Williams unveil FW35, Barcelona Pre-season test 1: Teams roundup

Barcelona Day 1 Testing Times
2012 2013
1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes
01:23.265 01:22.616
2 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 2. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault
01:23.440 01:22.623
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
01:23.590 01:22.952
4 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
01:23.618 01:22.965
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 5. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault
01:24.100 01:23.733
6 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 6. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari
01:24.150 01:23.884
7 Sergio Perez Sauber 7. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes
01:24.219 01:24.124
8 Bruno Senna Williams 8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes
01:25.755 01:24.144
9 Romain Grosjean Lotus 9. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari
01:26.809 01:25.124
10 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 10. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth
01:27.537 01:26.747
11 Charles Pic Marussia 11. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault
01:29.248 01:27.534

Williams FW35 launch

The last team to launch their 2013 car today unveiled the FW35. Noticeable was the apparent lack of sponsors on the car, but Williams have been here before and we’ll have to wait and see what is in the pipeline on this front.

There are 2 obvious features on the car that attract attention. here is a shot of the controversial exhaust guiding vane underneath the fish like ‘gills’ that features both on the Williams and the Caterham.

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Sutil returns, SKY UK partially coming to their senses, Bahrain promoters launch 2013’s slogan, Daimler Benz shareholders criticise spend on F1

TJ13 announcement

We have 2 new recruits for the TJ13 team who will be bringing you ‘On this day’ once a week each. I am working with Samora Michael from Keyna and Kevin Russell – who I’m sorry I don’t have his global location yet (and he is currently enjoying a holiday) – on how to do the research and present us with our multi media review of F1 history.

Anyone who wishes to try their hand at this, please contact me at thejudge13@hotmail.co.uk

Sutil returns

The team getting a reputation for being somewhat dithery and making 11th hour decisions is back at the top of TJ13’s news roundup. It was announced today that Adrian Sutil will drive the force India car Tue-Thur in Barcelona with Jules Bianchi taking the wheel on Friday.

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Enrique Hector Scalabroni: His history and an explanation of ‘roll centres’

Enrique Hector Scalabroni (born Alta Gracia, Córdoba, Argentina, October 1949) is an Argentinian race car designer, technical director, and team racing boss. He was employed by Dallara, Williams, Ferrari, Lotus and Peugeot Sport between 1985 and 2002, before setting up his own F 3000 and GP2 team in 2003, BCN Competicion, which lasted till the end of 2008.

enrique

Early Career

Scalabroni studied mechanical engineering at the Beunos Aires Technological university before being recruited by the Formula Renault Fama team in 1975. He later worked for the Osvaldo Antelo Renault F2 and Miguel Herceg’s Ford Turismo de Carretera official teams. In Argentina he designed and built his own small single seaters, Formula Renault, and national F2 single seater cars.

Scalabroni arrived in Europe in 1982 from Argentina at the age of 32. He evolved to became one of the principal designer at Williams, chief designer at Ferrari and Lotus, and the Technical Director with the Asiatech F1 engine manufacturing company.

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Global Premier Racing in an Alternative Universe

In an Alternative Universe, on a world much like our own, it was a dark, dark time for the planet’s premier single-seater racing series. Corruption and manipulation of the competitors was rife amongst those that ran the sport.

The owner of the commercial rights to the series was a megalomaniac whose greed for infinite wealth was driven by a state of psychological turbulence that could be traced to a childhood of neglect and relative poverty.

megloThese delusional fantasies of ultimate power and omnipotence were evidenced by the need for the sport’s Mr. Big to be seen constantly in the presence of the kings and Princes and the great merchants of the numerous provinces that the world.

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Formula 1: The Winds of Change

Judge’s Chambers: Ruminations, the reading of tea leaves and an independent weighing of the evidence and subsequent comment Housekeeping: Check out the Judicial board under the ‘About’ tab on the top menu. We have some very talented individuals now helping TJ13 deliver an ever increasing coverage of all things F1. People are interested in F1 … Read more

Sahara Frozen, Kingfisher Starved, French F1 TV subscription only, F1’s financial model uncertain, Sutil gets FI seat fitting, HRT sold for scrap, De La Rosa chairperson for GPDA 2013

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Sahara assets frozen

When I read this headline in the Indian Telegraph, I thought – clever chaps those Indians and this image sprang to mind.

frozensahara

If you want the background to this story, read “Force India: How the tower of cards could collapse” – Oct 14th 2012.

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The Bar Exam: 14 February 2013

Follow thejudge13: Why not follow thejudge13 by email. Click on the button at the top right of the page to receive an email when (and only when) a new article hits the interweb. I have now put 2 RSS feeds at the bottom of the right hand bar for those of you who know how … Read more

“Ground Effect”. Its History and Theory explained

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Ground effect is a term applied to a series of aerodynamic effects used in car design, which has been exploited to create downforce, particularly in racing cars. This has been the successor to the earlier dominant aerodynamic theory of streamlining. IndyCars employ ground effect to some extent, but Formula One and most other racing series worldwide currently use design constraints to heavily limit its effectiveness.

History

Jim Hall built Chaparral to both these principles. His 1961 car attempted to use the shaped underside method but there were too many other aerodynamic problems with the car for it to work properly. His 1966 cars used a dramatic high wing for their downforce. His Chaparral 2J “sucker car” of 1970 was revolutionary.

It had two fans at the rear of the car driven by a dedicated 2 stroke; it also had “skirts”, which left only a minimal gap between car and ground, to seal the cavity from the atmosphere. Although it did not win a race, some competition had lobbied for its ban, which came into place at the end of that year. Movable aerodynamic devices were banned from most branches of the sport.

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