferrari really had a shitty day. Alonso not being able to use DRS, and Massa having two punctures. Lotus looks good. If Grosjean can keep his shit together, they just might win the constructors. I still don't know who is going to beat Vettel this year though. I was rooting for Di Resta even though he was chasing my guys at Lotus. If Sutil hadn't had a couple of horrible races, that team would be in great shape. And of course they're horrible pit crew not helping matters.
Yeah, Spain will be an interesting race next weekend. Mercedes need to do something about their tyre and balance issues - they seem to have more trouble with the tyres than Ferrari or Lotus and, with Hamilton's comment about the car getting better through the race, that'd be a balance issue. I think Massa's tyres went as a result of an accident and then debris on the track. It seems to me that, every year, the new tyres are worse than the previous years' tyres, for at least the first 8 races. There should be a freeze on tyre development for 3 years so that teams can get their cars to work well with tyres - changing up the tyres and specs every year is only making it worse as teams have little development time; at least if the tyres were more consistent, it'd take one variable out for car development and most teams would drive less development miles in testing, as they wouldn't need to test the tyres as much. It also seems that whatever test miles are driven, very little knowledge seems to be gained, due to the tyres not being tested in race conditions against other cars. Also, it'd save the tyre supplier a lot of money in R&D. I'm surprised Bernie hasn't considered this. Yeah, Force India's pit crew have been pretty terrible recently, as have Mercedes' crew. Maybe they will be drilling now and will be better for the next race.