F1 Most liked posts in thread: F1 - 2013

After the first turn fun, RG's drive to the podium was the only real excitement until Vettel did his Tony Stewart imitation at the end...got up at 5:00am to watch it too...

Are we witnessing greatness? Yes, the combo of Vettel and team Red Bull may be the best ever...but it sure makes the racing boring sometimes... Vettel had over two seconds on the field after the first lap...

Maybe I should have been looking for polka dot ties....

Congrats team Red Bull, well done indeed!!

 

I see, youthful exuberance triumphs over old age & treachery. Hmmmm more to it than that me thinks.....

 

The reason Seb could put 2.5 sec a lap on the field is that he knew he was only going to run 2 laps on those tires, so he wasn't worried about making them last....

but it was fun to see him carve thru the field on the mediums once he got them on, turning laps faster than guys on the softs!

The race was full of passing thru out the field.

Poor Mock Webba....I've said it before, if it wasn't for bad luck....... Of course yet another pretty bad start didn't help him any, but I doubt that had anything to do with his alternator failing and putting him out - just like Seb's did in an earlier race.

It's been said several times by the announcers that the Red Bull was designed around Seb's driving style, I guess it just doesn't suit Mock's, so I wonder how Ricky Ricarrdo will do with it next season?

 

I too wonder how Ricardo will manage next year. If he can come to grips with the new car it could be very interesting.

 

Note first line Nathan, me thinks he is becoming a force to be dealt with!!

 

Congrats, Seb and well done!

Carving thru the field like that is how a champion wins!

 

Finally got around to watching it, and I thought that was pretty interesting.

RoGro has really matured this season.

 

From Motorsports.com

Oct.31 (GMM) The Adrian Newey era at Red Bull could be nearing its end.

It emerged last weekend that, after four consecutive championship clean-sweeps with Sebastian Vettel, the eyes of the team's famous designer may be wandering elsewhere.

"Maybe the America's Cup, who knows?" said the 54-year-old Briton, admitting a new project could be on the horizon.

Now, the Mirror newspaper reports that Sir Ben Ainslie, the famous British sailor, is travelling to Abu Dhabi this weekend and will meet with Newey.

"Someone with his (Newey's) design and technical experience would be invaluable," said Ainslie.

It is already known that Red Bull is losing its other two key figures in Newey's renowned aerodynamics department.

McLaren is waiting for Peter Prodromou's 2014 contract to expire before welcoming him to Woking, and we reported recently that his 'number 2' has also been signed by the British team.

Until now, that 'deputy' has been unnamed, but Germany's Auto Motor und Sport has now identified him as Dan Fallows.

Fallows' job title at Red Bull is aerodynamics team leader.

"McLaren obviously have lost significant technical staff over the last few years and it is only natural that they are looking to recruit," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told F1's official website.

 

He's worked on America's Cup boats before.

He said he's not going anywhere and loves working with the people on the team. With his top 2 people under him leaving at the end of next year I doubt he'd leave the team in a lurch.

 

Sure hope Lotus can get the deal done and their present financial woes behind them soon, the rise of Lotus in the last couple years has been fun to watch and great for F1. Fingers crossed that they can finish out the year with Kimi and get the driver they want for 2014!

From Motorsports F1:




Nov.2 (GMM) Eric Boullier has confirmed that Lotus is still behind in its payments to Kimi Raikkonen.

The Finnish driver, who sat out Thursday's proceedings in Abu Dhabi, revealed when he finally arrived in the Persian Gulf that he almost didn't make the trip from Switzerland, and he could sit out the last two races of 2013.

"For sure (I could)," the 2007 world champion, who is returning to Ferrari in 2014, answered when asked about not racing in Austin and Brazil.

"I enjoy racing, I enjoy driving -- but a big part of it is business. Sometimes when that is not dealt with like it should, we end up in an unfortunate situation."

The current impasse was clearly triggered by the recent Indian Grand Prix, when Lotus engineer Alan Permane swore angrily at Raikkonen on the radio.

"It's not very nice when you hear that you don't have the interests of the team at heart and you've been paid zero euros the whole year," said the 34-year-old.

"You have to draw the line somewhere and if it goes over it's not really my fault," added Raikkonen.

Team boss Boullier admitted to Finnish television MTV3: "Yes, we still owe him something."

