F1 Insiders Est. 2012
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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Maruasia get some kind of deal
Mr. E today has been assuring the F1 world and its fans that we should hopefully see all 11 teams compete for the full 2013 season. He was in fact in Jerez on Thursday last week, even thought TJ13 was otherwise engaged and was absent for his papal audience with other more important business.
“On Thursday I was bringing the teams up to speed with the new Concorde Agreement,” say Ecclestone to Autoweek. “They are all safe. We have got a deal with them all, including Marussia. We are continuing with Marussia. I thought they were going to go [bust] but they are not.” No thanks to FOM eh Graeme? Further, we have no details as to what Marussia have been offered/told they can have (delete as appropriate).
Ferrari has signed a sponsorship agreement with Weichai Power.The agreement with one of China’s largest manufacturers of diesel engines and machinery vehicles is for 4 years and will run until 2016. Weichai Power, a part of the Weichai Group, is the first Ferrari sponsor of the People’s Republic of China.
Marrusia: Rumours are emerging Louis Razia is replacing Timo Glock. TBC
Nostalgia reigns: The big launch today with an emotive and haunting piece on Bruce McLaren, speaking as though from beyond the grave he spelled out his vision for McLaren which is still clear today. Then we were privileged to see this CanAm-winning M8D driven into MTC, the car which Bruce was killed by during testing at Goodward.
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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.
From TJ13’s chambers: Having been stranded due to the UK’s inept capabilities in handling snow and then struck simultaneously by a telecoms service cut – NO INTERNET – I have finally made it back to the 21st century following a succesful rescue helicopter air lift by harness from TJ13 Towers.
So I will begin by covering the essentials and then expand the comments and threads of ideas later.
Wolff joins Mercedes: TJ13 has been suggesting all is not well at Williams for some time, the departure of Mark Gillan to ‘spend more time with his family’ as a story that has not yet run its full course. This time last year, Mr. Ecclestone was putting pressure on the historic British team to change their ways.
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.
