F1 Insiders Est. 2012
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
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
FIA Driver’s conference I used to be frustrated by these events, but having been 3 months since the last – I have changed my mind. It is glorious in its incompetance. If you haven’t been able to watch it here it is in full. The drivers are like naughty schoolboys sat in lines behind desks. … Read more
Contributors: Alistair Hunter, John Myburgh
Formula 1 2013 Round 1 – Melbourne Circuit:
The Rolex Australian Grand Prix is held on the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, street circuit located three kilometers south of the central business district of Melbourne around Albert Park Lake. The circuit is also referred to as Albert Park by most people in Formula 1.
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.
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.
Quick mention: A gentle nudge to read (if you haven’t in the past week) the newly revised ‘Project’ page on TJ13 and the ‘Judicial Board’ page under the ‘About’. Any help is gratefully accepted even for 1 hour a week. By the way we hit 150,000 visits last night since
Musings: Formula 1 at times appears to me like Big Time boxing. Whoaah – hold those horses and that indecent thought… Bernie and Jean in boots, shorts and a vest…gloves held high…duking it out…Damn – where’s a cartoonist when you need one.
Anyway, I was thinking more about the boxing drama that is the weigh in. This is a strange ritual where the competitors strip off their clothes and are left with merely a fig leaf for modesty. They stand on some scales in front of scores of photographic lenses and flashbulbs operated by strange unknown people… and then they face each other – toe to toe – with curled lips, dark stares and snarls of aggression.
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Editor’s note: Well, at some point today thejudge13 received its 1000th subscriber. 579 of you follow by email, 439 by twitter and 14 on the new RSS feeds we introduced in the last week. Also in the next 7 days we will reach our 100,000th visitor.
The end of season survey demonstrated that about 50% of you come direct from a saved favourite in your browser or by typing in http://www.thejudge13.com. So in just 17 weeks here we are – 2000 regular’s. It’s my round and I’ll get the drinks in.
I hope you’re all enjoying tj13 and please comment on what you feel. I nearly dropped the youtube video links until one reader said they really enjoyed them. Also, ‘on this day in F1’ was under threat until another reader said they really appreciated the historic information this section brings.
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Media event of the year: Today saw the arrival of Sergio Perez at the Technology Centre in Woking for the first time. It was the media event of the year so far. I have seen the twitter accounts and web news reports for scores of journalists advertising their interviews with Checo – and remarkably he says pretty much the same thing to them all. Hey ho.
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 interesting article I wrote the week after I returned from Monza, particularly in light of recent comments from Mr. Big. By the way that week thejudge13 had 242 reads (LINK)
Ferrari peek at Red Bull secrets: Blick, a swiss publication are running a story suggesting Buemi could be on his way to Ferrari. To be honest the article is a rambling useless piece of ‘imagine if’ writing suggesting all kinds of possible driver options for 2013/2014.
Yet, the nugget of the story is that after 22,000km in the Red Bull simulator, Ferrari are seriously considering signing Buemi as a test driver with bait that 2014 may be a chance for him when Massa is again out of contract. I’m sure Ferrari could and would try this – but would Buemi believe the ‘carrot’ was more than a mirage?
