F1 F1 - 2013

It was introduced a few years ago so that the front runners got to do the restart without some of them having lapped cars in front of them. It was just a way of not letting lapped cars interfere with the racing any more than necessary. However it does mean there is a minimum safety car period of about three laps or so.

Dealing with the safety car periods is still a learning experience for F1 - until 1993, F1 didn't use safety cars, relying just on track marshal's flags. Lots of old farts still think it is alien to F1, an 'unsporting American import' even.

 

Good race, enjoyed it much and me thinks if Kimi hadn't been held up a bit by his team mate, he might have taken the win!!!

And how about those MB boys? The tires get a dose of Kevlar (effectively making them a different tire) and MB returns to their pre-illegal tire test form....dang tire degradation... Guess Bernie will have to give them another private test to silence the MB whine again..... LMAO!

 

Remember kids, always leave the car in gear and use the handbrake when parking!


Also, this is really the only footage of Massa's crash, and it's from Alonso's point of view. Anybody found a better shot of that? They only did the one replay.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSuogwS1_pE]Massa spinning at Nurburgring German GP F1 2013 - YouTube[/ame]

 

Depends on how he does the rest of this season. He's on a probationary contract right now that gets reviewed every three races. Should be good for him, since this one was a review race.

 

I'm glad we didn't have to see that poor guy getting clobbered over & over in replay. Glad he is not in critical condition. Had that wheel hit him in the head it could have been a grim outcome. He is very lucky to say the least.

Best wishes to him for a speedy recovery.

 

I'd have thrown that fancy steering wheel under a tire. It was a nice bit of comic relief seeing that car roll away. Glad it didn't roll into someone on track.

 

I've been looking for news of any penalty for that, but have come up empty. I wonder if it's because Bernie still hasn't signed a contract with Marrussia for coverage rights or something.

 

Maybe the fire distracted him from leaving it in gear or the blow up destroyed the gear box.

Interesting the Ross is complaining the the new rules about lower air pressures, minimum camber and not swapping the tires is what cost them the race. It tells us exactly what they learned at that test. Now they have to start over and he is asking to skip the penalty and test with everyone else.

So all the things MB was doing to get faster Pirelli now says are bad and shouldn't be done. Why didn't Pirelli realize during their secret test?

 

I can understand the camber angles & tire pressures helping the car handle. What stumps me is what advantage was gained by running the tires in reverse rotation???

Back in the old days when the earth was still cooling I used to switch directional tires side to side to glean every lap I could from tires. Before I did this I checked with my tire supplier at Blackburn Racing & got their blessing. Suppose the GP teams were doing it for the same reason???

 

They were swapping the tires before the tests, it's an old practice for them. I believe I may have mentioned it earlier in this thread in fact, but I'm too lazy to go back and find it

Even so, any advantage they allegedly gained is set right back to zero, except Hamilton's braking performance.

And according to Pirelli, they were testing the new kevlar tires and not the steel ones. So in theory, MB should be doing great and not exactly the same.

I honestly think the tires are just the scapegoat and that Ross is either not as much in control of the car's design as he used to be, or he's just gotten tunnel vision about some design aspect that simply doesn't work. If Pirelli gave them custom tires they'd still have the same problems.

They suffer from overheating of the rears, which sounds like suspension issues, maybe coupled with bad airflow from the exhaust? They have a hydraulic system that links the fronts to the rear, maybe there's an issue with that?

Even so, sucks to be them and not getting to participate in the Young Driver's Tests. Should improve Ferrari's chances though

 

Looks like Hulkenberg is on his way to Lotus. Has already said he is leaving Sauber at the end of the season.

 

Steve M on the F1 pre-race coverage explained why some teams were swapping tires side to side, they found that they could get about half again as many laps on the tires. This allowed them to qualify on a set and then use them in the race and still get about the same number of laps as the stickered tires.

 

Huh. That means with Kimi maybe going to Red Bull, and Grosjean on unsure footing, that Lotus may have two new drivers next year. Grosjean brings with him a fat endorsement from Total though, and Lotus might want to keep him around just for that.

But on the other hand, I really can't see Kimi letting Vettel be the number one driver at Red Bull. I'd like to see what he can do in one, but there's no way Kimi would get along with him. It'd be a helluva thing to watch though.

 

Kimi and Seb are friends, so I doubt there'd be friction, but Kimi doesn't care one whit about labels, all he's going to do is go race as hard as he can, win as much as he can, and all the rest of the media inspired BS just doesn't matter.

I think it could be interesting for young Seb to have a real competitor on his team, one that can and will beat him from time to time, instead of one who starts most of his races in reverse.

Still, kudos to Mock Weeba for a good strong performance in Germany, even without the "help" from the safety car, he drove like a man about to retire who wants to leave with a strong finish, before an even stronger Finnish takes his place! :biggrin5: