Caterham F1

Abu Dhabi GP Review: Red Bull exploit the rules again, McLaren questioning Perez signing, Prost: French GP unlikely, Webber woeful

by

After a race that left most of us breathless, I’m struggling a bit to know exactly what to say. The pictures said it all. The desert races of Bahrain and Abu Dhabi are not renown for their previous excitement – maybe 2010 because it was a title decider, yet even that was rather processional. Anyway, here’s some thoughts on the proceedings and other F1 news.

Just one point I’d like to make as we had an unprecidented number of views yesterday and today reading thejudge13 scoop on fuel being the RB issue 90 minutes before it was announced. Some people who are new to the site may not realise I am not partisan to any driver team or individual in F1. I know a number of them.

The judge13 has a skeptical eye towards all things F1 – nothing is sacred and everyone is a target for comment good and bad. I don’t hate anyone or any team as has been suggested 😀 I just love F1 whether it be the intrigue, destructive self obsession or just the racing in general. I thank you…

State of title races: Red Bull need just 5 points for constructors title and Vettel needs just 15 more than Alonso in Austin. McLaren 22 points behind Ferrari and would have closed this nicely had Lewis’ car not failed. I still think they will overhaul Ferrari as the car looks very fast – but time will tell.

Read more

Hulkenberg refuses contract extension, Webber walks out of FIA conference, Sutil to return to Force India, Ecclestone refutes he’s being replaced,

by

Indian GP attendance down 1/3rd: The drivers gave a thumbs-up to the 5.14 kilometre track enjoying the challenge of the layout and the teams and media hailed the clean paddock and the facilities sported a completed look that was not the case last year. However, no one could avoid the dip in the numbers of fans, the most important constituent of any sport, as 65,000 of them turned up for Sunday’s race down from last year’s 95,000.

Mr. E is of course not worried, “First races are always high and the second year goes down. If the third year isn’t going up, then it’s something to worry about”, he jocularly observed “We have a [another] competitor here. What’s the name of that game? Cricket?”, suggesting F1 has a way to go to make an impression on the Indian sporting psyche.

Indian motor sports federation chief Vicky Chandhok reiterated the same three-year cycle and predicted a bigger turnout in 2013. “Formula One is like this only. This is the trend everywhere. From third race onwards, you’d see some kind of stability. Overall, it has been a huge improvement from last year”.

Read more