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Strawman Kimi (09:00)
Vettel beaten (09:00)
Button expects ‘hilarious test’ at Jerez (09:00)
Ferrari unveil their 2014 V6 engine
Strawman Kimi
Swiss tabloid Blick claims that after the 2012 season Kimi was set to become a strawman in a Sauber takeover. An unnamed group of investors was to take over the financially weak Sauber team and Kimi’s return to the squad that enabled his F1 debut was part of the deal. The plan fell through however as the investors planned to substitute the whole team management, which was met with understandable resistance from Peter Sauber and Monisha Kaltenborn.
Vettel beaten
Sebastian Vettel found himself in unfamiliar territory lately – he was beaten by someone else. While he was re-elected as the Driver of the Year at the Autosport Awards in early December, he was beaten to the honours of German Sportsman of the Year by overly manly discus thrower Robert Harting. The track & field athlete with a penchant for destructive victory celebrations relegated the F1 champion to runner-up for the second year in a row.
Learn to rip apart that Nomex, Seb. Beats the finger any day.
Button expects ‘hilarious test’ at Jerez
With the first track test of the 2014 cars just over a month away the teams are working flat-out, with the big teams giving their simulators a heavy workout. While Fernando Alonso tries the new (virtual) Ferrari at Maranello, Red Bull drains the energy grid of her Majesty’s Empire by running their simulator almost permanently. So many test drives are planned that a team of four drivers has been recruited to pilot the binary 2014 challenger. Sebastian Vettel is joined by Toro Rosso youngster Daniil Kvyat and test drivers Sebastian Buemi and Antonio Felix da Costa.
If Jenson Button’s latest statements, published by Autosport, are anything to go by, the simulator orgy is not only meant to test the car, but also a means for the drivers to learn how to drive it.
“Winter testing at Jerez is going to be hilarious,” Button says after trying out the car in the simulator. “It will be cold, the tyres aren’t going to work, the cars probably won’t work either and when you do get a lap it is probably going to feel weird because you are running higher gears – you get into eighth gear before you get to seventh gear now. It is a very different way of driving and you have to forget a lot you have learned over the years in terms of the driveability of a racing car, the engine, the power output of a racing car and the way you put the power down. It is so, so different.”
Wasn’t it Jenson advocating that the experienced F1 drivers would be the ones with an advantage in the 2014 cars?
What in fact was hilarious about the testing in Jerez this year, was the fact that Jenson Button on his first flying lap set a time that shook the paddock to their collective boots. “Incredible” was how Massa described it on more than one occasion.
McLaren were then to discover they had assembled part of the suspension system upside down and the rest of their miserable year is now history.
F1 Season of good cheer
Bernie’s Annual Christmas Card
It would be great to believe Mr. E each year spent time thinking about and sketching out his now famous annual greeting of peace and goodwill to all mankind. The reality is quite different – other than the odd signature.
This year we see Bernie and le presidente newly wed supposedly with a new Concorde agreement. Though as yet, the agreements are merely bilateral in nature.
None other than Il Padrino presides over the ceremony, which is apt following his recent comments over the Ferrari veto, and the fact that Il Padrino himself has a say in whom would replace Ecclestone.
The orchestra is being conducted by a person unknown and of course all the minions (team bosses etc) are cheering wildly their glorious leader(s) – who of course has made F1 what it is.
Dennis, Alonso and McLaren
The BBC today confirms a TJ13 story from some weeks ago relating to Ron Dennis seeking to increase his shareholding in the McLaren team. Further, TJ13 reported in September that McLaren were looking to sign Alonso, following off camera comments made ion the paddock by a think lipped Whitmarsh.
What the BBC don’t report, is the reason Whitmarsh failed to sign Fernando. In simple terms, his Ferrari exit and who paid what could not be agreed between the Spaniard and Maranello and McLaren were not prepared to foot the bill.
Having publicly suggested that Fernando “was under the watchful eye of team boss Stefano Dominicali” at an event during the week prior to the Japanese GP, Ferrari began to back track a couple of weeks later. Since then we seen Ferrari cooing over their Spanish driver, with the exception of Il Padrino’s faux pas – when he suggested Alonso had been an 8 out of 10 this year.
One of the difficulties in persuading Fernando to return to Woking was they way the relationship between him and Ron Dennis spectacularly imploded during the Hungarian GP 2007. Alonso had been pressing for preferential treatment and Dennis had refused this.
