TJ13 news

Adam Parr calls Ecclestone’s Concorde deal ‘a crime’ and the EU commission, negligent

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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.

Correction: Email I gave before should have been thejudge13@hotmail.co.uk

Big Thanks: To Craig Alderson who is going to run TJ13 second twitter account

Hijacked by Mercedes

Unfortunately for Adam, this would normally have been the lead story of the day (tue), crossing the North Sea at great pace from Germany. However, the tune to which everyone was dancing came from Mercedes AMG F1 super woofers – Lauda and Wolff.

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Alonso: Matador de toros (transl. ‘Killer of Bulls’)

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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.

Marko Watch: After the day I had yesterday, my brain was rather scrambled. I find that though I’m one of the most decisive people I’ve met, when in this state, I dither over the most silly of matters for an eternity. Anyway, I finally decided this piece qualified to be categorised as a ‘Marko Watch’ story.

My decision was that it does so on the school playground premise that ‘he started it first, sir’. It appears the good doctor has stirred the hornet’s nest and may reap the whirlwind (mixed metaphors I know). Fernando is reveling in the new found freedom of twitter, and this appears to have given him the confidence to take the offensive to the enemy – politics or not.

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Perez taunts Di Resta on twitter, F1 Calendar 2013 to be finalised after the 1st race, De La Rosa back to McLren or Ferrari or Mercedes or Williams…, Gorgio Ascanelli returning to F1?

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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.

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.

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WTCC more viewers than F1, Evolution of RB cars, Bahrain: More trouble for F1, Alonso Samuriesque, F1 on a slippery slope

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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.

Editor’s note: Sorry the news roundup is a little late today, I spent quite a long time piecing together Gary Hartstein’s conversations over the past week or so for the earlier article. It appears today is rather bitty news, but here we go.

Spin, spin and more spin: The World Touring Car Championship site released the following last night.

“WTCC’s TV audience is growing fast. Since the inception of the World Championship in 2005, figures grew from 70 million viewers across 20 broadcasters to over half a billion viewers across 84 broadcasters in 2012.”

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Mercedes caution Lewis ambitions, Lauda needs a new sponsor, Niki Lauda compliments Marko, F1 USA broadcaster NBC criticised, Marko criticises Webber, RB9 may not make Jerez, COTA helped by fiscal cliff, Dennis: we could have retained Hamitlon

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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.

Where exactly are Mercedes up to? According to Schumacher, money was “a factor” in Mercedes’ F1 team’s failure to succeed during his three year comeback to F1. It is clear to the world that the ‘Silver Arrows’ team spends about 100m euro’s less than Red Bull each year and at least the same less than Ferrari.

Schumacher tells Auto Motor und Sport: “It’s a factor. Over the years Red Bull built an infrastructure and has a budget giving them the possibility to respond to anything in the best possible way. This is nothing less than what we had at Ferrari”.

Mercedes, have never been higher than fourth in the constructors’ championship since the Brawn buyout in 2010 and their Chairman has strongly denied they will now pump in more funding for 2013 and beyond. Of course Lewis Hamilton has signed for the team and claims he wants to help turn them into a title winning outfit.

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Grosjean attitude win at all costs, Petrov confident of Caterham drive, Mercedes and Ferrari pass crash tests, Ferrari wind tunnel progreses, Kimi approves of 2013 DRS rules, Kimi says drivers do not make teams better, Maldonado most penalties in 2012

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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.

Grosjean attitude win at all costs: Romain Grosjean thinks he is ready to take a more mature approach to Formula One. He did of course have an abortive start to his career at the scandal ridden Renault in 2009, the young Frenchman gained a second chance with Lotus in 2012.

He clearly proved himself to be a very quick driver with 3 podiums by the middle of 2012, but as we know became the focus for media vilification following the dramatic events at the start of the Belgian GP – for which he received a race ban for Monza.

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2012 season review and musings (part 1): Toro Rosso sack both drivers, Who is Dr Helmut Marko, Alguesauri had 2012 offers, Young driver programmes mean nothing

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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. Just to give you some perspective, the incredibly popular site of James Allen which has been running a number of years, this year has had 1.5m reads.

thejudge13 is in its 15th week and in November had 34,000 reads, an annual run rate of over 400,000, which is over 25% of the total for an established F1 commentator – who by the way I think is one of the best.

