A Daily Round up of Formula One news, inside whispers, opinion and comment. Today,
Fat Hippo’s Rant Lite: The Old Elite and Virtual Media
Dr. Marko’s insider bet
Dr. Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s notorious mouth-piece has been running the Red Bull young driver’s program for many years and its alumni can be found in Formula 1, at Le Mans and in Formula E.
The most successful driver to graduate from the program is arguably four time world champion Sebastian Vettel and the good doctor does not seem to have lost the faith in his former protegé’s talent despite the spectacularly failed title-defence of the German. Before the Malaysian Grand Prix he bet on Sebastian Vettel to win and made a profit of 400 dollars on it.
During a recent interview in Germany he claimed that it wasn’t a lucky guess and blames Red Bulls RB10 for Vettel’s meagre showing, mainly the new-fangled brake-by-wire system. Marko is convinced that it works better in this year’s SF15-T than in Vettel’s last RB manufactured car.
“Our car simply didn’t suit him. It prevented him from using his unique little tricks that make him so fast,” the Austrian explains in reference to Vettel’s preference for stabilizing the car on corner entry using the brakes. “In this Ferrari he can use the full potential of his driving style again. But he had never forgotten how to drive. His results of this year prove it.”
While one can commend the good Doctor for finally admitting to a weakness of the team, even if only indirectly, it says a lot about the down-turn the team has taken since 2013, especially with the new RB11. Since Vettel was excluded from development when he activated his termination-clause last year, it casts some doubts on the development qualities of Danny Ricciardo, and the unexperienced Daniil Kvyat won’t be much help either.
Fat Hippo’s Rant Lite: The Old Elite and Virtual Media
“Every week Mr E seems to feed the media and his court jesters some new stories of ideas for the future of F1: three-wheelers, female Grands Prix (how sexist is that?), 1970s tyres, wet tee shirt grid girls, sprinkler systems in corners, reversed grids, meat-eating 1,000 engines, tintacks in Turn Three and blah-di-blah-di-blah. This gives the virtual F1 media the chance to fill space with worthless analysis of these smokescreens (“It looks like a cloud but perhaps there is something hidden behind it…”)”
This is an excerpt of a recent diatribe by Joe Saward and it shows that poor Joe is mortally frightened of the new media. It’s hardly the first go he’s had at people who don’t follow his footsteps of toeing the party line in fear of losing his pitpass.
The problem here is two-fold. If he were to ask the right questions, the answers would not be what the establishment likes and he could find that his precious ticket to the paddock could suddenly end up being invalid. On top of that Joe likes to plug his own magazine for money.
The same goes for autosport and other media, who want you to pay money for reading F1 news. How infuriating must it be for these people that a group of F1 fans, who run their own blog are sometimes beating them to the punch and completely for free on top of it.
Kimi to Ferrari, Martini as a title sponsor for Williams, the race fixing at Monza and the Camo-Bull in the winter tests are examples of stories that were part of our Daily News and Comments days, sometimes weeks, before the so-called ‘mainstream media’ – the Joe Sawards and Autosports even got the fax. Especially the Camo-Bull story had several main-stream media from Germany, Poland, Italy and France cite thejudge13.com as the source.
The result is, that we step on people’s toes. We threaten their business model because we have none. A group of people, who do the job for the love of the sport instead of trying to sell old news for three quid a week; that doesn’t compute in the world of people, who rely on being fed in the Mercedes motorhome in exchange for a sympathetic article.
Currently the TJ13 core team includes Brits, an Italian, a South African, a German, an American and with the addition of the delightful Vivian Bove – a lady from Honduras. Among these people we can monitor news in English, Afrikaans, Italian, German, Russian and Spanish. That’s a way bigger variety than any of the mainstream Journalists can keep track of. And it’s that versatility they fear.
This site isn’t about earning money. We worry about the state of the sport and we voice our grievances. And we don’t live in any delusion of exclusivity either. Anyone willing to put in the time is welcome to contribute. Here, a politically incorrect German can publish his rants, an Italian can confess his love for the Scuderia and in between we have the occasional exclusive story. And all that costs you little more than a click. No paywall will come up after twenty views and no magazine will be peddled in between. All of us do this in their spare time and purely for the love of the sport, although our own grumpy jackal found a rather strange way to put it in a recent podcast recording.
That is another side of our group. We can administer a good ribbing without resorting to nationalistic clichés. While a certain journalist resorted to cheap nationalistic populism (“Take that you beastly Germans”), our resident German met the crew in Blighty two weeks ago and I would go as far as saying that none of them perceived me as particularly beastly.
There is a saying in Germany: “Frightened dogs start to bark.”
Some dogs have barked quite loudly in recent weeks. The TJ13 philosophy works better than ever.
More delays for the VJM08
Since their team has failed to pilfer a share of Manor’s millions twice already, things at Force India are slowing down to a crawl and Checo Perez and Nico Hülkenberg will have to make do with the Frankenstein’ed VJM07.5 for a while longer.
The debut of the real VJM08 was first announced for Barcelona, then postponed to Monaco and is now expected to see the light at Austria as announced by Bob Fernley.
“Austria is a good place to do it because we’ve got a test after that so it is an opportunity to hone the car,” he says, but by the sound of things the faith in their own product is a wee bit lacking.
“I’m not saying it will take us ahead but hopefully it will put us back into the pack which is where we need to be.”
Although in defence of Mr. Fernley it should be said that if due to budget constraints your aerodynamic development amounts to a guy going out with a table fan and a pack of cigarettes, you can’t really expect a world-beater.
Nice rant hippo. Whilst reading it, a particular song came to mind…
Public Enemy…. ‘Fight the power’
It takes a nation of millions to hold TJ13 back!:-)
Punks jump up to get beat down 🙂
Agree with you completely, FH… The “Old Elites” fear sites like this and are getting more hysterical in their criticism. The sound of those barking dogs is just music to my ears…
Of the article that is being quoted, I’ve only read that excerpt above, but what’s being implied there is something that people have already tiptoed around in the comments section on here – the “worthless analysis of smokescreens” is pretty accurate in some ways. There are a lot of virtual column inches filled here with some fairly questionable analyses (the most recent one being, as someone pointed out yesterday, first analysis of how Ferrari have caught Mercedes, then Mercedes having badly developed their car [and the bizarre extrapolation that this also means they’re unable to pass cars if they find themselves in traffic…], then Mercedes having run their car underpowered in Malaysia, then Ferrari being at a point where they can challenge Mercedes for the rest of the season). I can see why FH may have taken that personally as to me, he’s one of the writers here who seems to go for the sensationalist angle time and time again. An example would be the Alonso crash where even after it had been repeatedly pointed out that there was no way “battery fumes” could have caused Alonso to pass out due to the structure of the car and their positioning, FH still mentioned that as being a possible cause both in the comments and in his “Rants” (just calling it a “Rant” doesn’t mean that fact-checking can fall by the wayside, nor should it be exempt from scrutiny). I agree that there was definitely some deception (either intentional or not) going on in the press releases after that accident, but that type of conjecture is always going to give people an easy out if they want to try and take a pop at TJ13. Yes, there have been some exclusives, but there have also been plenty of wild stories that haven’t really had much basis in truth, again mostly going down the sensationalist route.
The benefits of being an anonymous blog with what I would assume was a smaller readership than magazines/websites like Autosport is that if you want to concoct some fanciful conspiracy theories then you can do so with relatively little threat of litigation in any form. If you’re writing for a mainstream magazine, you can’t simply libel whoever you think may have done X, Y or Z because there’s much more of a chance that your subject will find out about it and want to do something about it. I’m not using that as an excuse for Autosport, BBC and so on to not publish any of their own scoops or go digging for other info, but I do think it’s more of a real concern for them to have definite sources and absolutely confirm things before they publish them. That might mean they’re a little late to the punch, but they’re probably not too bothered about that as they have a solid readership anyway who would use them as their primary source for news/info on F1. In fairness to them too, I’ve also read articles on there that haven’t even appeared on TJ13 as articles at any time.
As always, I’m grateful to the writers on here who take the time to make this site what it is, and apologies for the way that this might seem like a very much one-sided critique of what you do. There’s a lot of good on here, but the tendency to get incredibly defensive has in the past – and still seems to – make some matters worse.
Are you Joe Saward????
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
No, I’m just not one of the sycophants 😉
“In fairness to them too, I’ve also read articles on there that haven’t even appeared on TJ13 as articles at any time.”
As in any collaborative effort, the articles that appear on TJ13 are dependent on the free time available to its contributors. ALL our readers, including YOU, are kindly invited to join the effort and contribute stories that are now missing…
How sad you are Mr Hippo, you quote a respected journalist like Joe Saward who actually works and derives his daily income from reporting on Formula One. You say he is scared, sorry “mortally frightened”, of new media. The fact that you took your quote out of a “new media” publication that he works and writes for, plus its free to view for readers each Monday, is beyond me. Yes, I may be the editor of the publication but I try and read as much as I can, from as many sources as possible (including Judge13) so I can see what is being reported each week.
I try to look at all things openly and honestly and I am sorry Mr Hippo you are picking on the wrong guy! You seem to also forget he also publishes a regular (free) blog for fans too. Yes, he does sell a subscription to his personal F1 magazine that he publishes a few hours after each grand prix but why shouldn’t he charge for it. It costs a lot of money to fly to all the races and pay his excellent imaging and writing staff. Why shouldn’t they all earn an honest living from Formula One?
I have generally enjoyed your rants and ravings Mr Hippo but this one is way out of line, and I am sorry not on target at all! You should also look up “sarcasm” in the Oxford dictionary and see how it pertains to “Take that you beastly Germans”; Joe was not in the slightest having go at you and your countrymen. Quite the contrary he was actually supporting the general TJ13 line in matters such as this.
Pity you didn’t see the article for what it was, a tongue-in-cheek “go” at the establishment that he published as an editorial in his own name, At least he doesn’t hide behind a non deplume…
For those interested, a link to the article in full: http://digital.motorsportmonday.com//launch.aspx?eid=c212dc10-b5c2-40f3-b235-fcc056b05509
I picked on Mr. Saward specifically, because he is the one that most derogatory and insultingly writes about sites like this unprovoked and regularly; and that’s not even accounting for his frequent ad-hominem attack on the authors of comments, who dare disagree with his views to the point that it has become a a weird sort of “honour badge” to have been attacked by Joe. Apparently a fairly common occurrence.
The fact that his editor showed up here less than an hour after publishing proves my point quite nicely, thank you very much. Btw. Fat Hippo Rants are marked as such for a reason – just as a reminder for your ‘tongue-in-cheek’ claims over Joe’s article 🙂
There you go, stepping on people’s feet with you oversized mammal hooves.
When are you going to stop p!55ing people off? 😂😂😂😂
never, I hope.
