FIA

Daily #F1 News and Comment: Saturday 9th March 2013

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This page will be updated throughout the day as news is released. Click on the ‘breaking news’ tab above for the latest updated version. If you follow @thejudge13 on twitter you will see when I tweet a new headline and know the post has been updated.

A busy time in Paris

not only did we get the official calendar for 2013 from  the FIA Council yesterday, but they offered up a draft calendar for the new 2014 FIA Formula E Championship – to be run in city centres across the world.

10 races are targeted with 10 teams and 2 drivers with 2 cars each. There will be 2 compulsory pit stops per driver, with him jumping out of one car and into the next. One of the cars must be charged during the 45 minute race.

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Breaking News: Thursday 7th March 2013

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This page will be updated throughout the day as news is released. Click on the tab above for the latest updated version. If you follow @thejudge13 on twitter you will see when I tweet a new headline and know the post has been updated.

Quick Question: Did anyone notice the make of Lewis Hamilton’s motor home in the paddock in Barcelona?

Renault lobbying FIA

In my article “Evidence mounts that the Renault engine mapping fiasco is hurting Red Bull and Lotus” James Alison attempts to persuade us that the engine mapping set back suffered by Renault is of no importance to them. “We were experimenting in testing, on the last day of the last test [Barca 1], with an engine map and we explained to the FIA what we were doing. But having run it on the track we found it did not work very well anyway. We learned from the FIA that they were not so happy with what we proposed, so we are not doing it.”

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Breaking News: Tuesday 5th March 2013

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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

untitledTiming 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.

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Evidence mounts that the Renault engine mapping fiasco is hurting Red Bull and Lotus

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A Quick look at how much each team managed to extract from 2013 pre-season testing

Team Total Testing Laps

1. Sauber 1161 laps
2. Mercedes 1095 laps
3. Ferrari 1068 laps
4. Red Bull Racing 1008 laps
5. McLaren 1008 laps
6. Caterham 985 laps
7. Sahara Force India 980 laps
8. Toro Rosso 960 laps
9. Marussia 798 laps
10. Lotus 770 laps
11. Williams – FW35 666 laps
12. Williams – FW34 305 laps

Driver Total Testing Laps

1. Esteban Gutierrez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari 607 laps
2. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes 572 laps
3. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Sauber-Ferrari 554 laps
4. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes 553 laps
5. Sergio Perez Mexico McLaren-Mercedes 553 laps 
6. Max Chilton Britain Marussia-Cosworth 550 laps
7. Jean-Eric Vergne France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 536 laps
8. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes-Mercedes 523 laps
9. Charles Pic France Caterham-Renault 516 laps
10. Valtteri Bottas Finland Williams-Renault 513 laps
11. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 513 laps
12. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 513 laps
13. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari 505 laps
14. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 495 laps
15. Romain Grosjean France Lotus-Renault 495 laps
16. Giedo van der Garde Holland Caterham-Renault 469 laps
17. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Renault 458 laps
18. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 455 laps
19. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 424 laps
20. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Lotus-Renault 259 laps
21. Jules Bianchi France Marussia-Cosworth 253 laps *
22. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 249 laps
23. Luiz Razia Brazil Marussia-Cosworth 112 laps
24. James Rossiter Britain Force India-Mercedes 61 laps
25. Pedro de la Rosa Spain Ferrari-Ferrari 50 laps
26. Davide Valsecchi Italy Lotus-Renault 16 laps

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On This Day in F1: 02 March

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On this day in F1 02 March, is brought to you by TheJudge13 Chief Editor: Cavallino Rampante

– Ferrari Break F1 Test Agreement
– Mosley Leaves UK over EU law
– Prost GP Buyer Controversy
– Schumacher Rocks and Rolls

2005 – Ferrari broke an F1 test agreement today, by amassing more than 50km of ‘shakedown’ mileage in a GP week. Debuting the new F2005 model at Mugello, Luca Badoer completed 317km — 267 more than allowed. Ferrari indicated that Badoer would continue at the privately-owned track tomorrow. In season testing was fully banned in 2009.