Fernando then threatened to reveal incriminating information to the FIA over the ‘spygate’ affair and from then on despite his apology, it appeared to some that Hamilton was being favoured at Alonso’s expense.
However, the BBC report when asked would he object to an Alonso McLaren reunion, Dennis states, “One has to recognise the first objective of any grand prix team is to win races. Whatever obstacles sit between a team wanting to win and winning, be it engineering, fiscal or human issues, you resolve them. You never say never.”
Martin Whitmarsh skipped receiving the Autosport’s life time achievement award at a ceremony earlier this month to attend the opening of Fernando’s exhibition in Madrid. It is believed he took a contract for Alonso to read over, as the Woking outfit are still keen to see the Spaniard return for the beginning of their new partnership with Honda in 2015.
A return of Ron Dennis to the pitwall could be problematic for Fernando as his reflection of his time at McLaren suggests. “I always said that there are no problems with anyone, it was just the philosophy of the team, especially one man in the team that is not there [anymore].”
Florida Racing Series
The Florida winter series, is a new Ferrari idea designed for drivers who want to prepare themselves the best way possible for the 2014 season. It’s not a competition, but merely training sessions for everything that goes on at a race weekend. Free practice, qualifying and the race itself, but there will be no winners or losers.
As the name suggests the 4 events will take place in Florida, where at the moment they have the ideal weather conditions for racing. The series is for professional and talented youngsters.
The first who have confirmed their participation are Lance Stroll, Antonio Fuoco (2013 Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS champion), Raffaele Marciello (2013 Formula Renault 3.5 champion) and Jules Bianchi, (all 4 are Ferrari Driver Academy drivers).
Jules Bianchi has commitments with Marrussia, but will take part in at least 1 of the 4 events, that are scheduled from 22 January to 19 February 2014.
The series are supported by the Ferrari Driver Academy, but it’s not a “Ferrari drivers only” event, it’s open to other drivers too, Swiss born Simona De Silvestro (Indycars) will be there, the winner of the Spanish F3 open series Ed Jones, Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS drivers Latifi, Van de Laar, Alex Bozak and Leonardo Chicks who hails from go karts.
McNish retires
2013 World Endurance Championship title winner Allan McNish has announced that he is to retire from the sport. Long time partner Tom Kristensen along with Loic Duval were also part of the winning Audi team which claimed the FIA title.
McNish, who has now won Le Mans 24 3 times together with three American Le Mans Series titles, said: “I’ve had fantastically successful time with Audi and feel it’s the right time to step back from Le Mans sports-prototype racing and to look at other opportunities.
As a racing driver it’s important to stop at the right time when I’m still fast and capable of doing the job and the timing feels right after winning Le Mans for a third time this year and claiming the World title.
This year especially was mega successful, teaming up with Loïc for the first time and obviously with long-time co-driver Tom. We’ve ticked all of the boxes and I ticked my personal ones too but now the time is right to hand over to the young guys.
I’ve won the championships and races I wanted to win and frankly there’s no better way to end my Audi sportscar race career than going out as a World Champion.
My fellow Scot and mentor Jackie Stewart knew when to get into things but also knew when to get out and he has taught me that lesson.”
Tipped as a future F1 driver, he tested with both McLAren and Benetton in the early 1990’s whilst also competing in F3000. When an F1 drive failed to materialise, McNish began a sportscar career with Porsche in 1996.
Two years later, he drove the revolutionary 911 GT1 to victory in the 1998 24 Hours of Lew Mans, partnered by Laurant Aiello and Stephane Ortelli.
McNish finally found an opening into Formula One in 2002, for the newly formed Toyota F1 team as a development driver. Given his link with Toyota through sportscars he was an obvious choice for this role, and after impressing in testing he was hired to race for the 2002 season.
The Toyota car was just not very good and McNish failed to score any points during the season, though a pit lane mistake during the Malaysian GP did cost him a result. Team mate Salo didn’t fair much better scoring a point in Australia and another in Brazil.
Both drivers were replaced for the following year by Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta. ITV commentator Martin Brundle made his feelings clear commenting, “replacing Salo and McNish with Panis and A.N. Other is not in my view a step forward”.
The majority of McNish sportscar success has been with Audi and today he paid tribute to the team, “Over the years I won three American Le Mans Series titles, four race wins at Sebring and at Petit Le Mans, scored two wins of my three Le Mans wins with Audi and have now won the World title.