The Frenchman said he didn't want to comment on Raikkonen's absence on Thursday.

"Because I don't want to put fuel on the fire," said Boullier.

If the fire burns out of control, Raikkonen might not be at the wheel of the black and gold car in Austin and Brazil.

Asked about his driver's boycott threat, Boullier answered: "I can't answer some of your questions.

"(Team owner) Gerard Lopez is in negotiations with Kimi."

The tension at Lotus is undoubtedly related to the protracted finalisation of a 35 per cent sale of the team to the 'Quantum' investment group.

"The deadline is approaching," Boullier said, "and if it doesn't happen then we will have to consider other solutions in the interest of preserving the team.

"I don't want to be forced to make massive layoffs," he added.

The seriousness of Lotus' financial situation also explains why the team is considering signing Pastor Maldonado, with millions in PDVSA backing, rather than the highly rated Nico Hulkenberg for 2014.

Boullier said the obvious priority is to conclude the Quantum deal.

"We did a triple audit and there is no financial problem with them," he insisted. "But now it becomes extremely difficult to move money around the world."

Not only that, Lotus now has Raikkonen's strike threat to handle.

"Sure, Kimi has emotions too," Boullier told Finland's Turun Sanomat newspaper. "He's not a cold-hearted man, he's a normal person."

 

So, is it safe to talk about the Abu Dabi do yet?















Some people are disappointed with the ease that Vettel can win these days, I find it fascinating. Years from now our grandkids will be asking if we saw Vettel win this race or another, and we'll be able to nod our heads and say "Yeah, it was amazing!"

I knew this one would be all over if Mock Webba got his usual slow start, and while it wasn't as bad as some of his in the past, he still doesn't get off the line well, and Vettel easily had him going into the first turn. RoGro had a great start too and passed cleanly.....he's really come along well this year and I think he's ready to take over as Lotus team leader - assuming Lotus is still in bidness next season. I hear Paster Maldonadodododo can bring $41 mill to whoever wants him. Wish someone felt that highly about me!

Kimi........I don't know what to think about him running into the Caterham at turn one, but I have never seen a driver so happy to end a race and get changed and off to the airport. He cannot get into a red uniform quickly enough! Of course, if my employer shorted my pay by $15 mill, I might be a bit miffed as well.....

Back to Vettel for a moment, by half distance he was 40 sec ahead of #2 - that's nothing short of amazing, and despite his team constantly telling him to slow the hell down..... cute code they used - "Seb - pace target is 1:47" (after he'd run a number of laps at 1:46.4!) At the end of the race Vettel was 30 sec ahead of Webba, who did well to wind up in the #2 spot on the podium, but that's a big difference between teammates running the same machine.

Good races by Nico, Alonso and the Hulk - till his team screwed up his release from the pits and got him a drive thru. I don't know what's up with hammy lately, but he was clearly off Nico's pace as the race wore on.

Even tho the winner was obvious from the first corner, there was a lot of terrific racing down thru the field, and watching Vettel decimate the opposition is nothing short of awe inspiring.

 

It was a good race. Lots of racing going on in the mid pack.

I wonder if Kimi said oh heck & stuck his car in a place he knew he wasn't going to come out of??? Seemed like a very low percentage pass attempt. He is better driver than that.

Also wonder if Massa had a purposely slow stop to let Fernando get in front of him???

Do you figure Fernando will get a penalty for regaining the race track in such a amazing fashion after his last stop? I saw that as hard racing nothing more.

 

It wasn't a bad race, Vettel was playing on another plain....not a real fan of that track though...

Yes Kimi arranged his unfortunate retirement from the event...

Doubtful.

No I don't, or at least feel that he shouldn't.

I was surprised at how off the pace Hamilton was...?

 

Hamilton had a poor race. His car broke in quali & was repaired overnight. He then had his brakes changed while on the grid. Not very confidence inspiring for a driver. Hope they sort things out. He seemed gutted in the post race interview.

 

Yup. I thought it was cool.

 

Always amazes me how well a driver can perform after being let go...sort of puts a period on why they might have been let go in the first place doesn't it?

 

I think what this shows is what a lap dog Massa was. Now that he is driving for himself we are seeing the real Massa. It is going to be interesting with Kimi in the Ferrari team, he is no lap dog.