The F1 Thread 2013 Season

10 place grid penalty at Canada for Grosjean.

Good, he is without a doubt the worst driver out of the top 6 teams, an unbelievable liability. They should drop him and introduce that GP2 winner instead, you must feel worried as a driver whenever he gets close to you.

It was actually sad how much Brundle and Crofty were trying to hype up the race, saying it was all going to happen near the end. You know a race isn't great when the most exciting things that happen are the crashes.

The best person to follow on twitter is Clarkson: love him or hate him, he does provide Comey value.

Jeremy Clarkson ‏@JeremyClarkson 4h
Very much enjoying watching 20 men drive around a town.

Jeremy Clarkson ‏@JeremyClarkson 4h
One of the men is driving a little faster than the other men.

Jeremy Clarkson ‏@JeremyClarkson 4h
If Kimi drove faster, he would win.

Jeremy Clarkson ‏@JeremyClarkson 4h
God almighty. That was boring.

Blunt but very true.
 
Hearing on Sky that a hearing has been called about Mercedes illegal tyre testing.
If found guilty what can happen to them ?

I would think either they'll lose some constructor points or be banned for a race. Don't think the drivers will lose any points or be excluded from any finished races.
 
Why were they going so slow, tyre degradation didn't seem a problem.
Most of them 1 stopped.
Anyway why do people moan about tyres or DRS.
If you take away the DRS and tyre wear is not an issue we would have more boring races.
At least faster cars can overtake now.
The last 2-3 years have been good in my opinion.

Go back to the days of Ferrari dominance, now that was boring.
Safety has taken over big time, too many run off areas that's a big problem .

Wtf was Fernando doing today?
 
Credit to TheatreOfDreams (Newbies forum):

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So they had to offer every team the opportunity, which if they DID do, Red Bull and Ferrari are going to look like utter clowns for protesting, and if they DIDN'T do, Merc are in shit.
 
If Mercedes didn't check with the FIA that everything was OK before taking part in 1,000km worth of testing then they're bloody stupid at the very least.
 
Surely that can be seen as unfair on Mercedes if the other teams weren't given the opportunity and Pirelli didn't inform Mercedes of that, but, by reading that it would be downright dumb if both of them didn't follow the rules as they were clearly informed and it was going to be impossible to hide it from the other teams.
 
Average race I thought. Crashes were really the only points of actual action. Take that away from the race and basically nothing happened. It's a pity that my broadcast didn't even follow kimi's last few laps as it looked like it was the only piece of actual racing going on and he was flying. Instead I had to watch Rosberg lap out front by himself and be told that Kimi had got from 15/16 place into 10 someone after it was all over.
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/22675026

Kimi. :lol: He's right that Perez shouldn't be getting away with being so reckless. Maldonado/Grosjean get a shit load of stick from people, however Perez isn't that bad. Just a driver trying to make his name in a big team and i'm sure with time he will be able to iron out those mistakes into clean passes.
 
Kimi is class! Insanely good driver, but hates the press and the stuff which isn't just driving :lol:

I'm surprised he didn't just punch Perez in the face himself.
 
FIA calls on Ferrari and Mercedes in F1 tyre test investigation

The FIA has asked Ferrari as well as Mercedes to supply information for a disciplinary inquiry over recent Pirelli tyre tests that have taken place at Barcelona.

Mercedes' secret test for Pirelli with its 2013 car immediately after the Spanish Grand Prix was the initial focus of the scandal when news of the test broke during the Monaco GP weekend.

Ferrari and Red Bull lodged a protest against the team using a current car, with the stewards referring the matter to the FIA.

It also emerged that Ferrari's customer car division, the Corse Clienti, provided a 2011 car for a tyre test for Pirelli two weeks before the Mercedes session.

On Friday night the FIA issued a statement saying it wanted both Ferrari and Mercedes to participate in its investigation.

"The FIA has asked Team Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 and Scuderia Ferrari Team which have taken part in tyre tests in the 2013 season to reply to a disciplinary inquiry in pursuance of the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules," said the statement.