My success is not just down to me but comes as a result of a huge effort by Audi Sport who gave me the tools and my co-drivers to do the job right.
There are some great new drivers coming through and they need an opportunity just like I did. I’m looking forward to being part of Audi Sport in the future to ensure that these young drivers have the same level of fun and success that I have enjoyed over the years”.
Uk F1 viewers may hope that SKY in 2014 re-capture the excellent presentation and analysis skills of McNish who was by the BBC’s Radio 5 live F1 for commentary. This could facilitate the repatriation of Johnny Herbert to the North Pole and Santa’s grotto where he and his red face belong.
Ferrari whispers
TJ13 is hearing today that Kimi’s race engineer at Ferrari will be Antonio Spagnolo, who was engaged as a chassis engineer for Fernando Alonso last season.
Pat Fry is set to take over from Steve Clarke in what many see as a demotion to the role of pit coordinator/head of race engineers. For God’s sake Il Padrino, just put him out of his misery and sack him!
James Allison will be the sole Technical Director for the team and Massimo Rivola, Scuderia Ferrari’s sporting director, is set to be called upon to attend to other duties.
The ‘sack season’ for presents is usually a ‘sacking season’ too in Maranello.
Mmm… and so far Fernando is behaving himself on twitter as Il Padrino has instructed.
Meanwhile, James Allison explains what he’s been up to for the past few months. “When I arrived in Maranello, work on the project had been on going for two years. I tried to immerse myself in its philosophy and adapt to the team as quickly as possible. Having said that, what you could call my active role in the design of the car involves working identifying the areas on which maybe we should push harder and concentrate more effort.”
This of course means if the 2014 F1 Ferrari is a dud, James cannot be blamed. He does though believe that there will be a change of emphasis on car development for next season.
“It’s true that the influence of the power unit on overall performance of the car will be much greater than in the recent past. From when, in 2007, the freeze on engine development took hold and performance levels converged, it’s clear that its influence on the pecking order got ever smaller, while aerodynamics grew in importance.
In the years leading up to that point, that wasn’t the case: I can well remember how important the engine was in terms of Ferrari’s successes in the first half of the Noughties. Now we will witness a re-balancing, although aerodynamics will still be a key factor”.
The big question is given this freedom in engine design, will Ferrari return to the top of the pile?
Allison also believes that Ferrari’s recent years of famine has been because Maranello failed to keep up with the technology required to be competitive. “It’s impossible to be competitive without having the right tools and adequate resources: now we can say we have moved on from being maybe the fourth or fifth team in terms of the tools we have, to once again being at the cutting edge and everything is in place to open up a new Ferrari era.”
So the solution to Ferrari’s woes was there for for all to see. Ban emails, get the Italians talking again an pop out and buy some new Snap-On spanners and screwdrivers – “simples”.
2014 F1 Pirelli’s
The 3 day tyre test in Bahrain is under way, however, don’t be expecting Pirelli to publish the times. Even the teams will not be certain which tyres are which because Pirelli has created scores of combinations of compounds they wish to test.
One thing is certain. the tyres will all have a kevlar construction. The steel belted rubber construction discussed tirelessly during the first half of the 2013 F1 season has been consigned to the past, probably for ever.
Ferrari unveil their 2014 V6 engine
We have seen and heard the powertrains from the competitors of the prancing horse, yet nothing but silence has emanated from Maranello yet.
Mercedes F1 Turbo V6 engine
However, a TJ13 source suggests today that Ferrari will unveil their new 2014 V6 Turbo F1 engine in 2 days time – on Thursday December 19th
Ferrari’s big reveal is intended to be a Christmas gift to all the tifosi and we believe the design brief Ferrari have followed is to build an engine on or close to the weight minimum of 145kg by using highly innovative materials.
Of course, the lighter the car/engine package, the more ballast options will be available for setting the car up for different circuits. There were recent moves by Red Bull to get the weight limit raised by 10kg, though this was rejected by the F1 commission.
This means Ferrari are rolling the dice. The more lightweight the engine and the more innovative the materials will have the effect of moving the engine up the unreliability ladder. Will this give the Mercedes and Renault engine designers sleepless nights over Christmas?
Further, Pat Fry has been demoted to pit lane co-ordinator/trackside op’s and James Allison will assume control for all technical areas of the Scuderia. Andrea Stella will remain alongside Fernando Alonso and the Spaniard’s ex-chassis mechanic – Antonio Spagnolo – will become Kimi Raikkonen’s race engineer.
