F1 World Championship 2013 Thread

[MightyJordan]

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[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Japanese GP FP1 result:

 

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

FP2:

 

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Ex-Formula 1 test driver Maria de Villota found dead in hotel

 

Maria de Villota has been found dead in a hotel room in Sevilla.

 

The Spaniard was 33.

 

A statement on her Facebook page, signed by her family, read: "Dear friends: Maria has left us.

 

"She had to go to heaven like all angels. We are thankful to God for the extra year and a half that he left her with us."

 

De Villota suffered a life-threatening testing accident with the Marussia Formula 1 squad in July last year.

 

She spent a month in hospital after crashing into an articulated trailer while carrying out a straightline test for Marussia at Duxford Aerodrome.

 

Although she lost her right eye, she was able to make a full recovery from her other injuries, which included significant skull damage

 

De Villota was a former World Touring Car Championship and Superleague Formula driver, and daughter of ex-F1 racer Emilio de Villota.

 

Source: Autosport

 

Requiescat in pace.

[MightyJordan]

Another sad day for motorsport. RIP, Maria.  :(

 

 

 

Williams have been fined ?60,000 (?50,801) for releasing Pastor Maldonado?s car from the pits in an unsafe fashion during the first practice session.

Maldonado?s left-rear wheel worked loose as he approached Spoon Curve and detached from the car as he spun off. It was collected by two marshals.

 

The stewards claimed Williams had allowed a ?serious safety issue? to arise.

 

?Examination of the parts concerned revealed that the wheel fastener had not been completely fastened, thus not engaging the first retaining plunger,? the stewards ruled. ?This is a breach of Article 23.12 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.?

 

?The secondary retaining plunger failed to keep the wheel in place. This is a breach of Article 14.7 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.?

 

Williams assured the stewards that ?appropriate measures will be immediately implemented to ensure compliance?. 

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/10/11/williams-fined-50000-after-maldonado-loses-wheel/

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

[heslo]

Been waiting all year for old Webbo to poach P1 from Vettel. Should be an interesting race and I'm predicting KERS gremlins to continue haunting Vettel during the race. I hope Mark takes home the win; one final time before he bows out

[MightyJordan]

Here's the grid after all the penalties...

 

 

Pic's also got a drive-through penalty for exiting the pits during the red light in qualifying. He's gotta serve it during the first five laps of the race.

 

And over at Sauber...

 

Sauber have been fined ?16,980 (?20,000) for giving an incorrect radio message to Nico Hulkenberg which resulted in him holding up Max Chilton.

 

Hulkenberg was not penalised for the incident which happened at the end of final practice.

 

The stewards ruled that ?the team of car 11 [sauber] advised him [Hulkenberg] by radio that car 23 [Chilton] was on a ?cool down? lap. Car 11 was preparing for a fast lap when the driver realised car 23 was immediately behind him and tried his best to give car 23 the apex.?

 

?The team of car 23 [Marussia] does not believe the incident amounted to illegitimately impeding,? they added.

 

?However, whilst the driver of car 11 is not found to be in breach of Article 16.1(g), we determine the team to be responsible for the incident, which was potentially dangerous, by issuing an incorrect message.?

 

At the end of practice Hulkenberg was heard asking ?What was that about, Chilton?? to which race engineer Marco Schupbach replied ?Yeah we speak after?.

 

The stewards also gave Nico Rosberg his second reprimand of the year for driving too slowly on the track during final practice on the approach to 130R.

 

?Car 9 [Rosberg] slowed to less than 90kph when car 20 [Charles Pic] was closing at full speed on the straight,? said the stewards.

 

?The speed differential was approximately 200kph at the point where car 20 needed to decide on which side to pass. The driver of car 9 conceded that he should have more clearly indicated to car 20 on which side he could pass, by moving to one side.?

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/10/12/sauber-fined-for-incorrect-radio-message/

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Man of the race: Romain Grosjean

Reject of the race: Charles Pic

 

Honourable mention goes to both Sauber drivers. 

[MightyJordan]

 

5 wins in a row for Vettel now; his personal best. He could tie with Alberto Ascari for the all-time record if he wins the last four races of the season too.

[simonlang]

amazing vettel, after the start i thought it was already over, then it was clear that redbull had to split the strategy with both of their drivers making it 50:50 who of them would win, as lotus always is very easy on its tires and could go even longer the last races than redbull. you could see vettel was really driving on the absolute limit, pushing more than usual.

mercedes is pretty pathetic now. they seem to do everything they can to gift ferrari the 2nd place in wcc.

[Lingwo]

Suzuka is one of my favourite tracks in the calender but that race was boring.

I think i zoned out or something because it was lap 43 and i could barely remember anything before that.

[Daedroth]

Despite Suzuka being a brilliant track, the race was rather boring.

 

Good race for Vettel, Webber and Grosjean. Excellent overtaking move on the last chicane of the last lap by Raikkonen on Hulkenburg. Hamilton was unlucky with the contact with Vettel at the start.

[He's Dead Jim]

Forgot to stay up to watch the race, just switched the box on as the champagne was spraying the podium girls, switched channel to see the motgp race in full, epic :)

[i11usive]

Despite Suzuka being a brilliant track, the race was rather boring.

