F1 Insiders Est. 2012
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
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
Below follows an analysis provided by German publication AMuS and kindly translated by Patrick Heemstra. Paraphrased by thejudge13 and John Myburgh.
The ‘perfect lap’ is defined as one where the best 3 sector times from any driver are added together to give the ultimate lap time at a given race occasion. So before the cars hit the track in Melbourne here’s one last look at what we can glean from Barcelona test 2.
– 1998: Yet again McLaren team orders in favor of Häkkinen
1998: After two seasons of Williams-Renault supremacy, McLaren drivers Mika Häkkinen and David Couthard lived up to their pre-season favorite role by overwhelmingly dominating the 1998 season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Häkkinen took pole with only a four-hundredths of a second advantage over Coulthard, with Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari a distant third at more than seven tenths. As it turned out victory was decided at the first corner when Häkkinen made the better start to lead his Scottish teammate into the 58 laps around Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit. Both McLarens pulled away from the field at a staggering rate of three seconds per lap on an afternoon that would see them double all other cars. But despite all this dominance the inevitable McLaren win was not free from controversy.
The F1 authorities and money men need to grow up and get with the 21st century. Their continued attempts to control the media outlets together with corporate images and messages they attempt to ram down our throats is pitiful.
These offerings conceived by PR companies and advertising agencies are as transparent as the gazillion dollar cathedrals of glass in which they reside.
TheJudge13 is partly a social media project as well as a great place to find F1 news and gossip, learn about the technical aspect of the sport and discuss all this with fans as passionate as you from across the worldwide village.
– Graham Hill returns from injury – 1970
– Irvine’s first Ferrari victory – 1999
– Michael Schumacher starts run to 7th Championship – 2004
Barcelona was the last time Formula 1 cars are driven in anger until Albert Park in around 10 days time, and whilst the past week or so was a case of smoke and mirrors (to be expected) there was quite a lot to be learnt once you dug up under the surface. Some teams struggled, whilst others prospered, and it creates a very interesting picture ahead of the first race of the season. So without further ado, let’s grab a spade and see what we can uncover.
The stand out performers from the second test had to be Mercedes. Yes I will be the first to admit, I was one of the big detractors over the winter period, criticising their management structure and how they were so drastically reorganising the team so close to the start of the season. But if the past few weeks are to go by, the W04 does seem to be a very competent car indeed. Whether showing front running pace for the majority of testing has shown the team’s hand far too soon is another matter, but when Rosberg went 1.6 seconds faster than his Qualifying time last year in Barcelona, it shows progress has been very good over the winter at Brackley.
This is a new section and due to our present site software will only send out a ‘posted notification’ on the first post of the day. However, it will be updated throughout the day as stories break.
FIA swoop on F1 drivers with surprise drugs tests 17:21 GMT
Timing huh. I was chatting to a couple of well known twitter characters last night, following the Usher advertising a post I wrote in November about drug testing being a joke in F1. Today the FIA have demonstrated how speedily they can respond to a judgement. McLaren’s Sergio Perez received a very “early morning” visit and was requested to give a urine test before he had a day out in Geneva with big Ron.
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.
Testing: An interesting development from Ferrari. They have announced today Alonso will not take part in the first pre-season testing in Jerez. Massa will get the first 3 days, and De La Rosa will drive on the Friday. The explanation from Ferrari for giving De la Rosa some track time is, “it will allow both the team and the driver to work specifically on looking at the correlation between the virtual and the real experience. The work of assembling the new car goes on: yesterday the engine was fired up for the first time.”
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.
Marko Watch: After the day I had yesterday, my brain was rather scrambled. I find that though I’m one of the most decisive people I’ve met, when in this state, I dither over the most silly of matters for an eternity. Anyway, I finally decided this piece qualified to be categorised as a ‘Marko Watch’ story.
My decision was that it does so on the school playground premise that ‘he started it first, sir’. It appears the good doctor has stirred the hornet’s nest and may reap the whirlwind (mixed metaphors I know). Fernando is reveling in the new found freedom of twitter, and this appears to have given him the confidence to take the offensive to the enemy – politics or not.