F1 TV figures plummet
The Grand Prix of the America’s delivered the lowest UK TV viewing figures for any race since the Bahrain GP of 2007. Around 2.5m people bothered to watch the race live or on the BBC highlights.
BBC One screened their edited recording from 22:25 and averaged just 1.71m viewers, whilst the newly shortened SKY ‘race show’ delivered and average of 761,000 down 55,000 on 2012.
The season finale, historically a favourite with many fans, was equally as devastating for the UK broadcasters. BBC One broadcast a live race show and attracted an average of 3.45m whilst Sky Sports F1′s live coverage averaged just 499,000.
The combined average of 3.95m was the lowest since at least the 2005 race, as data has been collected in the present format since 2006.
Double points for the last 4 races? If the European audiences suffered similarly – it’s not hard to work out who is calling the shots.
Ok, i’m a fool, but can some please explain, Buttons comment about using 8th gear before 7, i’ve tried and i stll cant see a reason for it.
Because the engines have so much torque and a lower rev limit, the drivers will be shifting up far earlier.
Hi
I get the shift up earlier, but why come back down a gear?
Hang on think i’ve got it;
Got 8th early to get the power down, then back to 7 once you can access all the hp?
Jenson’s comment was comparing the 2013 gearbox and drivetrain versus the 2014 gearbox and drivetrain.
In the 2013 car, when Button accelerates down a particular straight, he might hypothetically grab 7th gear after accelerating ~400 meters from the prior turn in the 2013 car. Now, in the 2014 car, because there is more torque, and the torque curve is wider, and begins at lower rpms, it’s quicker to grab top gear (8th) at a lower rpm, and before the 400 meter mark on that same straight.
Next years gear boxes will have 8 gears and the gear mappings cannot be changed all year, which means on tracks like Monaco they will never even use 8th, while at Monza many cars will run into the limiter as a too long gear ratio would be disadvantegous everywhere but at Spa and Monza.
Also the engines are expected to spin the wheel up to 4th gear, so there’ll be a lot of short-shifting going on.
Thanks, once again, Danilo for reminding me why I love this site. My friends, foolishly, think that I know a lot about F1 – not compared to the contributors and commentators on TJ13! I learn something new with every visit. TJ13 was, for me, the best thing about F1 2013. Looking forward to 2014.
I have to say that I think that is quite a good compromise to save costs on gearboxes. 8 gears, geared from low 1st at Monaco, to high 8th in Spa/Monza. Getting the best combination for the season will be quite something. Could a small team opt for better performance in one area? Force India were rapid on top speed/low drag tracks in 2009, and it almost netted them a win apart from Kimi with KERS. Could 8th gear also be used as a coasting/fuel save gear? Or is it only 7 gears in use per track?
Wheelspin up to 4th reminds me of a similar situation in 1966/67 and the similar wheelspin that the ‘return to power’ 3 litre, 400hp+ DFV wielding, all race long and possibly multi-race tyres and lack of aerodynamic downforce (in fact slight lift at speed!) cars brought into the mix!
I think he means if you apply full throttle and go up the gear box you would be in 8th in a quicker time than you would have hit 7th with the old gearbox
EG.
2013 car 1st-7th in 20seconds
2014 car 1st-8th in 15seconds
Please not that I made up the 20secs and 15secs just to demonstrate my point.
The way Button explains it, Jerez testing might be more entertaining than some of this year’s GPs..! Hope Sky televise the test as (I think) they did last year. Gonna be fascinating to see how the pecking order shakes out – I’m really looking forward to it.
They even did it in 3d last year
By the sounds of it, drivers will be making schoolboy errors while they relearn how to drive the car to suit the new engines. Should make the tests interesting and the first couple of races fun. I guess some drivers may have a tougher time adapting to the new style than others.
Ouch, is Wolff taking a dig at Brawn here?
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111885
Are you being serious or unnecessarily sensitive?
All I see is Wolff making an honest assessment of how they didn’t get things right and in hindsight they over corrected.
The reference to Redbull shows exactly how they got it wrong. Last year, Mercedes couldn’t handle the tyres late in the season. They absolutely couldn’t learn anything about them. Hence when the Pirelli made the change back to the 2012 specification this 2013, Mercedes couldn’t react quickly, as they never had a grasp of that specification. And it would have been an inspired move to take the car back to the Melbourne specification and work to develop on from there, something they neither had the time nor the resources for.
