F1 Insiders Est. 2012
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
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.
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.
This is a new section and due to our present site software will only send out a ‘posted notification’ on the first post of the day. However, it will be updated throughout the day as stories break.
FIA swoop on F1 drivers with surprise drugs tests 17:21 GMT
Timing huh. I was chatting to a couple of well known twitter characters last night, following the Usher advertising a post I wrote in November about drug testing being a joke in F1. Today the FIA have demonstrated how speedily they can respond to a judgement. McLaren’s Sergio Perez received a very “early morning” visit and was requested to give a urine test before he had a day out in Geneva with big Ron.
Quick mention: A gentle nudge to read (if you haven’t in the past week) the newly revised ‘Project’ page on TJ13 and the ‘Judicial Board’ page under the ‘About’. Any help is gratefully accepted even for 1 hour a week. By the way we hit 150,000 visits last night since
Musings: Formula 1 at times appears to me like Big Time boxing. Whoaah – hold those horses and that indecent thought… Bernie and Jean in boots, shorts and a vest…gloves held high…duking it out…Damn – where’s a cartoonist when you need one.
Anyway, I was thinking more about the boxing drama that is the weigh in. This is a strange ritual where the competitors strip off their clothes and are left with merely a fig leaf for modesty. They stand on some scales in front of scores of photographic lenses and flashbulbs operated by strange unknown people… and then they face each other – toe to toe – with curled lips, dark stares and snarls of aggression.
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.
TJ13 News: Sorry about earlier post, the wordpress spirits refused to allow me to post my Scorpion Racing scornful review repeatedly??? Maybe I’ll sneak it in here – wink, wink – every other sentence.
Tomorrow we see the launch of a very exciting new ‘On this day’. I think you’re going to like a lot. I’ve always enjoyed these kinds of features on other sites, but I tried to make it more contemporary with as many YouTube videos as possible when I was playing at it. However, time was always against me.
The dedicated TJ13 chroniclers will do an exceptional job, and if anyone knows how I can set up a second page and create a whole archive with a calendar research tool, please contact me on thejudge13@hotmail.co.uk
Further, the winner of the longest outstanding mini quiz I’ve run – about 24 hours to guess the Brabham 1992 with Hill driving and was purple – reader John Myburgh – is devising some kind of regular feature quiz to keep you scratching your heads.
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. Today thejudge13 in 18 weeks and 2 days will see its 100,000 visitor. Thank you all. Any comments you have please feel free to add them.
I have been trying different styles of content to see what fits best – so we’re on this journey together.
Alonso and Politics: You have to love Ferrari and when I reported there was a new communications man in charge, Renato Bisignani, I was concerned we’d see a drastic change. I need not have been worried. This went out on their website today – I’ll publish it word for word
Madonna di Campiglio, 17 January –Alonso, politics and rivals: a lot has been said about this triumvirate during 2012 and someone – over the other side of the Alps – has felt the need to kick off 2013 on the same note. Clearly, the media who do their job and usually enjoy these verbal skirmishes, made the most of the situation, repackaging some of these now classic questions for Fernando.
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.
Di Resta vs Perez: I posted a video a couple of days ago that showed Paul talking about various things F1 at the Autosport show (LINK). A number of other sites and print media wrote up his comments yesterday, but I was busy with my ‘Da Vinci Code’ story, buried in pages of Italian newsprint and blogs.
Anyway, here’s a few of the highlights. Di Resta revealed he held talks with McLaren over replacing Lewis. “I’m not going to give away too much, but yes, there were discussions,” Di Resta said. “Unfortunately in this sport now there’s a little bit more to it. There’s a commercial side and money’s tight. Perez has some good backing.”
Martin Whitmarsh has maintained all along that cash from Telmex owned by one of the world’s richest men – Carlos Slim – was absolutely nothing to do with the team’s decision when recruiting the young Mexican to replace Hamilton.
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.
Editor’s note: Well, at some point today thejudge13 received its 1000th subscriber. 579 of you follow by email, 439 by twitter and 14 on the new RSS feeds we introduced in the last week. Also in the next 7 days we will reach our 100,000th visitor.
The end of season survey demonstrated that about 50% of you come direct from a saved favourite in your browser or by typing in http://www.thejudge13.com. So in just 17 weeks here we are – 2000 regular’s. It’s my round and I’ll get the drinks in.
I hope you’re all enjoying tj13 and please comment on what you feel. I nearly dropped the youtube video links until one reader said they really enjoyed them. Also, ‘on this day in F1’ was under threat until another reader said they really appreciated the historic information this section brings.
If you do come direct from a browser or by typing http://www.thejudge13 – REMEMBER to click on the orange title of the latest article or any article you are reading. If you don’t you won’t see the comments of others or be able to make one of your own.
Media event of the year: Today saw the arrival of Sergio Perez at the Technology Centre in Woking for the first time. It was the media event of the year so far. I have seen the twitter accounts and web news reports for scores of journalists advertising their interviews with Checo – and remarkably he says pretty much the same thing to them all. Hey ho.
