F1 Insiders Est. 2012
The debate over how true to real life the next big F1 film will be is beginning to circulate the F1 fans forums. Will ‘Happy Days’ Ron Howard’s account of the life and times of Niki Lauda and James Hunt and their on track battle be believable or a work of fantasy? Well, no one … Read more
Brought to you in partnership with Dr James Beck of IntelligentF1. And so to China, where the headline times from practice show Mercedes looking good in FP1 and Ferrari in FP2. But the real story is that the soft tyres are fragile. We talking about more than 0.5s per lap degradation – it’s like it … Read more
Red Bull Racing have a massive problem on their hands. Those who thought the whole Sepang thing would result in another uneasy truce between the team’s drivers could not have been further from the truth. Sebastian Vettel faced a fiery media today and to be fair gave as good as he got. However, Vettel’s confused … Read more
Being Number One is brought to you by TJ13 Courtroom Reporter & Crime Analyst: Adam Macdonald People in F1 land have been focussing on the now “undisputed” no.1 at Red Bull and what this means for F1 as a whole. However, it is forgotten that this is the case in many of the other teams as well, … 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
Caterham appointment This is very interesting. Vitaly Petrov’s ex-manager Oksana Kosachenko has landed herself a job at Caterham this year as Commercial Director. A press release says, “She will be in charge of the acquisition of new commercial partners for the team and will attend races and team events in her new role which started in … 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
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 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.
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.