I think I had a question mark at the end of my sentence and so I wanted to see what people think. You obviously think he was being strictly factual. From my perspective, when everyone talks about next year, can’t see the point of keep talking about last year. All the tyre talk has been numerous times. And why didn’t he say it earlier and waited until Brawn goes?
Look, you’re probably right, but until we start going racing again, ‘oversensitive’ posts make the F1 talk going, don’t spoil it 🙂
More hysteria please!!
One things for sure, Toto will not be as silver toungued as Ross when the poop hits the fan. Which it will at some point.
A good question… one could review Brawn’s prior comments to see if he saw a different narrative for the development and performance of their 2013 car.
What is more interesting is that Wolff is commenting (again) on technical matters. His job title is “Executive Director (Business)”. Paddy Lowe’s job title is “Executive Director (Technical)”.
The business exec director is providing technical analysis. Should we expect to concurrently see Paddy Lowe providing analysis of the team’s business performance?
hehehe…
Re- Berni’s Christmas picture
On the right is the main drivers, Lewis, Kimi, Alsonso, Mass, Van da Garde and Biachie to name a few, on mixed in with the teak bosses is a odd face, on the far left it looks like old Flav making an appearance.
Excellent cartoon
I think that’s supposed to be Indian dude from FI. Start’s out with Brawn down low, Horner, Boullier, Malliya, Whitmarsh(?), Dominicali(?), Doc Marko, Peter Sauber, Franz Tost, Monish Kaltenborn and Frank Williams. That’s my guess from bottom to top.
Hehe I thought it was meant to be Keke Rosberg at first. Mallya it is. 14 drivers – were there more cut out? Or is it Bernie’s favourite 14? There are two pointing hands at the forefront.. or are they just the litigators! Cut out of the picture!
I guess Flav and Veejay could look similar in cartoon world LOL
Are those bits of paper flying writs ?
They’re Concorde agreements
Completely off-topic, but I wanted to share this retro liveries on 2013 cars with you guys. 1969 Lotus and 1974 Tyrrell look brilliant to me! http://www.designboom.com/design/classic-liveries-imagined-on-2013-formula-1-racecars-12-17-2013/
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Have to say though, the McLaren cars look the best, but I’m biased obviously.
I have to agree that the McLaren livery is sooooooo iconic that should never have changed it. Hope they have an overhaul of the Merc silver when Honda join the party. I don’t think silver is the best colour for an F1 car anyway. Especially the McLaren silver as its very sort of chrome like where as the Mercedes team silver is more grey and less glossy, I personally like neither!
I always thought the silver livery was the modern one for McLaren, while the Red & White was the classic (and Orange the historical one from GPL), as I have watched since late 96 and can’t remember McLaren from that year (as they were not at the front, heh). So I can understand why they don’t change it, as it has now become synonymous with their current team. But if it’s an ode to Mercedes, perhaps we will indeed see it change in 2015 when Honda come in. A return of the Honda/Japanese White historical racing colour? I do have to say that the black McLaren looked very appealing (in one of the usual mock-up type list of liveries).
here’s direct link to higher-res (i think?) version of that lovely Macca cigarette pack!
http://i.imgur.com/0v5cJ0b.jpg
hmm, i think this is an even more complete gallery w/ many more liveries?
http://www.trf1.net/ozel-icerik/sizin-koseniz/35484-modern-aracta-81-klasik-tasarim.html#.UrD_g9LheHM
Includes:
1969 Lotus
1975 Brabham
1975 Shadow
1975 Shadow
1977 Wolf
1979 Arrows
1979 Brabham
1980 Lotus
1980 Tyrrell
1980 Williams
1982 Ferrari
1982 Renault
1984 Toleman
1985 Alfa Romeo
1986 Benetton
1986 Brabham
1986 Lotus
1986 Tyrrell
1987 Lotus
1988 Williams
1990 Benetton
1990 Ferrari
1990 Tyrrell
1991 Brabham
1991 Honda (Yarışmadı)
1991 March
1991 Tyrrell
1992 Mclaren
1992 Tyrrell
1993 Benetton
1993 Ferrari
1993 Footwork
1993 Ligier
1993 Williams
1994 Arrows
1994 Benetton
1994 Pacific
1994 Sauber
1995 Arrows
1995 Benetton
1995 Forti
1995 Jordan
1995 Jordan – 2
1995 Minardi
1995 Pacific
1995 Sauber
1995 Simtek
1996 Benetton
1996 Ferrari
1996 Jordan
1996 Williams
1997 Arrows
1997 Benetton
1997 Jordan
1997 Lola
1997 Mclaren (Test)
1997 Mclaren
1997 Prost
1997 Stewart
1997 Williams
1998 Benetton
1998 Jordan
1998 Prost
1998 Sauber
1998 Tyrrell
1998 Williams
1999 Arrows
1999 BAR
1999 Williams
2000 Arrows
2000 Jaguar
2000 Jordan
2000 Minardi
2000 Sauber
2000 Williams
2001 Benetton
2001 Jordan
2001 Williams
2002 Renault
2004 BAR
2009 Williams (Test)
OK…REALLY SORRY to comment-bomb this sub-thread, but I finally found the original source for these liveries, and there are 81 of them!!
