After battling with F1 and global finance until gone midnight on “Ecclestone to load a mountain of debt on F1“, then the day so far has been spent with lawyers – so we’ll start with a News Links post and see if I’ve got enough time and energy for an in depth article later. (Anything in wite on this page is a URL link to the original or pic or video).

Quick thanks to someone on German site MotorsportTotal.com who posted a link to thejudge13 and we’ve had over 50 new German visitors today from their site. Great work.

1. Last week I did a couple of articles on Niki Lauda, suggesting there may be fireworks at Merceds F1 now he’s the big boss (a position he couldn’t help refering to on TV at the weekend I noticed). Niki’s inability to “suffer fools gladly” is legendary. So today, our favourite German publication Bilde has the following, “Schumi’s car builders are fired”. (I always put the link to prove the source, but be careful with any translation software – particularly verb tenses). Anyway Christian Danner RTL expert pundit and ex F1 driver of note (I’ll come back to this) says today that Niki Lauda needs to fire the designers of this years car. He suggests that after 9 months the car is performing like a Torro Rosso and heads must roll. He urges Niki the hatchetman on, “He is responsible to make the next decision. And the next decisions will be primarily personnel decisions”. RTL commentator Danner, a little bit like Mr. J Herbert for SKY, drove in Formula 1 over 4 years. 2 of those he was not classified with any points and had a career best P4 in USA 1989 when he also had his best season scoring a total of 4 points. WATCH OUT ROSS 🙁
2. Talking of tabloids, The Sun newspaper in the UK is gung ho with its post race review headline (late Monday night???). They have an in depth F1 team reporting regularly on all matters F1. In case you can’t see the link, the report Button calling for Grosjean to sort himself out. Headline, “Button: Get sorted Seb” – the article begins, “Jenson Button blasted accident prone Sebastian Grosjean…“
3. Kobayashi breaks a record – Auto Motor un Sport, in its slightly more reflective manner tells us Kobayashi was the 202nd driver to stand on an F1 podium. He was previously the driver with the most F1 points not to have done so.
4. Massa is set to get a new contract from Ferrari again as Alonso’s No.2 for next year  – announcement over the coming weekend. (Auto Motor un Sport). I have to say, if there was a chance of driving for Sauber and I was Massa I’d be off – stuff the number 2 status in a car that has been a dog and for a team with no wind tunnel to develop next years car. Maybe Peter thinks he has better options than Felipe?
5. I believe McLaren’s animated series of short stories abouit Jenson, Lewis and Q -Tooned will be a bit ‘racey’ this weekend – they won’t tell me anymore and I’ve not seen it.
6. Not sure why someone at Williams would leak this to me, but heh ho an invoice to PDVSA for 2012 sponsorship . £29m!!! ($47m) I read Williams accounts a couple of months ago and they’re cash position was £25m better this year than last, but there was a note there saying Bernie had given them £25m for signing uip early to the new Concorde agreement. No wonder Maldonado is swaggering with Chavez re-elected and his state funding safe.
7. Romain Grosjean, much discussed following Suzuka. French publication RMC Sport tells us whilst Boulier is frustrated, he remains behind Romain. He points out the young Schumacher had a lot of prangs and the team have an option to retain his services that expires on Monday next. Total his personal sponsor are fully behind him too. I see Jackie Stewart is pestering again to help Grosjean, what he doesn’t know is that renown mind guru from the world of Judo, Campargue Benedict has joined Romain to assist him in anyway he can. Does this mean he’s actually training Romain in the art of Judo in preparation for the next time a wide eyed Webber attacks him in the Lotus drivers rest room?
8. I tweeted this link yesterday – but for those of you not participating in twitterdom – this should put a smile on Romain’s face – mother of all pile ups
9. I love scanning the world’s press for F1 stories. The bias by national newspapers and publications for their own team/driver is regularly evident. www.as.com – a Spanish publication and obviously a staunch Alonso supporter – is running a conspiracy story suggesting Kimi was recruited by Red Bull to deliberately take out Alonso in Japan. They suggest it is a similar situation to that of Nelson Piquet Jnr being instructed to crash in Singapore 2008 . They also cite Senna on Prost Japan 1989 and Schumacher stopping his car in qualifying in Monaco to prevent Alonso getting pole. Best of all is the suggestion that Red Bull used Mark Webber as a decoy to con Ferrari in Abu Dhabi 2010 (last race) and then enlisted the services of Petrov and Renault to keep Fernando back far enough in the field to prevent him winning the Championship. Petrov can barely control his own car never mind the Ferrari behind him. Maybe a little too much Sangria from the Spanish writer – or maybe mushrooms.
10. MotorsportTotal.com have a strange story about engine manufacturers. They are assuming both PURE and Cosworth will not make the new 2014 engines. Apparently Renault has said it will not provide any more teams with engines as it has 3 customers already. So Marussia and HRT needn’t bother knowcking on the door of the Renault Chateau huh? The reason given by Jean-Francois Caubet, Managing Director of Renault Sport is that – (paraphrased) these 2 teams are rubbish and its bad for Renault’s image. He tells Ferrari and Mercedes they need to do their fair share and supply 4 teams like Renault does now. This Gallic thinking is seriously flawed, because one would imagine the research and development costs are so high, building a few extra units for a couple more teams would share the cost around better for everyone. Maybe Jean-Francois has been drinking with the writer from http://www.as.com – anyway this is a non-story because I heard over the weekend both Cosworth and PURE have done much of the drawing board work and its now all about funds (which of course is not a done deal I know).
11. Sad news today as Lola cars the British racing car manufacturer established in 1958 ceased trading today. The went into administration (bankruptcy protection) in the summer owing over $32m – but no buyer has been found.
12. Ferrari must be in trouble, Stefano is using the “faith” word when describing what they need to do between now and the end of the season. (YouTube video). I agree with him though-  it requires a leap of faith to see Fernando being the WDC title winner 2012 at present.
13. As I mentioned yesterday, like Lewis, people often check their twitter followers to see if their twitterdom fame is rising or falling. Yesterday I spotted a new follower of the @judge13 – Sue H @sue113. Beside sharing in common the number 13 in our names she caught my eye because – NO NOT HER PROFILE PIC – but her profile which says she is, “DEFINED by interests – F1 and all motor racing, bird watching and all motor racing, gardening and…F1”.                Is she the perfect woman or what?              …..gardening….I love it.
     

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