F1 Insiders Est. 2012
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.
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.”
Force India – FINALLY
Ask the ‘Children of Israel’ who followed Moses what it’s like to miss the boat. 40 years of wandering in the wilderness allegedly – one of the official ‘longest waits’ in history. Well I feel as though I’ve aged 40 yeaqrs whilst writing and speculating about what the hell is going on at Force India – and I think there’s more to come yet.
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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 confirmed debate
I am amazed at the people who are certain Paul Di Resta is driving for Force India in 2013. I have been repeatedly questioned in my assertion that Force India have not announced this. Prior to today I’ve been repeatedly told he has a seat fitting and that Vijay told us in September he would be offering an extension to his drivers – as rumours of Hulkenbergs departure began to surface.
We’ve seen today the value of an F1 driving ‘contract’ as the likeable Timo Glock departs F1. For those ‘unbelievers’ who think Di Resta is a done deal, google something like ‘Force India announce Di Resta’ – and you will see a plethora of news stories about the announcements made for the season just ended.
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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.
Note from thejudge13’s chambers: We hit 600 email followers yesterday and all in less than 18 weeks. Just over 450 on twitter and about 1,000 of you come direct from your browser/as a saved favourite. RSS appears to be stuck on 14 – but it said this on day 1 I put up the RSS feed – so my RSS reader may be telling porkies.
Anyway a big shout out to ‘ForzaJay’ from the forum www.thescuderia.net who posted a link to my ‘Da Vinci Code’ type article from yesterday and we had loads of reads from his colleagues there. Please say Hi ‘ForzaJay’ when you are here next.
Also Hi to ‘Tonka’ from Autosportforums who did the same with my article on Adam Parr, “Ecclestone, Parr and the night of the long knives”.
If any of you visit other F1 sites, please feel free to post links to an article on TJ13 that is relevent to whatever discussions are taking place in their forums/comments. Helps spread the word greatly. Grazzia 😀
One final word. There is a now a search tool on the right hand side. I use this daily to find stuff I’ve written before. If you want to exclude loads of things coming up as results try to use a 2 or 3 word search in “” eg. “Vettel yellow flag”. It searches the content of articles not just the titles so its pretty useful.
On to the day’s events – new’s is a little light so far, so I’ll publish this page and add to it as the day progresses.
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.
Certina and Sauber: Certina, the Swiss sports watchmaker are to extend their existing sponsorship of the Sauber F1 team. Apparently they will be gifting one of their precision time pieces to each member of the race team – not exactly sure what that means but it may be unlucky if you design widgets back at base maybe. Their logo will be on the drivers visors, the sidepods and wind deflectors.
“Certina has always been strongly committed to cutting-edge technology,” says Monisha Kaltenborn, CEO of the Sauber F1 Team, “and that’s an ideology we share. Since 2005, we have also been united by an enduring partnership that embraces common values such as innovation and efficiency. These are key factors behind the upturn in the Sauber F1 Team to which Certina has made a definitive contribution.”
Adrian Bosshard, President von Certina, corroborates this: “After an eight-year partnership with the Sauber F1 Team, we are delighted to be continuing to make use of this dynamic and innovative Formula One platform. The Team’s professional work ethic and typical Swiss mindset are the perfect match for our brand.” (Sauber Press Release)
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?
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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.
Editor’s note: Thank you for the many kind words about my rehab. I am on less hallucinogenic tablets now and am raring to go for the seasons finale.
In line with recent habit of identifying far flung thejudge13 readers, I want to say Hello to those of you from Malaysia. Say hello in the comments – we’re glad of your support.
Heikki on 2013: thejudge13 reported yesterday that Heikki may be struggling for a drive in 2013. Having had a chat with someone who knows more than me, I revealed the analysis of Kovaleinen’s performance against his team-mate which was not great – and this in part is what teams do look at.
