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Previously on TheJudge13:

The #TJ13 #F1 Courtroom Podcast: “The Counselling HAS Helped”

Voice of the #F1 Fans: Formula One Off-season Entertainment

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OTD Lite 1983 – Sutil born on this day with a penchant for bottles

Christian Horner, honest as ever: TJ13 exclusive

Trulli – At least Alonso will be paid well!

Mallya detained in India under court orders

Ferrari expanding simulation systems dramatically

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OTD Lite 1983 – Sutil born on this day with a penchant for bottles

Someone once asked me if I had ever been arrested for drunken behaviour. When the rest of the party had managed to pick themselves up off of the floor, the bemused questioner asked with a shocked “What?!”

Jackal here is too Grumpy to ever do anything interesting they said in a chorus. Last time he had a tipple he was associating with Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grumpy Old Men and even the ghost of Grumpy’s past couldn’t shake him…

This, of course, was a joke too far. There is many a drunken jape which – tallied in with Grand Prix weekends – may well appear in a feature someday soon. Any hoots, I digress.

On this day as the name suggests, a young boy was born who would go on to become a F1 driver and he would go on to be arrested due to an incident which happened in a Shanghai nightclub in 2011.

Adrian Sutil attacked Lotus owner Eric Lux with a broken champagne bottle and cut his neck. Charges were brought against him and he was found guilty and received an 18 month suspended prison sentence.

The Grumpy Jackal

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Christian Horner, honest as ever: TJ13 exclusive

As the F1 world anticipated Christian Horner’s first child in celebratory fashion during the autumn of 2013, the team principal of the Red Bull team was already having an affair with ex-spice girl Geri Halliwell.

Within weeks of his baby daughter Olivia being born, Christian left the family home to pursue his new relationship.

The information disseminated to workers in Milton Keynes was that Christian had been experiencing a torrid time at home with his partner Beverley’s son – from a previous marriage.

Horner’s adopted son was apparently behaving like a renegade, in particular using drugs, which Christian was concerned – should this become public knowledge – would compromise his position in Formula One.

Of course the timescales are neatly presented, however, the bottom line is Horner accepted the congratulations of the media and F1 colleagues and associates on the birth of his first child, whilst he was conducting a relationship with another women.

This is of course no crime, but merely adds to the already prevalent perception that Horner is ‘situationalist’ – an all things to all men kind of guy – but with self-interest at the core – to his approach in dealing with whatever kind of situation, in which he finds himself.

Halliwell, who began her adult life as an exotic dancer in clubs in Majorca is clearly delighted with the impending marriage between her and Horner following a string of failed relationships.

Geri is another example of the modern cult of celebrity and professional marketing as her solo career following her time with the Spice Girls has been a failure by musical and artistic critical and popular standards.

Apparently Christian has been working hard behind the scenes to deliver a financial settlement that ensures his ex-partner will not go public with the dirty details of the last two years goings on.

The Daily Mirror reports that, “Sources say he [Horner] hopes the agreement between the pair will help to convince his parents he has ‘done the right thing’ so they will accept Geri into the family”.

Despite this, one of Horner’s angry relatives has stated, “You can say that his parents are absolutely devastated. We won’t be going to the wedding.”

All this will not alter the opinions of Formula One fans, who have come to know Horner from his regular pronouncements – for who he really is.

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Trulli – At least Alonso will be paid well!

Jarno Trulli was regarded by many as the fastest qualifier in Formula One during his time in the sport. On countless occasions he would qualify his car in a position it should never have been in. Subsequently – in an era which hadn’t had DRS invented yet – we were left with afternoons were the cars behind him were christened the ‘Trulli train’.

A little cruel no doubt because this had been evidenced with other drivers at times and the man himself had an outstanding pedigree as karting champion and F3 champion in his first season of motor-racing.

He would only take one F1 victory after what many consider one of the greatest pole position laps at Monaco in 2004. It would prove to be Renault’s solitary victory that year.

When one considers that the other car was being pedalled by Fernando Alonso it says much about Trulli’s inherent speed.

Later that season, Flavio Briatore took it upon himself to undermine the Italian who left at the end of the season – after having shaded Fred early on. Ten years later as he prepared for this weekends Formula E race in Buenos Aires he shared some thoughts on Alonso’s move to Mclaren.

“After five years at Ferrari were driver and team expected title victory, it was inevitable that the end came. Now Alonso is at Mclaren and, unfortunately, it doesn’t look to be a better option for him than at Ferrari. At the moment there is nowhere better to be than in a Mercedes.”

“Formula One has suffered a dramatic decline in performance with only a few teams able to afford developing an engine and their cars. Budgets are very high and the economic situation is not helping. With so few options that’s the situation Fernando finds himself in. I don’t wish that for him, but it does not look good.”

“For now I think the only good thing is that Fernando is going to be paid well. But on the technical side, I do not see Mclaren being able to match the two or three best teams.”

“As for Ferrari, it’s been difficult. Changing people, making wrong decision and the rule change did not benefit them – they lag behind technically and until now politically. But they succeeded to open up the engine freeze but they need to turn the technical side around and you don’t do that in a day, not even a year, it takes a long time.”

Any member of the Tifosi will be praying that Jarno has got it wrong and that Sergio Marchionne’s vision will produce results in the same time-frame as he turned around the Fiat corporation. In other words in record time.

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Mallya detained in India under court orders

Vijay Mallya yesterday returned for the first time to his native India in almost a year. He had been summoned by the Indian Supreme Court on matters of tax fraud.

The prosecution argued Mallya should remain in the country and be forbidden any kind of foreign travel.

The court agreed and Mallya has been instructed to remain in the jurisdiction until the 4^th February whilst proper consideration is given to the matters in hand – which means Vijay will miss the first pre-season test in Jerez.

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Ferrari expanding simulation systems dramatically

Sergio Marchionne announced on his ascendancy to the Maranello Presidency that the team would have whatever was needed as they pushed to be back at the top of the sport and true to his word the investments are starting to flow.

Further to the story TJ13 carried earlier this week, more details have emerged of the collaboration between Ferrari and the Austrian company AVL – a world leader in the R&D and simulations of engines and chassis.

This association goes beyond merely the development of the pistons and combustion chambers and encompasses far more of the chassis development too. In the new Gestione Sportiva, Ferrari has invested around $40million to develop a dynamic bench with the AVL experts.

With the chances of in-season and extensive track testing becoming a part of history, Ferrari has finally accepted that they have to adopt different working practices and have installed a dynamic bench which allows the squad to run a complete car and collect data as if they were performing a track test.

The FIA rules demand certain parameters be observed with wind tunnel use and this system only uses an air flow system to provide cooling for the engine – thereby avoiding transgressing the rules for aerodynamic studies. It’s primary use is to collect data on each mechanical solution that the team decide to pursue.

Mattia Binotto, Ferrari’s engine guru has decided that the engine department has to test the solutions extensively before being applied to the race car. Each of the simulated tests have to ensure the development lasts for five Grand Prix distances – as would be required in the real world.

It is primarily for this reason that the 32 tokens will be used throughout the 2015 season rather than all at the start. All scheduled installations will be up and running by June and Maranello will have four of these dynamic benches installed so as to allow faster developments.

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