Renault do a huge U-turn

by

A bizarre mentality

thejudge13 reported on October 9th what I considered a rather strange story emanating from Renault. Here’s an excerpt from that day;

“Apparently Renault has said it will not provide any more teams with engines as it has 3 customers already. So Marussia and HRT needn’t bother knocking on the door of the Renault Chateau huh? The reason given by Jean-Francois Caubet, Managing Director of Renault Sport is that – (paraphrased) these 2 teams are rubbish and its bad for Renault’s image.

He tells Ferrari and Mercedes they need to do their fair share and supply 4 teams like Renault does now. This Gallic thinking is seriously flawed, because one would imagine the research and development costs are so high, building a few extra units for a couple more teams would share the cost around better for everyone”.

I then made a few disparaging comments about Jean-Francois and his possible drinking habits. Of course on November 6th, we then reported the ‘retirement’ of Jean-Francois Caubet and the appointment of his successor, Renault Sport’s president Jean-Michel Jalinier. However, Jean-Francois’ departure was overshadowed by the same day appointment of Renault Sport protoge Cyril Abiteboul as Tony Fernandes replacement at Caterham.

Read more

Just days left for HRT, Post race bits, TV ratings, In depth analysis called for by Luca, Bernie’s days numbered, Vettel and the yellow light

by

Following a slightly different type of race review – I did feel I little etherial when writing it – here’s a few bits and pieces of post race stuff to tidy up.

Post race bits and pieces

Alonso: I allude in the ‘epitaph’ in the race review my disappointment with both title contenders for their points scoring efforts after the race. Alonso,  “With a car that is slower than the others we can win a championship, with a car that is the same as the others we can win the championship with some races to go and with a car that is a lot slower than the others we fought until the last race”. If’s, buts and maybe’s don’t cut the mustard and it is not worthy of you Fernando to give us this spiel.

I just listened to that interview again and Alonso actually says, “With a kart that is…”, not quite the Prost reference to a ‘truck’ but not far away.

Read more

Interlagos: Race review

by

Predictable unpredictability

I have no intention of producing a detailed lap by lap, stop by stop report – the BBC and others have the resources to do that better than I do. Yet what has happened to F1 in the past few years? 6 of the last 8 WDC’s have been decided on the last race of the season.

This is the antithesis of what preceded when I almost stopped watching the sport after the borefest of Ferrari dominance from 1999-2005. Madmax Moseley changed something, and it was definitely for the better. My guess it was the beginning of engine restrictions in 2005 and then everything flowed from there.

@F1photographer was mocking those of us who have spent all week checking out weather forecast reports – because 1 hour before the race it was sunny. Having searched for and studied websites I didn’t know existed like some saddo trying to glean 3-4 day forecasts for the weekend, I didn’t take kindly to the picture man’s sneers. For example, The Brazilian ‘National Institute for space research’ is a most interesting proposition and a great read for those who suffer the ignominy of insomnia.

Read more

Pre Race Review Brazil 2012: Red Bull, “Business as usual” – nonesense.

by

Last race decider – again

Here we are again. A championship decider showdown in Interlagos once again. 2007,08 and 09 were the last 3 times the title was decided here because in 2010 the final race was in Abu Dhabi and in 2011 we had Sebastian and Red Bull doing a Michael and Ferrari impression and running away with the titles long before the seasons finale.

Interlagos is like Spa, a place where the weather is highly erratic. Unlike Spa, it is often much more violent and staccato in the way it can punctuate a session and be done in a very short while. A good example of this was qualifying yesterday when before the session it when very dark – rained – and by the end of the session bright sunshine was re-instated.

For all Vetell’s words of assurance that the approach to this weekend is the same as any other, I’m not buying it. Alonso has clearly had nothing to lose for a while and his driving has demonstrated this. We all expected levels of grip for the race Austin to be similar to ice racing, and many expected a huge turn 1 incident with the cars also running on cold tyres. Yet Alonso chose to go around the outside, the most dangerous place to  bring there were cars sliding everywhere.

Read more

Koby support website, Aabar buy Torro Rosso, Wurz no HRT saviour, Mastercard to follow Coca Cola,

by

Post Qualifying:

McLaren now have more 1-2 grid positions than any other team in F1 – 62 in total. 1st pole in Interlagos since 2000. Seems like the car likes the Pirelli hard-medium tyre, as in Austin.

Hamilton: “Pole! What a great feeling! It’s been a fantastic weekend so far. We don’t yet know for certain what the weather conditions will be like tomorrow, but I hope that both Jenson and I will be able to push for victory. I’ve usually started from fourth grid position at Interlagos, and it hasn’t always given me much success. Before qualifying, I told Martin that I really didn’t want to start fourth this time. All in all, I’m very proud and happy that I got pole.

