F1 World Championship 2013 Thread

[MightyJordan]

Farewell to Aussie Grit. :( I wish him the best in the WEC (and Le Mans) next year. Glad to see he's gonna start at the top in LMP1 class; look forward to seeing if Porsche can knock Audi off the throne after so many years...

[simonlang]

 

:D

[MightyJordan]

;)

[Daedroth]

I'm surprised he's leaving F1 altogether, I'd have thought he'd go to another team before leaving a completely. It's a shame, he always comes across as one friendlier drivers in interviews and things.

 

I'm not sure who would replace him. It will either be a Torro Rosso driver, or someone like Kimi. But I'm not sure if Kimi would fit into Vettel's Red Bull team.

[philcruicks]

Kimmi would be great in RB to knock Vettel down a peg or 2, Webber is a good driver but not in what I consider the top 4 (Ham, Alo, Vet, Rai) which really are the class of the field.

 

He will be missed tho, good to see him at Le Mans if I can ever get back there again.

[Noir Angel]

I don't blame Mark for leaving F1, playing the bridesmaid isn't something I'd wish upon anyone (it ended up defining Barrichello's career as well). Whoever takes his seat at Red Bull has my sympathy as they are going to be an obvious #2

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

British GP, FP1 result:

 

[Lingwo]

First time i watched a practice in a while. Boy, did i choose the wrong one to watch :laugh:

Kudos to Sky Sports though, they did a good job filling the time.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

FP2:

 

[Skiver Veteran]

Changes for the 2014 regulations...

Changes made to the 2014 sporting regulations

• Further to a request from Mercedes, it will be permitted to supply engines to a maximum of four Formula One teams in 2014.
• A penalty point system for drivers will be introduced. If a driver accumulates more than 12 points he will be banned from the next race. Points will stay on the driver's licence for 12 months. The amount of points a driver may be given for infringements will vary from one to three depending upon the severity of the offence.
• The procedure for a driver to be given the chance to give back any advantage he may have gained by leaving the track has been adopted.
• A significant reduction in the amount of wind tunnel testing and CFD work has been imposed to help reduce costs and potentially allow two teams to share one wind tunnel.
• Four two-day track tests will be allowed in season in place of the current eight one-day promotional days and the three-day young driver test. These will take place at tracks in Europe on the Tuesday and Wednesday after a race in order to ensure minimal additional resources are necessary.
• Track testing will now also be permitted in January 2014 in order to allow earlier testing of the new power units.
• For safety reasons all team personnel working on a car in a race pit stop will be required to wear head protection.
• Each driver will be provided with one extra set of tyres for use only during the first 30 minutes of the first practice session on Friday, to encourage teams to take to the track at that time without having to worry about using valuable tyre wear.
• A number of new regulations have been confirmed to govern the new, far more complex power units. It is agreed that only five power units may be used by each driver for the whole season. Any use of an additional complete power unit will result in that driver having to start the race from the pit lane. Any changes of individual elements above the permitted five, such as turbocharger, MGU or Energy Store, will result in a 10 grid place penalty.
• No manufacturer will be allowed to homologate more than one power unit during the homologation period from 2014-2020. Changes to the homologated unit will continue to be permitted for installation, reliability or cost saving reasons.
• Drivers must now use a gearbox for six consecutive events, an increase from the current five.
• No car may use more than 100kg of fuel for the race, from the time the lights go out at the start of the race to the chequered flag. This will be monitored by the use of an FIA approved fuel flow meter.
• The pit lane speed limit, which is currently set at 60km/h for the free practice sessions and 100km/h for the qualifying practice and race (60km/h for the whole event in Melbourne, Monaco and Singapore), has been amended so it is set at 80km/h for the whole event (except the three races mentioned which would stay at 60km/h for the whole event). This is for safety reasons, as most accidents happen during the race when the speed limit is higher; drivers also have very little chance to practice stopping from 100km/h until the race.

 

Changes made to the 2014 technical regulations

• Measures have been put in place to ensure that the cars do not incorporate a step in the chassis behind the nose. These changes will also ensure that a genuine low nose, introduced for safety reasons, is always used.
• The minimum weight limit has been raised by 5kg, as the power unit is now likely to weigh more than originally expected. The weight distribution has also been changed accordingly.
• Electronic control of the rear brake circuit is permitted in order to ensure consistent braking whilst energy is being recovered.
• In order to ensure that side impact structures are more useful in an oblique impact and more consistent, they will become standard items made to a strictly laid out manufacturing process and fitted to the cars identically. The impact tests currently carried out will be replaced by static load push-off tests and squeeze tests. This will also help reduce costs as no team will need to develop their own structures.
• In order to ensure that the cockpit rims either side of the driver's head are stronger, the amount of deflection during the static load tests has been reduced from 20mm to 5mm.
  
