Caterham

On Track Review: UBS China Grand Prix 2013

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 ‘on track correspondent’: James Parker A Tale of Tyres….. Well, well well, back after a 3 week hiatus and plenty of off-track controversy to keep the fans happy. A competitive qualifying session was exactly what the doctor ordered to get the emphasis back on the racing – Did we get … Read more

Being Number One

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Being Number One is brought to you by TJ13 Courtroom Reporter & Crime Analyst: Adam Macdonald People in F1 land have been focussing on the now “undisputed” no.1 at Red Bull and what this means for F1 as a whole. However, it is forgotten that this is the case in many of the other teams as well, … Read more

On Track Review : Malaysia Qualifying 2013

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 ‘on track correspondent’: James Parker Heat, humidity and tyre degradation are the three things that look set to dominate tomorrow’s proceedings for the Malaysia Grand Prix. In what was a hugely intriguing Qualifying session today, which saw RedBull struggle, the unpredictable nature of the famous Malaysian weather once again struck … Read more

Circuit Profile – 2013: Malaysia, Sepang International Circuit – Round 2

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By Track Profile Specialist: Alistair Hunter Formula 1 2013 Round 2 – Sepang International Circuit: The Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix is held at the Sepang International Circuit. The purpose built track is located near Kuala Lumpur International Airport that is approximately 60 km south of the capital city Kuala Lumpur. The circuit is … Read more

Race Review – Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia

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Race Reviews are brought to you by our on track reporter James Parker Kimi Put’s Out Red Bull’s Barbeque The start of the 2013 Formula 1 season began in scintillating style. Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, took the chequered flag for his 20th victory in the sport ahead of the chasing Fernando Alonso and a “struggling” … Read more

F1 Melbourne 2013 Review: FP1 and FP2 most reminiscent of Mr. Noah

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Top times of the day Pos   Driver Team Tine Diff   Laps 1 Vettel Red Bull 1’25.908 33 2 Webber Red Bull 1’26.172 0.264 31 3 Rosberg Mercedes 1’26.322 0.414 26 4 Raikkonen Lotus 1’26.361 0.453 38 5 Grosjean Lotus 1’26.680 0.772 32 6 Alonso Ferrari 1’26.748 0.840 35 7 Hamilton Mercedes 1’26.772 0.864 … Read more

Kovalainen out of Caterham, Di Resta breaks rank over Force India driver selection, Caterham targets more realistic

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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 to use them for updates.

Di Resta ‘surprised’ at dithering team decision making: When asked by and AP journalist how he felt about the lack of announcement from Force India over the 2013 team drive line-up he replied, “I am surprised there has been nothing yet.

TJ13 has been questioning for some time why Di Resta himself has not been confirmed and now just 3 weeks away from the 2013 cars hitting the test track in Jerez, this is more than just being tardy and must surely be disconcerting for the Scottish driver.

Di Resta’s views on this are, “The team have said they will announce it in good time as to where they are going to be, and I have to respect that”, but when it was suggested this must affect his preparation he candidly responds, “Ultimately, it does.

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Grosjean attitude win at all costs, Petrov confident of Caterham drive, Mercedes and Ferrari pass crash tests, Ferrari wind tunnel progreses, Kimi approves of 2013 DRS rules, Kimi says drivers do not make teams better, Maldonado most penalties in 2012

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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. WE REACHED 500 email followers in only thejudge13’s 15th week and just over 400 by twitter.

Grosjean attitude win at all costs: Romain Grosjean thinks he is ready to take a more mature approach to Formula One. He did of course have an abortive start to his career at the scandal ridden Renault in 2009, the young Frenchman gained a second chance with Lotus in 2012.

He clearly proved himself to be a very quick driver with 3 podiums by the middle of 2012, but as we know became the focus for media vilification following the dramatic events at the start of the Belgian GP – for which he received a race ban for Monza.

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2012 season review and musings (part 1): Toro Rosso sack both drivers, Who is Dr Helmut Marko, Alguesauri had 2012 offers, Young driver programmes mean nothing

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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. Just to give you some perspective, the incredibly popular site of James Allen which has been running a number of years, this year has had 1.5m reads.

thejudge13 is in its 15th week and in November had 34,000 reads, an annual run rate of over 400,000, which is over 25% of the total for an established F1 commentator – who by the way I think is one of the best.

Thank you all and I intend to keep it coming strong in 2013. Posting links on the BBC, PlanetF1 and other sites (we had a lot of German site traffic one month) really helps. A thejudge13 reader did this yesterday and we had 300 extra reads and another 25 email registered followers.

(This page will be updated through the day – if F1 news breaks –  new stories will be posted just above the ‘on this day in F1’ which is at the bottom).

Editor’s note: I haven’t like other sites done a review of 2012, and in fact I’m still filtering and absorbing what has been an incredible season – 7 winners in the first 7 races set the tone for what was indeed a cliff hanger.

I remember Vettel spinning in Turn 4 Brazil and I stood up from my seat involuntarily feeling a shiver of incredulity course through me – I said to Mrs. Judge – “You couldn’t script this – no one would believe it credible”.

Anyway news is thin, so I have started to collect my thoughts on 2012 and those musings are about to flow. We’ll start with what I consider one of the most ridiculous decisions made for the 2012 season, by someone who should know better.

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Fernando – “Impossible to repeat my performance ever again”, Haug leaves Mercedes, Bianchi to Force India, Force India Ferrari engines 2014, Perez thinks he can be F1 champion, Support Kamui donations dramatically slow, Marko – Ferrari never get Vettel

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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.

Alonso on all things F1: Yesterday Fernando was in the spanish city of Santander and here are the highlights of an interview he gave as reported in as.com.

“It will be impossible to start 2013 worse than this year, but Red Bull will still be favorites to start well. At the end of the year they found six or eight tenths on us and we must recover that in only two months. But the starting point will be better than last year, which is not difficult. There is always room for improvement, there are always things you can evolve. With the experience and technological capability that we have today, there are many factors that can be improved. But the driver is also important.”

This is true, and despite being Ferrari the team will be closer at the start of testing in Jerez in under 2 months time. My translating skills are not the best so I’ll paraphrase the next bit.

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