Once again more biased crap from the Fat One. Joe often provides a side of F1 we don’t see elsewhere. O’h I forgot, he’s British so that speaks for itself
Oh goody, another nationalist who hasn’t got the fax that Brits and Germans have seized killing each other on sight seventy years ago. Seriously. Get a grip, man.
I don’t know how, maybe its a trait becommon to fat, angry, opinionated water-dwelling mammals, but the hippo has obviously missed Joe Sawards regular public criticisms of the sport, the regulator,the orchestrator,and the owner that he continually states he loves as a fan (similarities?…. hmmm)
Maybe if people here didn’t goad him into reaction, it wouldn’t be seen as a badge of honour
While this site is useful and has a lot to offer, if not without its shortcomings, so too the 30plus years of reporting, and independence that Jo has built should not be overlooked
Bad form hippo, “you beastly German” (sarcasm)
…not ” people here “… Editing error… Its 5am and I have insomnia, sorry
I’m not presenting my opinion as the only truth, so you are free to disagree. The problem I have with attitudes like Joe and Autosport is, that, yes the offer criticism as well and they expect the world to listen, but we’ve been doing the same and get blasted for it by them, because we aren’t “proper journalists”.
They haven’t accepted that one of the blessings of the internet is that now people can voice their opinion, who didn’t have the chance to at a time when publishing an article required to be an employee or a contractor of a newspaper.
I think Joe’s always more vocal towards GMM / Pitpass then towards TJ13, although he doesn’t like the judge ‘hiding behind a pseudonym’ – I read both sites. And even pitpass sometimes 😉
“Sites like this”, Joe writes about the cut and paste reports and trolls on the internet. I don’t recall him mentioning names. Did he say TJ13?
I’ve been reading Joe’s stuff since the 80’s. He’s had full press access to more
then 500 GP weekends, at times you can see him standing on the pre-race grid. He is, for a fact, an accredited F1 journalist.
I read one of your rude posts telling Buxton he didn’t know anything, the other day; today it is Saward. Who the fuck are you? An avatar and a user name.
“Did he say TJ13?”
Here’s how this spat is being reported on other forums:
http://honda-tech.com/road-racing-autocross-time-attack-19/official-formula-1-2015-season-thread-3232322/page213/#post50299611
“TJ13 vs Joe Saward part 593458340953804”
Clearly there is no love lost between TJ13 and CSJ… And there clearly is a history… 🙂
Gossip happens on forums not reporting. I don’t know what I was supposed to be looking for on your link. Bauley Civic’s cut and paste?
I enjoy this site, I wouldn’t bother to read it if I considered it a “bottom feeder”, but there are a lot of them out there. I have no idea who The Judge, landroni or the Fat Hippo etc. are and as a result I wouldn’t pay to read this site. If no one is getting paid and you’re doing this “for the love of the sport” it’s just a hobby. I hate the hobbyists getting in the road of me making money. I have been reading Saward’s stuff for decades and in my mind he has earned his stripes. He’s right that there is a glut of F1 regurgitation and gossip on the internet and if a site is offended by his comments then they likely need to take a look inward. The internet would be a much better tool if it came with an adjustable reality mirror, so people had to look at themselves while there bullshitting the web about who they are.
@McMaster
“The internet would be a much better tool if it came with an adjustable reality mirror, so people *had to look at themselves while there bullshitting* the web about who they are.”
So true. Would you kindly point this out to Joe Saward, Autosport, etc., etc., etc.?
You beat me to it: the number of “likes” for defensive comments pro “old media” would seem to show that said “old media” writers are reading this blog.
Oh the irony of it all…
“…you took your quote out of a “new media” publication…”
For mine, I think that definition of what constitutes “new media” has shifted a bit. The Saward blog / website is largely “old media” thinking & methodologies transferred to a more up-to-date platform. Opinion from on high. Sporadic / grumpy user engagement. Infrequent posts. Gravy train stories from status quo players. Joe’s Twitter feed may as well be machine-generated.
“New media” is certainly about platforms, but I think it’s more about attitudes around the use of those platforms. Interactive. Users as participants. Stories as they happen. More human / less corporate. Grass roots voices rather than corner office. Democratic content generation (variable quality, but you can’t have everything). Genuinely multi-platform. Trying new things (& not being too worried if it fails).
I’ll leave aside the issue of paying for stuff. “Value” is a very personal judgment. Personally, I pay for things that I consider are worth the damage requested. Free ain’t sustainable, imho.
Mind you, most of the world’s mainstream media organisations are in the same boat as Joe – I’m not having a go at him specifically. But MSM saying that they’re into “new media” is like my grandma getting around in a backwards flouro YOLO cap and saying “amazeballs” at every opportunity. Sorry – you’re doing it wrong and we’ve moved on anyway.
@RogerD: your comment is golden!
Good stuff Roger.
@Graham Harris
“At least he doesn’t hide behind a non deplume…”
For the record, it’s “nom de plume”.
Think I’m with you on this, and FH was wrong to single Joe out. we all know Joe can be a bit prickly at time to say the least, i’ve many a logical comment rebuked with a dismissive comment back from him. However most of his site is free. There are very few interesting or unique websites about f1, that don’t just churn out the same recycled news. I read three sites mainly, this one, Joes and James Allens, though i always feel James is writing with one arm tied behind his back. So for us F1 junkies out there, there are far too few F1 websites, so let’s not criticise to heavily the ones we do have, instead enjoy them for what they are, even if the author can be a little obstinate.
And in all fairness, I find FH and Joe are actually very similar characters with their sometime singular point view, and apparent disdain for anyone expresses an opinion contrary to their own. But I appreciate the effort they put in, for without either the world of F1 reporting would be a poorer place.