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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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Jackie Stewart accuses FIA of ‘disorganised management’, Maldonado funding hangs by a thread, Ferrari’s big plans for a new F1 facility, F1 drinks Texas dry

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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.

Jackie Stewart dismissed by the FIA: Just when you thought it was safe to read F1 news again we get Big Ron vs Lewis revisited, the F1 2013 calendar and now flag-gate all resurrected in a week.

Following the Brazilian GP, Jackie Stewart has been critical of the FIA’s handling of ‘flag-gate’. In an interview with Christian Sylt Stewart on cityam.com the former triple world champion asserts, “Was the judgement of yellow and green flags right or wrong in Brazil and why would that have to come up on a Wednesday or Thursday? That is a huge statement of a disorganised function that it should come up then.”

Sir Jackie argues the FIA practice of rotating the stewards race by race is problematic. ““How can you possibly have four different stewards at every Grand Prix? Why have you not got one professional – one man who goes to every race who is going to make consistent judgements and has got authority?”

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The mystery behind the sacking of FIA doctor – Gary Hartstein

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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.

FIA doctor sacked: In November, during the inaugural Austin Race the FIA doctor Gary Hartstein – successor to the legendary Sid Watkins – was dismissed by the FIA. thejudge13 reported a number of his tweets expressing bewilderment and the fact that he had no explanation for why this was happening. The FIA were then and have been silent since. (tj13 article)

Clearly Gary has been hurt and most upset by this and in December he resorted to an extraordinary and extended expression of this hurt and anger on twitter. The twitter explosion included the following, “I might launch a crusade to get some answers, or get my f***ing job back, or let the world know what’s really going on the medical side of the FIA”. (full exchange in tj13 article).

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Marussia – miss media opportunity, Grosjean wins ROC and a seat at Lotus, Mercedes knives appear, Sutil legal matters? Horner would’ve dirched Massa, Lewis been to Mercedes, Ex-F1 doctor rants on twitter, Williams and Gillan seperate

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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.

thejudge13 archive: Here’s an article I wrote after trawling the southern US media prior to the inaugural Austin GP. To this date, I have not heard this reported anywhere else, yet you would think the sale of nearly 10% of F1 for $900m to the pensioners of North America might be of Interest to someone (LINK).

Marrusia – missed media opportunity: If you look on Marussiaf1team.com today, you’ll see a Christmas wish from Timo and John says, “”We are very proud of what we achieved in 2012 and we take away so many highlights, all of which point towards a development path we can have great confidence in. Thank you for sharing some fantastic experiences with us. Wishing you the very best of Christmases.”

No announcement of Timo’s partner for 2013, yet over the weekend, there have been some rumours emanating from Russian reporters. Joe Saward has some interesting insights on the Marussia car company today, “Marussia is a funny company. It took over a controlling interest in the Virgin F1 team around a year ago, but since then there has been virtually no word about the progress of the Marussia road cars”.

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Bernie on flag-gate, McLaren MP12-4C wins car of the year, Brawn Ferrari return, BIC wants winter testing, F1 in schools – India, FIA statement on Ferrari letter

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Note from the editor: It’s happening I’m afraid – today is the first day I’m scratching around for stories 🙁 Following comments from readers about the difficulty of finding new stories on the page during a 2nd or subsequent return to thejduge13 in the day, I think for now – if I add to an existing story, I’ll put for example, UPDATE 11:44 GMT, and each new story for the day will appear at the bottom just above “On this day in F1″ – would that help.

I am constrained by the software I use and my at the moment inability to write code to tailor it. Hopefully if we could do well and even get a mention in the Silverstone awards, some investment may then flow and can help with this.

Register with thejudge13 for email notification of new articles. 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.

Silverstone Media Awards: Many thejudge13 readers are outside the UK (65%) and I’ve had a few enquiries as to whether they are eligible to vote. The answer is yes and all you need to do is leave your name and an email address to vote on Silverstone’s website – the links are below.

Last years winner was a polish blog called F1 talks. (Link)

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