Thank you all and I intend to keep it coming strong in 2013. Posting links on the BBC, PlanetF1 and other sites (we had a lot of German site traffic one month) really helps. A thejudge13 reader did this yesterday and we had 300 extra reads and another 25 email registered followers.

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

Editor’s note: I haven’t like other sites done a review of 2012, and in fact I’m still filtering and absorbing what has been an incredible season – 7 winners in the first 7 races set the tone for what was indeed a cliff hanger.

I remember Vettel spinning in Turn 4 Brazil and I stood up from my seat involuntarily feeling a shiver of incredulity course through me – I said to Mrs. Judge – “You couldn’t script this – no one would believe it credible”.

Anyway news is thin, so I have started to collect my thoughts on 2012 and those musings are about to flow. We’ll start with what I consider one of the most ridiculous decisions made for the 2012 season, by someone who should know better.

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Buemi testing for Ferrari, Norbert to take to the stage, Lauda sole link between Daimler and AMG F1, Hulkenberg splits from manager, Berger clashes with Ecclestone over Austrian GP, Stewart thinks Mercedes should’ve kept Schumacher, Valsecchi to Lotus

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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.

thejudge13 archive: Here’s an interesting article I wrote the week after I returned from Monza, particularly in light of recent comments from Mr. Big. By the way that week thejudge13 had 242 reads  (LINK)

Ferrari  peek at Red Bull secrets: Blick, a swiss publication are running a story suggesting Buemi could be on his way to Ferrari. To be honest the article is a rambling useless piece of ‘imagine if’ writing suggesting all kinds of possible driver options for 2013/2014.

Yet, the nugget of the story is that after 22,000km in the Red Bull simulator, Ferrari are seriously considering signing Buemi as a test driver with bait that 2014 may be a chance for him when Massa is again out of contract. I’m sure Ferrari could and would try this – but would Buemi believe the ‘carrot’ was more than a mirage?

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McLaren record breaking year, Ecclestone says 19 races 2013, Todt referees Ecclestone-Ferrari spat, Webber calls for more European races, Texas pays Austin organisers $29m, Mercedes W03 – a space ship

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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.

thejudge13 archive: I was reminded yesterday by Kevin McCauley that there are new readers coming to the site all the time. There are some articles I have written since the launch of the site nearly 13 weeks ago that they may not be aware of. A lot of the articles though are part of the daily news I’m afraid, hence why I have put a search bar on the right hand side.

If you type “Mallya” into the search bar for example – all the articles that have that string “Mallya” within them (main body not just headings) will be presented for you. However, every few days I’ll put a complete feature from the past just above “On this day in F1” for those of you who missed them. Today’s archive article, “F1: Breeding ground for road car technology? No chance“.

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Vettel cuts it fine and Kimi…Vodka and Telecoms to Sposnor F1, Winter F1 testing shortened, India ‘best event’, Bargain price for 2013’s 20th race, Webber hospitalised, Kubica finished in F1, F1 art

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2 days left to vote: Win 2 hospitality passes to Silverstone 2013 and vote for thejudge13 at the Silverstone Media Awards: “Best F1 Blogger” category. Here’s where to vote, Facebook users www.facebook.com/SilverstoneCircuits. Non-Facebook users (Link). Voting closes 12:00 hrs on 11 December, 2012.

Vettel cuts it close & Kimi…: The FIA rules state that to be the World Drivers Champion, the driver must attend the end of season prize giving ceremony and receive in person the trophy. Well, Vettel almost missed the FIA’s end of season FIA prize giving gala.

DPA news agency reports that the Red Bull driver actually landed at the airport in Istanbul only to discover he did not have his passport, and initially he was refused entry into Turkey. For those of us who travel by air and can’t understand how this can happen because we have to show passports to board a commercial flight, Vettel arrived on a private jet and had the trauma of having to wait over an hour at the airport.

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