I find FH and Joe are actually very similar characters with their sometime singular point view, and apparent disdain for anyone expresses an opinion contrary to their own. But I appreciate the effort they put in, for without either the world of F1 reporting would be a poorer place.
COTD for me.
I agree with you. I visit F1Fanatic more than James Allen.
I think my main issue with Joe Saward is that his posts always have a slant of his personal opinion, but he claims he is impartial.
For example his general dis-like of anything that Vijay does.
At least on this site people aren’t claiming to be impartial!
I don’t get it. Which article are we reading? That started it all?
Nope, the commenter plugged one of his magazines
Joe Saward is perfectly entitled to earn money with his reporting from F1. However, he made a couple of crucial mistakes in the past, that damaged his credibility as a journalist. And since he likes to frequently bash “amateurs” and “imposters” with no access to the paddock, I think it is only fair to point them out. The biggest mistake he made was the coffee shop story in Bahrain. That just made him look like someone that could be bought. And if he wasn’t bought or coerced, than he is a terrible journalist that fell for one of oldest tricks in the propaganda toolbox. Another mistake is, that he regularly tries to present himself as someone who reports the truth no matter what and isn’t afraid of the powers that be, yet he frequently toes the party line, as for example in the case of the report on the Jules Bianchi accident. Anybody capapble of counting to two could see that this was a report designed to make a problem go away, and not a document that intended to clarify what happened. It’s perfectly ok to toe the party line, Joe’s livelyhood depends on his pitpass and so it’s understandable that he cannot risk to loose it, but the abrasiveness with which he derides others who don’t find themselves in the same conundrum and opinions that do not reflect the point of view published in his blog just make him look hypocritical. James Allen also toes the party line, but he doesn’t present himself as an investigative journalist. He has an interesting blog nonetheless and as an F1 you know that certain stories won’t be reported there for obvious reasons. James Allen engages his readers in a polite manner, and if he feels certain topics are better not touched upon, he doesn’t comment, instead of resorting to insults. And that’s a third mistake Joe makes. He can’t handle criticism. Yes his blog is for free, but it’s also a tool to promote himself and his magazine. Him publishing stories for free is not a purely selfless exercise for the benefit of the fans, so why act as if it was. But even if it was, if you put your opinion out there, others are perfectly entitled to disagree. That’s how debates work. Banning and insulting people, simply because their views differ from his just makes him look petulant and damages his credibility as a journalist.
Summed up far better than what I could hope to do. I used to read Joe’s blog every day… the emphasis being “used to” – but it became tiring watching him berate readers for simply not agreeing with him, even when it was bleeding obvious he was wrong,
At least you had the choice to leave on your own… some just get booted oot
hahaha i can lay claim to have been declared ‘persona non grata’ by saward. what i posted was in no way insulting or even controversial. i simply said that i didn’t agree with his rather myopic viewpoint on a particular issue and ‘whoooshka’ gone for good. he is so far up himself he has almost disappeared. yes, he has access to some good contacts but as usual he needs to keep reminding everyone of just how ‘professional’ he is and seems to forget that others are trying to make a living as well.
Everyone has contacts nowadays…
Completely agree, it was his broken record and unbalanced views that made me leave.
Which is a shame as, like people have said he has a great wealth of experience and good access to the grid!
@anijs
Over 9000 thumbs up for you!
In pre-computer, pre-blog times mainstream media outlets allowed designated writers to write uninhibited investigative journalism pieces and no-holds-barred commentaries. With the advent of blogging platforms, those days are gone.
Having access means toeing the line – period. The only differences lie in how that toeing is performed. Some writers prefer fawning, some prefer omission, other writers lie somewhere in between. Joe Saward is no different. He, like the people who cover F1 or any sport know the game. He knows what to say and what cannot be said —– if he want to maintain access – that prized possession to which too much of the public confuses with, authority, so-called insider knowledge, and most sadly, honesty.
That Saward maintains a “regular (free) blog” means nothing. That journalists often maintain blogs is part and parcel of today’s journalism game. They’re used to give the reader or viewer the illusion of intimacy, the illusion of “knowing” a journalist, the illusion of thought independent from the mainstream news media outlet to which the journalist is attached, and as a tool to provide additional – free – exposure for the media outlet.
I do agree that, if an independent news outlet website commits itself, through its reporting and commentary, to providing the public with serious alternative viewpoints to mainstream media, somewhere in the website given names should be known. Mainstream journalists don’t hide behind an aka – neither should independent journalists. On my former, independent sports websites, readers could find my name in the “About” section of the website. After awhile, I just used my given name; I wrote it, I should own it.
However, Graham Harris, you, like so many commenters, show your true colors when you stoop to acting as ad hoc editor, providing unsolicited editor corrections; grammar and spelling corrections are also tried-and-true attacks, all employed to demean the content and, therefore, the validity of the indy media journalist’s writings. This behavior won’t fly here.
joe saward is one of those journo’s who thinks that they are sacrosanct and he certainly doesn’t take either sarcasm or reasoned argument too well indeed. on one occasion i ‘dared’ to question his skewed logic and was simply banned. as he says, his blog his decision.
one other issue, you mention in the opening the ‘race fixing at monza’. i have a particular interest in this story…do you have an archive that i could access so that i could read?
many thanks and keep up the good work.
PS any chance you could publish the FIA alonso crash report which has been purposely hidden from the public?
It wasn’t a published article, but rather part of the podcast in the week after the race.
