The F1 Thread 2013 Season

That was the most entertaining session all season, could have been anyone of the Top 4 the margins were so close. Great stuff.
 
Red Pavan said:
Mercedes have been awful in race conditions. I think it will be a red bull victory.
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If it was anywhere else I would have agreed with you but this is Monaco, whoever leads into turn 1 will most likely win the race.
 
hp88 said:
If it was anywhere else I would have agreed with you but this is Monaco, whoever leads into turn 1 will most likely win the race.
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Don't think overtaking Mercedes will be an issue, because they have been painfully slow in race trim. There are some decent overtaking opportunities to be honest.
 
Cant believe i missed qualifying. Sounded like Q3 was very close.

Don't see either of the Mercedes winning it though. Not unless something out of the ordinary happens. They were well off the pace at Barcelona.
 
The Mercedes long runs really haven't looked that bad in the practice sessions, I think they can legitamely win this race.

If they want to maximise their chances they should split the strategies, 2 stops for whoever exits T1 first, 1 stop for the 2nd man assuming he gets through ahead of the rest. This would allow the front runner to gap the rest whilst the 1 stopper hedges his bets on both pace, stint length and a safety car. If a safety car happens at any point past say Lap 10 then the 2 stopper is probably fecked but the 1 stopper should clean up.

Really depends on Mercedes being able to manage their tyres for a good enough time, I think the Lotus and Ferrari's can 1 stop and possibly Red Bull too.
 
Im getting used to Mclaren being a load of wank now.
 
BBC really made a total balls of the F1 coverage this year. How did they not get Monaco live?
 
Colin129 said:
Depressing isn't it? feck Sky!
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Its a joke, lets face it sometimes Monaco can have a boring year but there are other times when it is epic so how they can fail to secure it as a live race is just depressingly bad. Now I have to settle for Monaco on a stream :(

In fact looking at the live coverage for this year it is worse than the reduced live coverage last year. At least last year we had the opening race live and we had Monaco live.
 
Pirelli tested a new tyre with Mercedes last week? Three days testing surely is a big advantage for Mercedes. The other teams didn't know about it at the time by the looks of it
 
Mercedes is at the centre of a growing controversy ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix after it emerged the team had conducted a private 1000 kilometre tyre test at Barcelona after the last race.

The Brackley-based outfit has struggled to work out why its race form is no match for its qualifying efforts this season, having now secured four consecutive pole positions but struggled with tyre wear in the races.

AUTOSPORT can reveal that rival outfits have been left deeply unhappy that Mercedes was given a golden chance to boost its understanding of the issue with a private test at Barcelona last week. Due to weather interruptions, it extended over three days.

Although in-season testing is banned, it is understood that Mercedes was requested by Pirelli to help work through the issues that the Italian tyre manufacturer has experienced in the last few races.

According to sources at Mercedes, the test was allowed because Pirelli can call upon one outfit for a private test to help it with products if circumstances dictate.

Mercedes is adamant that its running at Barcelona was totally within the regulations, but high-level sources have revealed that other teams are not convinced and the matter has now been taken up with the FIA.

Team principal Ross Brawn said that his outfit had worked tirelessly on the tyre issue since Barcelona - but did not make reference to the test when asked about what the team had done since the Spanish GP.

"I think when we got back from Barcelona we had some pretty long and deep meetings and decided a course of action," he explained.

"There were a lot of things going on already, so I don't want to create the impression that we got back and all of a sudden we started work. There was a lot of work going on already.

"I think some of the work was refocused in areas that we thought were maybe more relevant and in the last couple of weeks, Bob [Bell] has been directing all the engineering team to make sure that they focus on the areas that we felt were most important.

"We have come here with changes, and it is almost impossible at Monaco to judge those changes but we believe that they are relevant and give another snap shot of that at Montreal.

"But it won't be until we get to Silverstone that I think we can judge where we stand and there are more changes that we are trying - and trying to establish those changes in the best possible way with the limitations of going to races."
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Mercedes in secret Pirelli Formula 1 tyre test row
 
I thought there was no testing allowed at all during the season?
 
17Larsson said:
Pirelli tested a new tyre with Mercedes last week? Three days testing surely is a big advantage for Mercedes. The other teams didn't know about it at the time by the looks of it
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Just heard about it on Sky, teams only found out last night.
 
17Larsson said:
Pirelli tested a new tyre with Mercedes last week? Three days testing surely is a big advantage for Mercedes. The other teams didn't know about it at the time by the looks of it
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Had this been Red Bull or Ferrari I feel it would be more controversial than it seems to be.

How can one team have this advantage?
If it is for safety reasons all teams should be involved.
 
Pirelli Director is saying the work was for 2014.

In reality we were looking at next year's solutions and trying a variety of different [things]," he said. "Mercedes haven't got a clue what on earth we were testing in reality.

"It was 90 per cent for next year. We only changed [our plans for 2013 work] at the last minute."
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Red Bull confirm they have launched a protest against Mercedes. Safe to say we can expect others to follow now.
 
Its Monaco today, lets mix up the predictions.

1. Button
2. Sutil
3. Chilton

.....
 
I don't think Mercedes having done anything wrong here, Pirelli asked them If they could help out so they turned up with a car, It's Pirelli fault for not telling everyone what they were doing.
 
Martin seemed to be struggling on that one a bit. That woman was beating him to interviews easily.
 
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