"This follows the Stewards' Report from the Monaco Grand Prix and represents supplementary information required by the FIA in the light of the replies received from Pirelli, who were asked for clarifications on Tuesday May 28."

Although Mercedes' testing of a 2013 car has been the main focus of the row up until now, Ferrari's involvement in the disciplinary inquiry is more of a surprise because it was previously believed that its running of an '11 car was within the rules.

The exact details of the test have been kept quiet, but it is understood that the test with the F150 was paid for by Pirelli and run by the Maranello outfit's Corse Clienti division, so completely separate from the race team.

F1 teams have long been under the impression that running two-year-old cars was allowed, but there are now suggestions that even this could be in doubt.

Article 22.1 of the sporting regulations defines exactly what cars are exempt from the in-season testing ban - and appears to revolve around the definition of 'substantially different' from the current 2013 contenders.

"Track testing shall be considered any track running time not part of an event undertaken by a competitor entered in the championship, using cars which conform substantially with the current Formula 1 technical regulations in addition to those from the previous or subsequent year," states the rule.

One interpretation could be that a 2011 car is not 'substantially' different enough from the 2013 cars to be exempt from the testing limitations.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107799
 
The FIA might just be looking at data comparisons or something.

Still, it'd be pretty funny.
 
Anyone else read this sycophantic and terrible opinion piece on the BBC about Perez?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/22769108

Canadian GP: McLaren's Sergio Perez is ruffling feathers in F1

Sergio Perez is not winning many friends in Formula 1 at the moment - at least not with the established stars among his fellow drivers - but he is certainly making an impression.

The 23-year-old Mexican, the man McLaren chose to replace Lewis Hamilton, has attracted the disapproval of all F1's former world champions bar one with some robust driving in recent races and he seems not remotely bothered about it.

Perez's tactics were the subject of discussion at the drivers' briefing in Bahrain following incidents in China and in Spain following more in Bahrain. He may well be brought up again this weekend in Canada after Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen said following the Monaco Grand Prix that "someone should punch him in the face".

That remark was most unusual from a man who is notorious for keeping his thoughts to himself in the presence of the media and it made clear just how angry Raikkonen was about what had happened in the race.

The two drivers collided when Perez tried to overtake Raikkonen's Lotus on the run to the chicane late in the race, the same place he had previously passed his team-mate Jenson Button and had been involved in a mildly controversial incident with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.
Raikkonen v Perez

Unlike Button and Alonso, Raikkonen refused to yield, the two cars touched and both were damaged.

Raikkonen got a puncture that demoted him from fifth to finish an eventual 10th - at the cost of nine valuable championship points. Perez soon retired with overheating brakes, caused by a lack of airflow into the ducts as a result of damage caused in the collision with the Lotus.

Whether Raikkonen's remarks were motivated by what sources say is his personal dislike of Perez, his frustration at losing ground in the championship, annoyance with himself for allowing the accident to happen or a feeling that his rival had gone beyond the pale, he may or may not elaborate in Canada this weekend.

What is certain is that Perez had already crossed swords with Raikkonen once this season - when the two collided after the McLaren moved over on the Lotus, forcing Raikkonen on to the grass as he was trying to pass around the outside into Turn Six in China.

In that race, Perez had also appeared to weave slightly when defending in front of Alonso - something Lewis Hamilton commented on, but which Alonso did not.

Then, in Bahrain, there was a contretemps with Button - who complained on the radio to the team after the two banged wheels on the straight and Perez hit the back of his car at Turn Four - and Alonso, who Perez legitimately ran out of road on the exit of the same corner.

After a quiet but effective race to ninth place behind Button in Spain, came Monaco.

Perez made most of his overtaking manoeuvres into the chicane - not a new move, but one in which a driver has to commit fully and that requires the co-operation of the opponent.

The first was on Button, who gave his team-mate the space he needed.

A couple of laps later came a more marginal move on Alonso, who fought a bit harder but, mindful of the championship, cut the second part of the chicane to avoid an accident, keeping his position.

