Today has been very busy in TJ13 courtroom – so here’s the best of the news. it will be updated throughout the day.

Ecclestone the reason for Mercedes success

Bernie would like us to believe he has his fingers everywhere in F1 – metaphorically speaking of course – and now should the silver arrows morph from the sloth like creature they have resembled onto a winning streak they apparently have Mr. E to thank for it.

“I told Mercedes, ‘If you get Lewis, you’ll get all the right kind of people for the future’,” Ecclestone said to Bild. “They’ll now get people who believe they are working on a winning team”.

Vettel’s car

Sebastian Vettel has an annual ritual of naming his car and the RB9 on his side of the garage will be no different. She has been dubbed, Hungry Heidi.

Previous names have included Julie ’08, Kate ’09, Luscious Liz ’10, Kinky Kylie ’11. Last year’s girl was simply ‘Abby’ but she was run close by another suggestion.

Red Bull Racing‘s website quoted Seb as follows. “We thought of ‘Everybody’s Wife’,” he grinned after revealing the identity of the successor to last year’s Kinky Kylie. “But we binned it because questions come…”

Now who said the lad has no sense of humour.

Battle commences: Horse vs. Bull

Nikolaos Tombias, Ferrari’s designer of the F138 has kicked off the 2013 war of words. In an interview with Italian publication Autosprint his rhetoric ranges from contrite monasterial like confessions to deadly throat slitting assassinations of an Opus Dei fanatical religious operative. Nikolaos begins by comparing the 2012 season with now.

“Compared to a year ago, it is clear that we are much better… and it was clear that this would not be difficult because we were ​​really bad. 

Towards the end of last season we realise for various reasons that our rate of development had slowed down. So while our opponents, especially after the August break, continued to develop their cars, we fell behind. This was evident as the gap to McLaren and Red Bull before the summer break was 2-3 tenths of a second and this increased to 7-8 tenths. This is why we finished the season pretty badly.”

Whoever asked the next question appeared to light the fuse – big style – as Nikolaos was prompted to respond to the enquiry, “Are Red Bull the example to follow?”. He begins calmly, “Everyone likes to be treated well, to be praised. The goal is to combine this with the victories”. 

We have failed to do this in recent years but then I think we are organised in a very different way to Red Bull. We do not have a person who does everything, who pretends to know everything, while all around him are just slaves. We have a strong team with a depth of experience and yes we have reviewed many things because we were not winning.

From the technical point of view I think it’s hard not to feel admiration for Adrian Newey. From the human point of view, I know other people who feel differently.”

Alonso’s last year?

Gerhard Burger speaking to Tiroler Tageszeitung newspaper says that unless Ferrari deliver Fernando a competitive car this year his motivation to drive for them may run dry.

It appears that others have been questioning the Spaniards ‘exile’ over the winter speculating that he has ‘been in hiding’. Il Padrino rebuts this in La Gazzatta, “I don’t see it that way. But I understand his fears in the first test, when he didn’t want to talk because he wanted to understand the potential of the F138.

I hear from him almost every day. He is calm and confident,” he added.

Flavio, Alonso’s manager said of his driver, “He first wants to race, to really see where the (2013) Ferrari is. That’s why from the outside he may appear tense, apprehensive.

He is pleased with the outcome of the tests but as always you don’t know where the others are exactly. Fernando is hoping that the gap to Red Bull has reduced. If he can start on par with the others, he will surely win the World Championship.”

New Pope

After a relatively short enclave in historical context, white smoke was seen curling slowly into the evening air within the Vatican City.

The big debate over reformist of traditionalist has been decided and the Italian cardinals appear to have won the day.