Here is the link…
http://thejudge13.com/2014/09/11/tj13-f1-courtroom-podcast-a-spike-up-your-arse/#comments
“on one occasion i ‘dared’ to question his skewed logic and was simply banned.”
Exactly. Whereas TJ13 as a matter of principle allows outright questioning of the officially presented POV. God knows I indulge myself in this…
‘race fixing at monza’
Not all of the courtroom was convinced by the TJ13 scoop and arguments. Check the articles from the week following Monza 2014, and the podcast (probably: http://thejudge13.com/2014/09/11/tj13-f1-courtroom-podcast-a-spike-up-your-arse/ ).
“any chance you could publish the FIA alonso crash report which has been purposely hidden from the public?”
For what it’s worth, TJ13 was amongst the cheerleaders for the alien intervention in Alonso’s crash… 🙂
I love the stories, commentary, FH rants, and other bits that I read here on TJ13. Keep up the good work everyone.
“race fixing at Monza”
Whoa! If Nico boy gave away a race win that he was gonna lose anyway because Lewis was fast approaching, that’s not race-fixing by a long shot. The evidence for race-fixing at Monza is still flimsy at best, and for the most part conjecture. There were a couple more races/quali where similar incidents happened, and same contriving reasoning could be applied, yet for some reason the conspirationists haven’t picked up:
http://thejudge13.com/2014/11/10/f1-race-review-rosberg-leads-mercedes-1-2/comment-page-1/#comment-106310
And your choice of vocabulary reeks of bias: “race fixing”. Teams reserve the right to manipulate results when their two cars are concerned, under the excuse of “team sport”. And “multi21” at Red Bull, Alonso/Massa at Ferrari, Monaco 2007 at McLaren, Raikkonen/Massa 2007 in Brazil (that one would even deserve the “championship fixing” monicker)… are all incidents that would deserve “race fixing” label by this reasoning, yet I fail to see the masses up in arms with torches and ready for a lynching…
You are right that is personal bias. I consider a team-order to maximise championship chances something different than employing it as punishment.
I took a rollicking from the judge for that one. After listening to the podcast after the race when “big piece of news was announced”. I questioned the legitimacy of the source.
What was it again?…. Oh, Someone within Mercedes had ordered Nico to give Lewis a win after the Spa incident…. A race that he was already on course to win easily had it not been for problems at the start.
And it was none other than JYS who questioned the outcome.
Dunno if this has been said before but the black background on the right of this page make it quite hard to read the script! 👀
Unless one turns ones iPad sideways that it!😜
Rumour has it that Nico Rosberg will have a new personal sponsor on his race overalls for this weekend in Shanghai and for the remaining races in 2015. After providing great exposure to his current supplier of female hygiene products, the supplier, Libra has decided to offer personal sponsorship to Nico for the remainder of the 2015 season. As part of this deal, many public appearances are scheduled where Nico will be subject to high temperatures, giving him the perfect environment to demonstrate the absorbability of his ingenious (in F1) solution to high perspiration.
“I’m extemely excited about this new deal and hope that Libra and myself can work together to further develop this kind of device so that it can be used in all types of racing throughout the world”, Rosberg stated.
How many F1 races did the members of “the TJ13 core team” follow IRL last season?
Most actually – the Judge himself. There are more ways than one to get into the paddock by legal means.
This is the reason for the pen handle. It’s not for the judge to hide behind, but to safeguard our sources within the teams. Those could be in trouble if their information appeared here with the Judges real name to them. And the judge comes from a job within F1, so we aren’t completely clueless amateurs to begin with.
I’ve been expecting this site to follow in the footsteps of Private Eye in offering insiders/journalists the opportunity to publish stories that they couldn’t under their real names. Somehow, I can’t see it happening now.
So? Constantin Cojocaru also comes from a job within F1.
I used to read Joe’s blog, but the complete disdain shown towards users who questioned his assumptions and views (and many were just that!) meant it wasn’t the place for me, Between he, who often threatened to pull the plug on his blog, and James Allen who was/is concerned about what drivers/teams thought of him to the point where he wouldn’t dare criticise certain drivers (mainly JB/LH) there was no decent resource for F1 fans. That’s no longer the case with the Judges site.
Anyhow moving on (back on topic!), I’d like to talk about peoples predictions for this weekend, specifically with regards to the fuel flow clarification. With that big long back straight it’s going to be interesting to see if any teams out and out grunt is impacted because of the changes! I must confess I’m somewhat concerned that Ferrari might drop back a little as their PU progress has been huge.
Predictions… I propose a Honda drinking game:
Take a shot each time a McHonda sitting duck gets overtaken on the HUGE main straight.
🙂
Because you’re mean they’re going to trick everyone, they’ll qualify only better than Manor, so at the end of the race you’ll be stone-sober!!!
Obviously landroni is referring to when they get lapped…. right? 🙂
In Sepang McLaren were playing a game of hide-and-seek with Force India, passing them in the twisty sections, and then getting shot while sitting on the straights.
Shanghai is a perfect setting for a rerun: awfully slow corners with awfully long straights… 🙂
Hamilton no 1, vettel and Kimi on the rest of the podium. 😉
“I reckon Vettel is fantastic as well. He (Hamilton) and Vettel I would put in the same breath”
How dare you, Sir (Stirling Moss)?!
Correct. Hamilton cannot dream about reaching the greatness of Vettel. 🙂
Let’s have a good season with two greats. OK?
If you switch the order of names in your sentence, then you’d be correct 😉
I was only having a bit of fun, it’s fantastic if Ferrari really do have a great car. It’ll be mesmerising seeing these two battling it out for the title. If only Alonso had a good car too.