“Jenson and I are in the best possible starting positions for tomorrow. However, if it’s wet, the lead car is the always the first to aquaplane or hit the puddles, so, even if we both get good starts, we’ll still need to be cautious. Equally, however, I don’t want to drop back at the start because it would then be very difficult to see in all the spray. We haven’t had a one-two in a race for quite a long time [Canada 2010], so it would be a great positive for the team if we could achieve it tomorrow. It would be my perfect farewell, in fact.”

Read more

Pic to Caterham, Gutiérrez to Sauber, Heikki out, Alosno $10m WDC win bonus, Dennis conspicuous by absence, FI $80m announcement to shore up confidence, Lewis appears whistful, Mr. E warns Interlagos

by

Editor’s note: So much is happening and the driver market has been moving quickly, so since I release the last post GMT 00:00 I am releasing another one to make update’s easier to read.

I’ve added a ‘search bar’ on the right hind side bar…so if you want to find a story easily you can type “Lewis pushed” and all articles with that phrase will be presented in a list.

Also the end of season is iminent. To save you checking thejudge13 daily when there are no new articles why not sign up for an email notification: 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.

Yesterday we met our friends from Malaysia. Today I want to say Hi to those of you from Indonesia who regularly read the site – introduce yourselve’s in the comments. Thank you for reading regularly.

Dominicali: When asked at the FIA conference about the new engines and regulation changes for 2014, he said “we already have a group of small people already working on the project”. I don’t know what to say really. Oompa Lumpa’s – chocolate rivers at Maranello

Read more

Heikki 2013 chances slim, Perez burns his bridges, Mercedes abandon Coanda, Luca relinquishes political ambition

by

Editor’s note: Thank you for the many kind words about my rehab. I am on less hallucinogenic tablets now and am raring to go for the seasons finale.

In line with recent habit of identifying far flung thejudge13 readers, I want to say Hello to those of you from Malaysia. Say hello in the comments – we’re glad of your support.

 Heikki on 2013: thejudge13 reported yesterday that Heikki may be struggling for a drive in 2013. Having had a chat with someone who knows more than me, I revealed the analysis of Kovaleinen’s performance against his team-mate which was not great – and this in part is what teams do look at.

Read more

Drivers of 2012

by

Below are 3 polls for the driver of 2012 for each of the top, middle and bottom 4 teams. I suppose the point of doing something like this is to find out what people think about how various drivers have faced the varying challenges they’ve faced this year. To that end, you can’t compare experienced … Read more

Mallya on cash hunt, Storms now set for Interlagos decider, Austin 2013 now a double clash, Cash machines answer to Korea GP losses, Coca-Cola & Lotus for 2013

by

Editor’s note: Many sites run driver polls after each race and we have done a couple. I’m not sure if it’s what thejudge13 readers want though. Let me know your thoughts. I am going to run 3 driver of the year polls – I’m thinking of splitting it into 1 poll for the bottom 4, 1 for the middle 4 and 1 for the top 4 teams.

Further, the end of season is swiftly upon us, and it may be there are not articles every day from thejudge13 after next week. So to save you from visiting the site unnecessarily – why not sign up for email notification (right hand side bar – top) and you will get an email when a new article is uploaded. I have no access to the email addresses submitted as in the software there is a ‘widget’ handles this.

Just in 17:18 GMT: Red Bull maybe using some fancy rear wing end plates, that have a ruffle sticking out of the back plate. Could be a defensive aero part to create dirty air behind the car making overtaking more difficult for the car behind.

This wouldn’t be an aero compromise because the cars normally in Interlagos run a lot of wing due to the altitude and thin air. Usually at sea level this would create more drag and affect the performance of the RB car too.

Read more

Ecclestone faces another Fraud charge over 2005 sale of F1 to CVC

by

thejudge13 reported in an article Oct 9th “Ecclestone to load F1 with a mountain of debt” that German bank, Bayern LB was suing Bernie Ecclestone for $400m and that Ecclestone and his partners appeared to be cashing in as quickly as possible. Today Bluewaters, an investment fund has filed a lawsuit in New York against CVC, Bernie Ecclestone and BayernLB Gerhard Grikowsky. The claim is that Ecclestone conspired to prevent them from buying the rights to F1 in 2005.

Bluewaters says it had put together a bid for F1 for $1bn ahead of the CVC purchase which was to be funded by Alpolo Capital Management and King Street Capital Management. The claim states that Bluewaters had negotiated with the now imprisoned Gribkowsky of the Bayern LB bank, they were prepared to offer more than any other bidder for the sport.

Read more