Martin Whitmarsh

Daily News and F1 Comment: Monday 27th May 2013

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Pirelli told to modify tyres regardless of team agreement Bernie Ecclestone has told AMuS that “I did it like in the old days. I told the teams that they should be united and Pirelli will modify its tyres as planned.” The lack of Concorde agreement appears to once again playing into the hands of anarchy. … Read more

Daily News and Comment: Thursday 25th April 2013

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This page will be updated throughout the day Pirelli bow to pressure Pirelli have announced today that they will change the hard compound (orange) tyre from Barcelona onwards. The Italian tyre manufacturer’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “After evaluating tyre performance over the balance of the first four races, we took the decision – in consultation … Read more

Daily News and Comment: Monday 15th April 2013

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This page will be updated throughout the day Bahrain explosions I am expecting some big differences of opinion amongst us this week on this matter and that is good. Yet let’s respect each other’s opinions because I see here a growing group of people who debate incredibly well and expose most angles of any subject … Read more

Daily News and Comment: Friday 12th April 2013

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This page will be updated later in the day Marussia woes In FP2 Max Chilton managed just 5 laps and stopped the car out on track. On returning to the pits he said, “In turn one I lost all propulsion so for safety reasons we have stopped. But maybe we can go out again”. The … Read more

F1 Melbourne 2013 Review: FP1 and FP2 most reminiscent of Mr. Noah

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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

Breaking News: Monday 11th March 2013

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This page will be updated throughout the day as news stories break. Follow @thejudge13 on twitter as each new story will be tweeted when posted.

Wolff appeals to shareholders

TJ13 reported recently that Daimler Benz has received heavy criticism from a number of its institutional investors for running a team in Formula 1. They object to racing in certain countries where human rights are not respected and further at the cost they see as diminishing shareholder value.

Toto Wolff speaks out in defence of the Stuttgart board. Whilst recognising that the views of shareholders should be considered he argues from a cost/value benefit the global car manufacturer will eventually benefit.

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Horner was in Maranello, 2013 Calendar Hokey-Cokey: Portugal now in?

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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.

Judges Chambers: Sorry if any of you were looking for the 2nd TJ13 feed yesterday, Craig is doing battle with them to allow us to have it how we want – Like Skywalker flying through the trench against the Empire.

I am excited to announce a further member of the TJ13. Adding a 3rd nationality to our merry band of folk  – Cavallino Rampante will be running statistics for us this year. I’m hoping to set up a separate page where we can post these analytical wonders – when someone tells me how that’s done (see technical page if you think you can help).

Further, when not calculating the ave degradation per inch and temperature rise per millisecond, our lover of horses will be preparing 1 day a week, “on this Day”. [cue applause].

Any one else wanting to do 1 day a week, ‘On this day’ step up and mail thejudge13@hotmail.co.uk. I can give you the topics if you like, and you the just research and write…

2013 calendar: My keyboard screams as this combination of letters is sequentially typed out. Having not been the centre of F1 insanity for a few days, Bernie’s decided that Toto, Lauda and Brawn need some time together alone. Obligingly, he steps up to the plate.

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Austin GP Review

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In no particular order, here are the post race threads to be gathered together…

The track and the race: Hat’s off to Mr. Tilke, it seems like he’s finally getting to grips with how to design a track. The topography makes the circuit visually really interesting and the combination of the 3 sectors made for an excellent race. “Turn 2 to turn 9 is probably the best sector I’ve driven in F1”, commented Jenson.

The race itself was tremendous with battles up and down the grid. There were concerns about overtaking but this was clearly not a problem, in fact at times we were back to the same old problem of the FOM TV director not really sure what to show.

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Lewis rude helmet, Perez under pressure, TR quick to blame drivers, F1 team bosses ‘bubble’ world,

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The deep south: London Times reporter tweeted the following, “Blimey. We hear gunshots and ask William our cabbie what they are aimed at. “People, man, people” he says and speeds up”.

Hotels: Still puzzling me, Austin tourist info tells us there are 30,000 hotel rooms city wide. At 2 per room that’s only 60,000 people and yet when I checked, there were many vacancies tonight.

Fans: COTA says there were 83,000 fans there today, which makes a total of around 148,000 so far – Silverstone levels.

Ferrari qualify as in Abu Dhabi: 7th and 9th again, except this time with Massa in front. Alonso is magnanimous and says his team mate did a better job than him. Bleak picture for Ferrari after Q3 (pic)

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Austinites view F1 like a folk festival, McLaren fundamental to Formula E 2014, Who is the F1 driver chain smoker? Teams sharing garages, 204 less pit stops in 2012, HRT sale forced by bank bailout request

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Bank bailout forces HRT sale: Meanwhile, the team travels to Austin with the minimum staff to compete and avoid a financial penalty from FOM for being absent (as.com). We may well see the cars qualify, start the race and retire the cars after one lap.

thejudge13 has previously reported that HRT are using parts way beyond their sanctioned life and has a debt to repay before December 2nd or face dissolution. Thesan Capital, we believe, is a front for the Banco Popular who applied yesterday for a bailout of 2.5bn Euro’s. The terms of the bailout are that all non-profitable assets of the bank must be identified and disposed of – including HRT.

As to the story that Colin Kolles is interested in buying the team, this is fantasy by Thesan Capital. He was ‘exited’ last December when the debt from Banco Popular was assigned to Thesan Capital who on taking control issued a statement explaining Colin’s departure, “This is due to the new direction that the team has taken and the decision of the new management to move the team headquarters to Spain,” it read. (Yallf1.com)

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