Oh dear……
“Achievement medal awarded”
https://twitter.com/theJudge13Twts/status/585811509474910208
Grow up, “judge”.
I read this “rant”, and the following comments, with some interest due to my own experience gleaning F1 news and insight from whatever source I can find. I am an F1 fan of 50 years (yeah, no claim to fame, just passion), a “gentleman racer”, orthopaedic sports surgeon, and the owner of product from Woking. As an American, F1 info ranges from unobtainable to superficial and poorly informed. Thus, I bask in the change the interweb has brought to me, and others of my ilk.
F1 is entertainment. Rants from the hippo likewise. And TJ13 is a breath of badly needed fresh air. Saward is a pompous prick, very close to insufferable. His defensiveness stems from his own (unadmitted) knowledge he is a hack. Poorly educated, narrowly experienced in life, he has made a badge of his F1 attendance and longevity. His writing is poor, vocabulary likewise, and his coverage ranges from the factually obvious to opinion pieces that reek of lapdog obsequiousness to his F1 masters. He defends the indefensible on the simple grounds that “it is”, and his forays into future changes in the sport are often inane and logically deficient. And far from engaging his audience, he belittles them, an obvious manifestation of insecurity (which, imo is deserved and appropriate).
Yet, I know this from reading him. It’s a guilty habit. I no longer bother to comment, they’re not posted, though I have always been respectful and at pains to develop points with knowledge, logic, and my own reverence for the sport. At times it is impossible for me to sit back and read without challenging him.
Be that as it may, it is his prickly and curmudgeonly criticism of his competition that marks him to me. I don’t begrudge him charging for content, I subscribed for a year and found the product quaint, but not worth the cost. I find him perhaps to be the voice of the British common man, the blue collar scribe putting on continental airs all the while bitching about the travel and his struggles to maintain his attendance record. Please.
So, I write this in praise of TJ13, wats and all, and if Joe has attacked… all the better. Carry on my wayward sons.
Docjkm
I agree Joe is an exceptionally weak character, as demonstrated by his frequent attacks on others. Shame the Hippo also identifies himself as such.
You clearly know your… vocabulary… 🙂
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Why don’t we take the name calling and personal attacks offline or some where else. The beauty of this site is the reporting of “insider” news and analysis of team and races. Don’t stoop to the level of the haters.
Talk about personal attacks:
http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/f1-boss-ecclestone-were-sitting-and-waiting-formula-one-disappear
Pointing his ire directly at Wolff, Ecclestone charged, “Toto can have a lovely inscription on his gravestone that says ‘I helped to kill Formula One.’
…”I will try to intervene and convince the FIA,” said Ecclestone. “And if certain people complain, let them complain. I guarantee that we will win. After 50 years of work, I will not allow Formula One to be destroyed out of pure selfishness.”
“Pure selfishness.” Wow. Now them is cojones.
Bernie Ecclestone “I did not kill F1” whilst diving into his mountains of cash Scrooge McDuck style.
Does the greedy dwarf think that anyone, other than Pitpass, believes one word that he utters? He must know where a heck of a lot of bodies are buried, because outside of F1, he would have been removed from power many years ago.
What is it about sport that allows the likes of him, Mosley and Blatter to become so entrenched, they are all but impossible to remove?
http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/f1-boss-ecclestone-were-sitting-and-waiting-formula-one-disappear
The article is posted at Grand Prix Times too. The quote that really upsets me is this one: “Toto can have a lovely inscription on his gravestone that says ‘I helped to kill Formula One.’ Bernie should not make comments about inscriptions on people’s gravestones. That’s a serious matter. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and I love reading the different opinions/comments but there’s a line where quotes like that could/should be considered inappropriate and, in my opinion, Bernie saying that is completely inappropriate. There were other people involved in the switch to the current power units. Toto has many good ideas that can help make the sport more accessible to everyone and grow the fan base.
In my opinion, the steps that Bernie wants to take as far as power units are a step backwards that would cause manufacturers to leave Formula 1 because they couldn’t use Formula 1 as a testing ground for the new technology and that’s the only way that they could justify spending the money to participate in Formula 1.
”I will try to intervene and convince the FIA,” said Ecclestone. “And if certain people complain, let them complain. I guarantee that we will win. After 50 years of work, I will not allow Formula One to be destroyed out of pure selfishness.”
Selfishness is Bernie’s high fees, etc. are making it impossible for race tracks/promoters to hold grands prix at them. He should be doing everything that he can to work with them so that the grands prix can be held instead he and CVC are concerned with ROI. You can be concerned with ROI but make sure that the people concerned with the ROI are not doing things that will sabotage it’s growth potential and long term health. The European race tracks are the life blood of Formula 1 in addition to Formula 1 valley. Once he makes it impossible for the European race tracks to hold grands prix, he will have killed Formula 1. Bernie will have killed the sport that I grew up adoring and still adore.
As someone who has been honored by the “You’ve been blocked” Medal of Honor by “Sir” Joe Saward; I totally agree with the Hippo’s Rant. My claim to fame to earn this badge was pointing out the hypocrisy, double standards and “Nationalistic” leanings from the author himself and other elite folks in F1 Media. Apparently, such open speech and orthogonal viewpoints were too much for a “RESPECTED” journalist who has spent “YEARS” in F1 to handle and he had to resort to awarding me with a medal and banishing me from his site. HAHA.. Who cares .. Never bothered to visit it ever again. Since the incident, this is the only other time I have bothered to comment at any site. A regular reader here and appreciative of this forum; I have to support the HIPPO.