  

Source: http://www.espn.co.uk/fia/motorsport/story/113019.html

[MightyJordan]

I like the inclusion of a penalty points system (which almost directly emulates British driving licenses). Is it me though or does it seem a bit lenient? Nothing happens until you get 12 points, then you're simply banned for one race. I reckon they should have included grid penalties at lower tiers; 3 points = 5 place grid penalty, 6 points = 10 place grid penalty, 9 points = start race from the pit lane. Or is that a bit harsh?

 

Speaking of penalties, I bet we'll see more gearbox penalties next season what with the change from 5 races per gearbox to 6.

 

 

Oh, I'm watching P3 right now; Sergio Perez had a tyre failure during the session. No idea what caused it; McLaren simply say "instantaneous tyre failure".

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

[simonlang]

forza ferrari!  :(

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

[Daedroth]

Mercedes clearly had good pace, and that was an excellent lap from Hamilton, a clear .4 seconds ahead of Rosberg. Red Bull up there as usual, and a good showing from both Di Resta and Ricciardo. Disappointed with both Ferrari and Lotus. It just seemed they couldn't get the tyres to 'switch on'. Poor Chilton too, qualifying in last place on his debut British GP.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

The real disappointment imho? McLaren. They're in the middle of nowhere, and with development having shifted to the 2014 car now it's unlikely for them to catch up with the top teams.

[Noir Angel]

Blistering qualifying from mercedes, as usual it will be interesting to see if they manage to maintain long run pace

[simonlang]

this years mercedes will be designed by former ferrari technical director aldo costa, so not all hope is lost. if he can do what he did at ferrari (doubtful with the mercedes budget and with disturbing niki lauda on board) hamilton can fight for race wins.

 

i really thought this is worth to be brought up one more time. the way ferrari is falling backwards and unable to solve their qualifying problems, the same time mercedes now seems to be a save bet for pole if not even for a complete front row can't be a coincidence. i remember it was mostly alonso wanting to have costa fired and brought pat fry whom he knew from his mclaren time, in. 

[Sparky Marky]

Paul Di Resta is likely to be disqualified from qualifying at the British Grand Prix after his car was found to be underweight.

 

The Scot's Force India was 1.5kg under the minimum weight limit after checks were completed and the matter has been referred to the stewards.

A penalty would deprive the 27-year-old of a career-best qualifying position.

Full Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/23113828

Such a shame, seems his team like to provide a challange - third time (as I remember) his team have let him down in qualifying

[MightyJordan]

...and he's starting from the back.

 

Paul di Resta has been excluded from the results of qualifying after stewards found his car was under the minimum weight limit.

 

Di Resta had qualified fifth for Sunday?s race. But his car failed a weight check conducted after the qualifying session.

 

The stewards ruled Force India had committed a ?Breach of Article 26.1 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations and Article 4.1 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations as defined in Article 1.9 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.?

 

Di Resta will be allowed to start the race from the back of the grid.

 

Jules Bianchi was given a reprimand after failing to stop at the weigh bridge during the qualifying session.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Full Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/23113828

Such a shame, seems his team like to provide a challange - third time (as I remember) his team have let him down in qualifying

Yup. First it was sticking him out on used wets, second was working on his car during the driest period on the track and now his car wasn't even race-worthy. His team has definitely let him down and I'd expect him to be pretty critical, especially given that it's his home circuit and his career best qualifying.

[Noir Angel]

i really thought this is worth to be brought up one more time. the way ferrari is falling backwards and unable to solve their qualifying problems, the same time mercedes now seems to be a save bet for pole if not even for a complete front row can't be a coincidence. i remember it was mostly alonso wanting to have costa fired and brought pat fry whom he knew from his mclaren time, in. 

 

Last time I checked decisions on team personnel were made by the team principal not the drivers. I've certainly never seen any evidence that Alonso had anything to do with the decision at all, not that I figured there was any given your hatred for him. Stop being so eager to repeatedly blame Alonso, he doesn't design the car he just drives it. Since the new regulations came in in 2009 Ferrari have claimed just 4 pole positions, the deficiency is coming from the design team not the drivers.

[123456789A]

Wow, these Pirelli tires really suck. I hope they never start manufacturing condoms.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Now Ricciardo as well - what the flying ****?

[Lovell]

I know they wanted to make it more entertaining but exploding tires is maybe going a bit to far. :|