“Camille De Bastiani, a gifted photo manipulator came up with this stunning collection of modern F1 cars imagined with historic liveries. And we couldn’t be more happy to discover how the shark nose Jordan or the JSP Lotus look if they were 2013 cars.”
You can browse the full collection of 81 classic liveries here:
http://cdebdesign.blogspot.co.uk/
RE Florida racing – any Americans in that driver list or possibly taking part?
Don’t know, but it’s good to see Simona taking part. She’s been racing in America so thus far she’s the closest thing we’ve got. She also had some good finishes (including a podium) on some of the road courses at the end of the Indy Car season.
Judge, without knowing the details of fry’s employment, it’s very hard to fire an employee in Italy… So perhaps LdM is waiting for him to jump before he is pushed.
Re- Ferrari engine
I was lead to believe the engine/power train had to be of a minimum wieght and certain parts had their construction materials pre-specified so as to help control costs a little.
Only if the other engine suppliers produce a power plant that is over weight will Ferrari benefit from a lighter unit and more moveable ballast.
Please correct me if I’m wrong guys.
What Ferrari is doing with engine makes sense: you are allowed to add reliability later, but not performance, so might as well start with max potential.
Yes but, don’t the engine etc have to weigh like 140kg (i think, but weight defo in regs) and no less, plus some parts have the materials they are to be made from specified in the regs. Hence don’t really understand how a light engine can help as they have a minimum weight, I know some of the engine suppliers are concerned about weight but you can’t go under the specified weght so unless the others make engines over weight, Ferrari have no advantage and I can’t really see the other engines being much more than minimum weight anyway. I just don’t see what advantage its gonna give em if all engines must weigh no less than Xkg (i think it’s 140kg)
Exactly. Materials for the engine are explicitly specified, so what sort of ‘innovative’ materials is Ferrari using? The crankshaft and camshaft materials are controlled, the alloys for the block are controlled, the valve material is controlled, etc. etc. etc. The center of gravity is specified, minimum weight is specified …….everything is so controlled so I can’t imagine what this secret ‘material’ is. Please explain.
unobtanium.
now stop being such a spoilsport, Steve!
lol…
I’d guess that a benefit of a light engine is that they can put the extra material they need to get up to the minimum where it most benefits performance.
Not being an expert of IC engines, all I can think of would be a bigger flywheel (assuming they have one…) and putting a big lump at the bottom of the engine to get the CoG as low as possible.
It may be also that they are thinking long-term here. The FIA won’t let one supplier forge ahead or another drop behind, they will allow some sort of equalisation long-term so if there are any problems from this solution they will be allowed to sort them out. Might not be so good for 2014 though!
It’s hard to see Vettel beating Harting in Germany… the guy is a clean big medal winner of the Discus, and also (I could be wrong) I think a ‘manly man’ goes down well in conservative Germany (where there are a lot of hausfrau, for example.. Danilo correct me if needed!), whereas Vettel is a cutesy-geek of the po-mo hipster type (I’m also inevitably lumped in with that too, as is anyone probably under 25.. although it seems to be most vigorous in those mainly 20 and under at current). I think his victory celebrations are great – he does an ‘incredible hulk’ and rips off his vest, and has been known to go and hurdle the hurdles being put up for a hurdle race! He’s not only a big guy, but very athletic and flexible as well to hurdle so well!
HA! THIS!!! —–> “Uk F1 viewers may hope that SKY in 2014 re-capture the excellent presentation and analysis skills of McNish who was by the BBC’s Radio 5 live F1 for commentary. This could facilitate the repatriation of Johnny Herbert to the North Pole and Santa’s grotto where he and his red face belong.”