Strictly speaking, that is against the rules, and Alonso was duly told by the stewards to let Perez by once the race was re-started after the red-flag period that followed shortly afterwards because of a sizeable crash for Williams' Pastor Maldonado, who had been hit by Max Chilton's Marussia.

More than one insider I have spoken to feels Alonso was perhaps a little hard done by.

On a normal track, Perez would almost certainly not have made the pass stick - Alonso would have had the line for the second part of the chicane and Perez would have had to cede.

But space is tightly restricted at Monaco, and had Alonso tried to sit it out side-by-side with Perez in the second part of the chicane he risked a collision that could damage his car and force him out of the race. So he cut the chicane instead.

The rights and wrongs of that are less clear than the stewards' literal application of the rule forbidding "going off the track to gain an advantage" would suggest.

After all, did Alonso "gain an advantage" by cutting the inside kerb of the second part of the chicane? Or by doing so did he keep a position that Perez had not rightfully earned, and at the same time avoid a collision when causing one also carries a penalty?

The stewards made the call they did because they have to judge each incident on its own merits - and at Monaco, if a driver makes it to the first apex of the chicane on the inside, he has won the corner, simply because the other driver has nowhere to go.

What is clear is that for all Perez's burgeoning reputation as a man who tries kamikaze moves and relies on others to get out of the way, more calculation went into his driving in Monaco - and elsewhere - than was at first apparent.

The identity of the drivers who have been subjected to Perez's aggression is no accident.

He has not pulled his moves on inexperienced or unpredictable rivals who have as little to lose and as much to gain as he has.

He has pulled them on the very best. Drivers like Button, who is a champion and a gentleman. Or like Raikkonen and Alonso, world-class, fair, probably tougher than Button, but who - importantly - have a world championship to think about.

In other words, Perez had calculated in Monaco that, on the balance of probabilities, although the moves were on the edge, he would, given who he was trying them on, get away with it.

Which, until Raikkonen decided he had had enough, was working. Instead, as Alonso put it, Perez's McLaren ended Monaco "parked at Rascasse" rather than scoring 12 points for himself and his team.

"It's always a balance," says McLaren sporting director Sam Michael. "Ultimately you want him to be able to race and push as hard as he can. It's not a lot different to how some of the great racers of the last 20 years have driven.

"You are playing a numbers game but I'd rather he did that than be criticised for sitting there when he could have had a go. He's stamping his authority on the sport and showing he has the ability to do that. It's not always going to come off, just as it hasn't with other people.

"Of course you can argue he lost a fifth place, but once he'd committed to that move, Kimi threw it away as well as him. Kimi always had the option to turn away from the corner."

All of these incidents have happened since team principal Martin Whitmarsh, concerned at Perez's lacklustre and meek first two races, told his charge to "get his elbows out on track".

Perez has taken the advice on board and in the process demonstrated that he means to make the most of what he has described as his "dream" opportunity.

He has also laid down a marker to his rivals that he is no respecter of reputations - in fact, that he is prepared to use other people's standing and position to his own advantage. And that he is prepared to try manoeuvres that are right on the edge to gain a position.

Both of which traits are exactly the sort of ruthlessness a driver needs to succeed in F1.

Perez has some way to go before it's clear he will do that. But his rivals now know for sure he is no soft touch - and that if they are to win the title, they will have to do so by keeping one eye on the McLaren with the yellow helmet in their mirrors.

What absolute rot. I know the BBC have a hard-on for McLaren but Perez is proving to be just as bad as Maldonado (a man who, amusingly, he complained about last season when they crashed) or Grosjean. He does need a punch in the face, or at least a slap on the wrist. McLaren must be slightly embarrassed that -- no matter what they say -- they're forced to constantly defend him, when their reputation is built on being "gentlemanly" (apart from the whole stealing from their rivals thing, but the BBC don't talk about that shhh).
 
I like Perez, he has the potential to be a very good driver, but he is still very raw IMO and went to Mclaren too early, could of done staying at his other team for another season.
The way he is driving it is only a matter of time before he causes a big shunt.
I agree about the BBC article, just utter rubbish.
 
