Luca di Montezemolo

Daily #F1 News and Comment: Monday 17th February 2014

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This page will be updated throughout the day. Please if you are on Twitter press the tweet button below. If you re-write and tweet individual story headlines don’t forget to include #F1. You may not realise how hugely important this is and has helped grow our community significantly Dark clouds form over Maranello Where is … Read more

Daily #F1 News & Comment: Saturday January 4th 2014

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This page will be updated throughout the day. Please if you are on Twitter press the tweet button below. If you re-write and tweet individual story headlines don’t forget to include #F1. You may not realise how hugely important this is and has helped grow our community significantly A lot of head scratching at Mercedes … Read more

Daily #F1 News and Comment: Wednesday 27th November 2013

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This page will be updated throughout the day. Please if you are on Twitter press the tweet button below. If you re-write and tweet individual story headlines don’t forget to include #F1. You may not realise how significant this is and has helped grow our community significantly in the past couple of months – thank … Read more

Daily #F1 News and Comment: Monday 29th July 2013

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This page will be updated throughout the day. Please press the twitter button at the bottom of the post if you are on twitter. Pirelli and the future (11:12) updated (17:10) The F1 2014 calendar (11:51) McLaren take the rest of the season off (12:45) Questions over Force India finances again (13:28) Heartache the key for Lewis (14:51) … Read more

Daily F1 News and Comment: Thursday 9th May 2013

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This page will be updated throughout the day FIA Press Conferences As always, we love to kick off the F1 race weekend with the mystifying event that is the FIA drivers’ press conference. Here are the schedues. Thursday, May 09, 1500 hours local time (1300 GMT) Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber), … Read more

Ecclestone worried over charges, Ferrari confident they will not be as bad, The 2013 WDC odds, Force India: Driver decisions not imminent, Lauda quits Air Berlin

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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.

The opposite game: Did you ever play this as a child? I had a brother around my age so we used to do this to irritate our parents. You had to say the opposite of what you really meant. So, mother cooks up a spot of lunch and “I don’t like this lamb chop” would be pronounced whilst greedily scoffing the last remnant of fat from the bone.

Over the years, if you believe the opposite of what comes out of Mr. E’s mouth, you’ll get it right more than not. Bernie tells the Italian publication the Corriere della Serra that he’s not worried about the impending court case in Germany over the fraudulent sale of the commercial rights to F1.

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Symonds full time with Marussia 2013, Luca on testing, aero, and everything else

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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 yesterday only in thejudge13’s 15th week and just over 400 by twitter.

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

thejudge13 archive: For readers new to thejudge13 while news is a little thin in the winter I’m posting links to articles you may have missed. This show’s the dark side of some F1 personnel. “Mallya lives in opulence whilst Kingfisher staff starve and commit suicide“.

Pat Symonds and Marussia: We’ve been looking at Caterham and Marussia in a little more detail recently. Caterham have lost their sporting director, whilst Marussia appear to be consolidating their team nicely.

Add the Williams KERS system to the 2013 Marussia car and Caterham should be worried. I’ve been expecting an announcement about Pat Symonds for a week or so now, but still nothing on their website.

However, Timo Glock in an interview to German Autoweek last night confirmed that Pat will be joining the team full time for 2013.

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Montezemolo: Ecclestone is finished this time, Ferrari change working arrangements, Another radical Ferrari for 2013? Greece serious about a GP, LdM Hamilton too old for Ferrari, Suzi Perry gets BBC F1 anchor role

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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 yesterday only in thejudge13’s 15th week and just over 400 by twitter.

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

thejudge13 archive: For readers new to thejudge13 while news is a little thin in the winter I’m posting links to articles you may have missed. For those of you interested in how new circuits come online in F1, read “S. Korea, Ecclestone and the Emporer’s new clothes”

 Ferrari and split project teams: A couple of stories knocking about from Maranello. Firstly Stefano appears to have kept his job. He behaved pretty strangely following the chequered flag in Brazil. As far as I’m aware, he gave no English interviews and people there since told me there was a marked departure from the usual bon homme and easy access he gives the paddock media.

Onto a dreaded topic that will surely go down in Ferrari F1 folk-lore – the wind tunnel et al. Stefano informs us that “for a few months now, we have been working on a programme of reorganization along with the introduction of new methodologies, especially concerning the wind tunnel. As you know, we are rebuilding the Maranello facility which will be closed until August. Until then, we will use the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne”.

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Barcelona shafts Valencia, Ecclestone Ferrari vengeance, Bahrain loses GP2 race, Glock Safe? Alesi retires or dies, Rosberg and the ‘bulls’, Webber saves Vettel, Total Petroleum calm down, Why FIA changed 2014 rules, Pirelli aim to shake it up again, Haug gives reasons

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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 yesterday only in thejudge13’s 14th week and just under 400 by twitter.

thejudge13 archive: There have been a number of questions about Nikki Lauda, his time at Jaguar, why Mercedes recruited him…I did a couple of articles around the time of the announcement so if you’ve joined the site since then, here they are. “Lauda: Ross Brawn’s new boss” I wrote this about 2am on October 2nd after reading an online article on a German newspaper site – that was going out the following day. The story hadn’t been picked up even on titter to my recollection.

This was a part 2 follow up – written when I was more alert (the next day) and had time to reflect on the  implications. “How Lauda got the top job in Mercedes F1” – my conclusions are now quite interesting post Haug’s departure.

Barcelona shafts Valencia: The circuit de Catalunya has over the past 2 years been making consistent noises about how much money it is losing which resulted in an initial agreement with Valencia, also under big financial pressure, to alternate the Spanish GP between them – al la Hockenheim and Nurburgring.

This deal has been agreed with Ecclestone clearly as Valencia’s extended contract signed in 2009 meant they would remain on the calendar until 2014. So either they are paying out $30m a year in hosting fee’s and not having a race – or the Spanish GP sharing with Barcelona has been agreed with FOM.

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Ecclestone de Montezemolo spat deepens, Pirelli want a long contract, Silverstone lost £1m, Austrian GP? Tyre stats for 2012

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Ecclestone Responds to Il Padrino: Bernie Ecclestone has responded via the BBC to Luca de Montezemolo’s comments about his age and competence. “The one thing he is correct about is my age – there is no doubt about that. I can’t do anything about that. I’m 82 years old and that’s how it is.”

He alludes to the Italian teams bosses apparent rudeness being a result of his recent foray into Italian politics. “I suppose it’s the same sort of thing that’s happened to him recently in politics, where people have been quite rude about him.

Amusingly Ecclestone turns the tables on Luca and suggests his memory is faulty too. “He says he doesn’t remember what he says very often. Luca is not as old as me. I’m sure in his case it is nothing to do with his age because he’s always been the same. At least he’s consistent. God knows what’s going to happen when he’s 82”.

The fatherly advice from Ecclestone continues, “No, Luca is a lovely guy, I’m probably as a big a supporter of him as anybody. I am a big admirer of Luca’s and I’m sorry for all the trouble he’s had with politics recently. He should never have got involved in the first place.”

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