I don’t mind when the Fat Hippo lets rip on me, as it can be quite entertaining and I think the thing with sites like TJ13 is that they represent something Bernie does not want – giving fans a voice and thus power over the sport. He would I’m sure be happier with people paying to watch F1, buying the merchandise but never to question the show or how the sport is run.
F1 is at a crossroads, it is going to die in it’s current form once CVC has extracted everything it can from it. And as I’ve said before I’d not be surprised if Red Bull buys the commercial rights to F1 and revamps it entirely (which will likely send Joe and co into histrionics about a fizzy energy drinks company controlling the sport). You look at other sports and how they use the internet and F1 starts to look like a dinosaur saying “That’s no flaming space rock”.
The WWE’s experiment with it’s own internet based Network is an interesting one, yes it’s a fake sport blah blah but for the hardcore wrestling fan it’s good value for money, live PPV events (I laughed as Ronda Rousey chucked HHH around like a rag doll at Wrestlemania with the Rock looking on in surprise) and access to decades of Wrestling footage. Plus the WWE has used twitter fairly well, it’s part of the show and gives fans a voice during live events.
I’m betting Bernie would love to have the kind of power Vince McMahon has – Pre determined winners and losers.
Are you Joe Saward?????
😭😠😭😠😭😠😭😠😭😠😭😠😭😠😭
Sorry my comment went to the wrong place.
What I am a little confused about is what the difference is between a journalist who appears to be opinionated and biased and in the pockets of the establishment and a biased hypocritical factually challenged blogger who admits to bias for one driver/team over others?
A site called the judge that professes to be about exposing the truth yet admits that its editorial is biased, factually bankrupt most of the time (apart from the few spot on claims most of it is inane assumptions such as the constant Lewis Merc contract posts that just stab in the dark and are all over the place with only the clear anti Lewis bias providing consistancy)
I never heard of any judge happily confessing to be biased and politically incorrect, actually I did, but he was in Germany in the 40s and went by the name of Freisler
“biased hypocritical factually challenged blogger who *admits to bias* for one driver/team over others”
Hmm, setting aside the expletives, what exactly are you referring to?
Clearly someone who doesn’t read the site regularly and see our bias is towards all who are disingenuous and represent themselves to be something thy are not…
Maybe we have never criticised Marussia Manor – but I’m not sure.
Even Saint Ross copped it for putting his name to the disgraceful cover up that masqueraded as an FIA investigation and report into the Bianchi crash in Suzuka.
I am referring to Fat Hippos dribble, some might find it funny but it kinda defeats the purpose of the ‘Judge’ concept. And the hypocrisy is boring. I am sure you dont need me to cut and parts about self confessed bias, political incorrectness or hypocrisy.
I read something here someone was going on about not stooping to nationalistic stereotyping like another site one day, and the very next day, lo and behold, a perfect example of nationalistic stereotyping, something about the French Renault surrendering to a traffic warden or something (quite funny as it goes) but what courthouse has an usher happily claiming to be biased and hypocritical and then having a pop at any other site or journo out there that appears to be biased towards those that pay his way or provide steak dinners?
And the constant dribble about Hamiltons contract is beyond inanity, wtf is the big deal?
@Fat John
The big deal is Lewis claiming 2 weeks ago it is 99.6% done – then popping up and contradicting himself 2 weeks later.
It will be done after Abu Dhabi – said Toto Wolff – then he claimed before the start of the season…
Remind me of a top F1 driver contract negotiation that has been such a public show of incompetence or missed deadlines – even if the declared deadlines were ‘soft’.
Remind me of a team threatening their star driver with names other drivers as possible replacements unless he signs on the dotted line.
The big deal was this was inevitable and predicted here last year – top teams sign up their super stars with contract extensions long before the final year begins – Alonso and Vettel had several extensions in their tenure at Ferrari/Red Bull – some as many as 30 months before the current one was due to expire.
So either Mercedes don’t want Lewis, won’t pay him what he wants, are crap at looking after good people, or Lewis is playing games, hedging his bets – even possibly just fucking up the whole thing.
This has been an unprecedented sequence of way too many public announcements by both parties starting last autumn.
Oh and the Judge concept is that everyone gets a voice in the courtroom – to bring opinion and evidence – so long as they keep it relatively civil – this freedom includes your right to call someone’s writing drivel – Try making those kind of comments on other F1 sites and see what happens.
Both Merc and Lewis are new to this, Nico signed his extension with 6 months left. MS was messed around a little. Toto and co are not Ferrari or RBr. Therefore one comment on the incompetence and the unsual aspect should be enough.
But we have had sensationalist inanities variously claiming something concrete like Merc not wanting to extend, not happy, some disturbance in the relationship, the German Nico preferred, then we have had the Lewis wants too much (so what?), then we even had Lewis truly wants Ferrari because he bought an Enzo.
So these stabs in the dark to declare its not just a negotiation thats tricky because of the special circumstance – Lewis very marketeable, Merc best car, etc etc – who cares, its only news when its signed or its not.
So RBR and Ferrari were less conspicuous – different context – anyway who cares, either supply a valid story thats evolving and that explains the delays etc, or predict something and wait. The only thing this smacks off is the usual bias and click bait for those who get excited thinking Lewis is gonna uniquely screw up ‘again’
For example on one hand we read that Lewis screwed up by only agreeing to be the 3rd best paid driver (shock horror what a plonker), ignoring completely the fact he is in the car almost guaranteeing 2 more wdcs – Alosno would give up the 7 mill difference to be in a Merc instead of a Macca, and Seb had a signing on bonus – so over 3 years its not that better. But never mind, sensational click bait – Lewis has screwed up.