 

Good race for Vettel, Webber and Grosjean. Excellent overtaking move on the last chicane of the last lap by Raikkonen on Hulkenburg. Hamilton was unlucky with the contact with Vettel at the start.

 

I don't understand how Vettel continually gets away unscathed - other drivers have to abandon their race, but Vettel seems to have all the luck pretty much every weekend. He is a good driver - but not the best! The machinery he drives is incredible! Best drivers on the grid are Kimi, Alonso and Lewis imho

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

I found the race quite entertaining - there was an actual battle for the win (shame Grosjean didn't make it in the end), there were lots of good overtaking manoeuvres in the mid-field. Outside of the DRS zone too, like in the R130 corner. 

 

There certainly were worse races than the Japanese GP this season.

[Noir Angel]

My interest in F1 has waned for this year, probably not going to bother tuning in again until 2013, unless there's an actual chance of someone beating Vettel in one of the races remaining

[MightyJordan]

Another unpleasant (for the ears) glimpse into the future of F1...

 

 

It's definitely gonna be Formula Dyson. :p

[MightyJordan]

And oh dear god, I just read the latest announcement for Formula E...

 

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I was looking forward to it, but now with something that manages to out-gimmick DRS? ######ing hell...

[Lingwo]

Another unpleasant (for the ears) glimpse into the future of F1...

 

*snip*

 

It's definitely gonna be Formula Dyson. :p

 

I think they'll sound better on the track. Listening to that though, i thought my dad had started the leaf blower up.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Formula 1's smaller teams raise customer car future fear

 

Fears that Formula 1's major players are secretly pushing to drive small teams out of business to bring in customer cars have emerged as the new Strategy Group meets.

 

Representatives of the FIA, Formula One Management and six teams - Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Lotus and Williams ? are meeting later on Monday to discuss future rule changes.

 

The agenda includes future tyre supply, tyre testing, cost restrictions and other minor sporting and technical rules tweaks.

 

There will also be discussion of the Listed Parts area of the rules, which ultimately defines the future of customer cars.

 

At the moment teams are strictly limited on what parts they can share with other squads, but a push to open up this area could allow whole cars to be sold in the future.

 

This could change the face of F1, and lead to a scenario where there are only a handful of big teams left supplying the whole grid.

 

Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley, whose is frustrated that his squad does not sit on the Strategy Group, believes that the return of customer cars is only possible if some of F1's smaller teams are driven out of business.

 

"One would have to say ? what is the agenda?" Fernley told AUTOSPORT. "On one hand, you have got four teams that are totally protected against all the rising costs because of the extra money that they have got.

 

"And the teams that have been disenfranchised are totally burdened with all the costs. So, the question is why is that happening? One would assume because it is to influence a different route for F1 in the future."

 

New Concorde assists top teams

 

When asked if he felt there was a genuine desire among the top teams and sport's chiefs for customer cars, Fernley said: "You cannot bring customer cars in unless you force teams out of business... and we are going in the right direction to do that.

 

"Am I saying that is right or wrong? That I am not sure about. But what I am sure about is that there is obviously clear evidence of a move, not only to disenfranchise teams, but to burden them with costs on a continual basis.

 

"I would assume the reason for that is to [make them] fail, which would allow the customer cars to come in."

 

The majority of the increased revenue heading to teams as part of the imminent new Concorde Agreement is going to the larger outfits, while extra burden has been placed on everyone through extra outlay for entry fees, testing and new rules.

 

This hits smaller teams very hard, according to Fernley.

 

"There isn't a single initiative over the last 18 months that has not significantly increased the costs," he said.

 

"All teams are looking next year at a ?20 million plus increase in costs. Four teams not only have that covered, but they also have reserves left over as well."

 

Source: Autosport

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Daniil Kvyat gets 2010 Toro Rosso Formula 1 seat

 

Daniil Kvyat will drive for Toro Rosso in Formula 1 next season, in a surprise move by the Italian team.

 

After weeks of speculation about which of Red Bull's youngsters would be promoted as replacement for Red Bull-bound Daniel Ricciardo in 2014, the Russian GP3 and European Formula 3 frontrunner has been given the nod ahead of early favourite Antonio Felix da Costa.

 

Kvyat has impressed in GP3 this season, and is currently second in the standings behind Facu Regalia with only the final round in Abu Dhabi remaining.

 

The 19-year-old drove for Red Bull in the Silverstone young driver test in July, and impressed Helmut Marko, head of the firm's young driver programme, greatly.

 

"Whenever we put him in a car his efforts were remarkable," said Marko.

 

"If a young driver proves talent, passion and a high level of work ethic, we give him a chance. That's the perspective of why we chose Kvyat."

 

Source: Autosport

 

Daniil who?

[Lingwo]

Paid driver?

[MightyJordan]

Paid driver?

 

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[KiHu]

Paid driver?

Doubt it, he has been in the Red Bull junior program, Probably overlooked since he is now going directly from GP3/F3 to F1.

 

Currently #2 in GP3, 7 points behind Facu Regalia, one racing weekend left for the GP3 and GP2 fellas.

 

and It looks like both those championships will be a nailbiter.