Anyone else read this sycophantic and terrible opinion piece on the BBC about Perez?

What absolute rot. I know the BBC have a hard-on for McLaren but Perez is proving to be just as bad as Maldonado (a man who, amusingly, he complained about last season when they crashed) or Grosjean. He does need a punch in the face, or at least a slap on the wrist. McLaren must be slightly embarrassed that -- no matter what they say -- they're forced to constantly defend him, when their reputation is built on being "gentlemanly" (apart from the whole stealing from their rivals thing, but the BBC don't talk about that shhh).

He's not as bad as Maldonado, not even in the same league.

I think it's good we have some overly aggressive drivers, some of the front runners seem to think it's their divine right that no one attempts to pass them. Whilst Raikonnen provides the usual quips from fans of 'Oh he's just a hilarious racer, look at his humour' i thought his hitting someone in the face comment about Perez was a bit crass.

Lets face it, McLaren are going to back their driver every time & not come out with any negative comments. I don't know why you would think otherwise?!
 
Mercedes have denied the existence of the 'secret' Barcelona test was first divulged in a conversation between Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel.
Although Mercedes have pledged "to explain the full facts of the Pirelli test in an open and transparent manner at the International Tribunal" following their summons to attend a hearing into the three-day event, the rest of the F1 paddock only became aware that it had taken place on the Saturday night of the Monaco GP - over a week after the test had been staged
According to reports from Montreal, it was World Champion Sebastian Vettel who first became aware of the controversial test - the legality of which remains a matter of considerable dispute - during a conversation with compatriot Rosberg at a meeting of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association after qualifying in the Principality.
That claim has now been strenuously denied by Mercedes who described the reports as "categorically untrue".
Yet regardless of who was responsible for the test becoming public knowledge, the event continues to be the burning topic of conversation in a paddock still striving to agree both its legality and significance.

Although Rosberg refused to comment on speculation that both he and Hamilton wore 'anonymous' helmets during the test, the German was more forthcoming on its purpose but raised plenty of eyebrows after claiming he knew what type of tyres were deployed on his W04.
"Of course, I was aware of what their ideas were and what they were testing because I needed to know that to be able to pinpoint for them what was going on," he said.
That testimony would apparently contradict the reassurance of team boss Ross Brawn in Monaco that Mercedes were kept in the dark about what tyres Pirelli elected to use at Barcelona.
"We didn't know that when you do a Pirelli tyre test that you don't know what tyres you are testing," Brawn told Sky Sports F1. "You are given codes. Each day there was a batch tested and we still don't know what the conclusions were."
A date for the International Tribunal has yet to be finalised.
http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1...at-between-Nico-Rosberg-and-Sebastian-Vettel-

Nico is a bit of a big mouth.
 
You just know everyone thought it was Hamilton letting it slip, even I did.
 
The test doesn't make much sense to punish Mercedes for it, if anything that they're guilty for its running a 2013 car.

There's some naivety from their part, thinking that there will be some data to capture on a tyre compound & construction which they dont even know where it will end up (either as a 2013, 2014 or even 2015 tyre). However i can't see what Mercedes have gained here, there's data about a tyre which isn't being designated as used for this year or declared as by Pirelli. Mercedes are putting a 2013 engine through some milage, which they're now at a disadvantage against other teams.

Even with Pirelli, in order to develop 2013 or even 2014/15 tyres they need a car from this or last season in order to give their tyres the ability to be tested on a recent car in order to get the best from it. This only helps the series imo.


Feels like everyone wants to get invovled, everyone thinks people have gained information they shouldn't. The only people that have gained anything is Pirelli & if anything that shouldn't be punished.
 
None of it would really matter if they brought back some in-season testing, its silly that they took that away to save money when they could do it for very little extra cost if they picked 2 or 3 races to stay behind after a GP weekend.
 
I'm gutted about that to be honest. I always enjoyed getting up early to watch the first race in Melbourne. It must be fifteen or more years as the opener now is it?