And then the next day the click bait is LEWIS IS BEING GREEDY BY HOLDING OUT FOR MORE MONEY
This stinks because it has to be seen in the context of the puerile Merc nobbled Nico after Spa stuff. When anyone with a brain knows that Nico beat Lewis once on merit (Austria) before Spa, and once since then (Brazil)
The Judge concept was great, its just not there anymore
@Fat John
“I am referring to Fat Hippos dribble, some might find it funny but it kinda defeats the purpose of the ‘Judge’ concept.”
I was suspecting as much. The “Fat Hippo’s Rant Lite” are just that: A rant from one particular individual who happens to get publishing space on TJ13. The voice of a fan, if you will. One among many others.
Usually these pieces come with an informative disclaimer:
“This news item is an opinionated comment by the author and does not necessarily represent the opinion of the TJ13 staff as a whole.”
Like here:
http://thejudge13.com/2015/03/23/f1-daily-news-and-comment-monday-23rd-march-2015/comment-page-1/#Kaltenborn
For some reason the editor forgot to insert it in the current piece…
Yes in theory that sounds ok, but my point is that this ‘voice of a fan’ has gained almost as much volume as the rest combined and is therefore increasingly implying the manifesto for the whole site
#F1 DAILY NEWS AND COMMENT: SUNDAY 5TH APRIL 2015
April 5, 2015 · by Fat Hippo · in Daily F1 News and Comment.
For example this editorial is the guts of the site, and when its associated with one fan ‘outside’ the ‘noble effort’ to present pure truth then its only a matter of time before its just another outlet with its own axe to grind or its own bias – either personal or corporate
And its infecting the whole site. Its like a courthouse that has a heckler in the public gallery providing some comic relief from the proceedings, but to actually allow him to come sit on the bench and be taken seriously is a cop out
http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/f1-boss-ecclestone-were-sitting-and-waiting-formula-one-disappear
The article is posted at Grand Prix Times too. The quote that really upsets me is this one: “Toto can have a lovely inscription on his gravestone that says ‘I helped to kill Formula One.’ Bernie should not make comments about inscriptions on people’s gravestones. That’s a serious matter. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and I love reading the different opinions/comments but there’s a line where quotes like that could/should be considered inappropriate and, in my opinion, Bernie saying that is completely inappropriate. There were other people involved in the switch to the current power units. Toto has many good ideas that can help make the sport more accessible to everyone and grow the fan base.
In my opinion, the steps that Bernie wants to take as far as power units are a step backwards that would cause manufacturers to leave Formula 1 because they couldn’t use Formula 1 as a testing ground for the new technology and that’s the only way that they could justify spending the money to participate in Formula 1.
”I will try to intervene and convince the FIA,” said Ecclestone. “And if certain people complain, let them complain. I guarantee that we will win. After 50 years of work, I will not allow Formula One to be destroyed out of pure selfishness.”
Selfishness is Bernie’s high fees, etc. are making it impossible for race tracks/promoters to hold grands prix at them. He should be doing everything that he can to work with them so that the grands prix can be held instead he and CVC are concerned with ROI. You can be concerned with ROI but make sure that the people concerned with the ROI are not doing things that will sabotage it’s growth potential and long term health. The European race tracks are the life blood of Formula 1 in addition to Formula 1 valley. Once he makes it impossible for the European race tracks to hold grands prix, he will have killed Formula 1. Bernie will have killed the sport that I grew up adoring and still adore.
Well, hasn’t this been entertaining?!
I started reading TJ13 last year and have continued because, more often than not, TJ13 gets “it” right, and frequently first. I’ve listened to the podcasts since number 1. At first they were a bit hard to take what with the blatant sexist jokes and all. But, guess what? The p-cast has grown in quality and comportment. It is quickly becoming the gold standard along with MotorSport’s infrequent p-casts.
As for who these guys are, sit down for an evening of elementary Internet sleuthing and you’ll quickly figure out who is who – except for The Judge.
As for Mr. Saward – there is a place for his historical take and expertise. Sadly, he comes across as a smug, patronizing, wanna-be intellectual. Listen to his ‘An Aside with Joe’ sessions over at Sidepodcast is you want to hear what I mean. No matter how I would like to listen for kernels of info he is simply to irritating to handle without long breaks.
Keep up the good work.
Well, thanks for the podcast shout out. We now livestream the recording on the judges Ustream channel and there is a live chat room if you are interested/available sometime come join the fun.
AS far as today’s topic, well, it’s interesting as I posit that what joe does and what we do are not mutually exclusive, yet I feel there is a great defensiveness from him as it’s his livelhood, whereas, in all honesty, the stakes are different for those that contribute to this site. Thus he feels threatened, and that leads to the current entertainment. But the fact of the matter is that this isn’t a zero sum game. Joe’s numbers depend on fans and the more fans, the better his numbers. If we bring new players to the game, he will benefit, but in truth, as with many things, the real issue is that with Uncle Bernie and CVC calling the shots the sport is shedding hardcore fans whilst also not replacing them with new ones. This is far less a threat to us than to the longtime established journos.
Being accredited is also a double edged sword as has been pointed out elsewhere, it comes with a set of rules that make it hard to always tell the truth.
I like to think that outside of the real scoops we get, one of our greatest strengths is that we can engage in the kind of meta analysis that is often impossible when you are a bit closer to the making of the news. Sort of a trees and forest kind of thing.