Opening Night ~ “F1 & The Musical Chairs”: Starring – Zetsche the Godfather, Lauda the Hatchet man, Toto the Wolff in sheep’s clothing, Fry the Mole, Jordan the Whistle Blower, Brawn as the ousted King and Paddy Lowe as the Ghost of Christmas to come

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 internship: It has been suggested to me that I get some help with the site, as I can spend easily 6 hours some days reading, researching writing and honing the material. One area I thought of is the, ‘On this day’ feature. When I’m busy, this suffers and I believe some of you quite like it.

This could be a good project for under graduates studying journalism or media studies to include in their portfolio of work. Ideally a few helping hands would be good – and if we had 7, it would only be 1 day a week each would need to provide something. I can brief on the topic if necessary, and then the apprentice TJ13’s could go and find video and source information, write it up and use contemporary information to bring it relevant to the here and now. For someone who is feeling lethargic – they can have Feb 29th.

Anyway, if you or someone you know are up for this they can email thejudge13@hotmail.co.uk. Please – I am not sinking here and can manage for now without, so if you are a busy person and can’t commit fully I’d rather you not offer. Chasing up material that is late will be worse than just delivering it.

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Paddy Lowe off to join the massed ranks at Mercedes AMG F1

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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.

In England, our buses used to be run by the government (give me some leeway) and whilst they issued timetables to the minute where each of the 10,000’s of buses should be and when – as with most of 70’s Britain which was nicknamed ‘the sick man of Europe’ – efficiency was poor and nothing was where it should be – when it should have been there.

What would then happen is, having waited for 30 minutes longer than expected, a bus would arrive and directly behind it would be another and maybe a third. Our self deprecating view of British efficiency then spawned the phrase – ‘buses always come in 3’s’.

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Glock out of Marrusia, Wolff moves to Mercedes, Wolff and Lauda get 40% of Mercedes AMGF1, Adam Parr to return to Williams

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.

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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.

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Certina continue Sauber support, Wolff: ‘Driver management thankless task’, Herbert: Crass reasoning on Stewarding, Bianchi wins 1st time out 2013, Senna spreading net outside F1, Mercedes 2013

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.

Certina and Sauber: Certina, the Swiss sports watchmaker are to extend their existing sponsorship of the Sauber F1 team. Apparently they will be gifting one of their precision time pieces to each member of the race team – not exactly sure what that means but it may be unlucky if you design widgets back at base maybe. Their logo will be on the drivers visors, the sidepods and wind deflectors.

“Certina has always been strongly committed to cutting-edge technology,” says Monisha Kaltenborn, CEO of the Sauber F1 Team, “and that’s an ideology we share. Since 2005, we have also been united by an enduring partnership that embraces common values such as innovation and efficiency. These are key factors behind the upturn in the Sauber F1 Team to which Certina has made a definitive contribution.”

Adrian Bosshard, President von Certina, corroborates this: “After an eight-year partnership with the Sauber F1 Team, we are delighted to be continuing to make use of this dynamic and innovative Formula One platform. The Team’s professional work ethic and typical Swiss mindset are the perfect match for our brand.” (Sauber Press Release)

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Pirelli F1 future, Mallya’s personal jet confiscated by tax authorities, Mercedes reveal sound of their 2014 V6 Turbo F1 engine, Frijns short of cash, Maldonado warned by Wolff, Bottas ‘the puppy’

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.

Pirelli’s Future: In the UK parliament when a matter has been discussed previously, but the issue is raised again, the speaker will often sa rather dismissively, “I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave earlier”. Well TJ13 reader DWilD had a good old soul cleansing rant about the indecision and dithering in F1 over race calendar, Concorde, driver line ups for FI and Caterham…. well sir I have another to add to the list. Pirelli.

Their contract expires at the end of this year and there is no sign of a new one being signed by FOM/FIA. For the past 2 season’s Pirelli have added something to the spectacle of F1, many complain matters have gone too far and the biggest complaint is that they want to see driver’s pushing flat out, not worrying about tyre wear. Jenson on more than one occasion has alluded to the fact that his deliberate ‘under use’ of the tyre has cost him places…I think even a win but can’t remember where.

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Nurburgring lifeline, Consistancy analysis, Vettel yellow flag storm brewing in Italy, Kingfisher Airlines finally finished, Champagne & Hot Dogs in Milton Keynes

Vote for thejudge13 at the Silverstone media awards. “Best F1 blogger” is the category if you think we are. (Link). It only takes about 1 minute to do. I believe we have 14 votes so far from thjudge13 readers.

Nurburgring: My favourite subject, the 2013 F1 calendar. It’s a week for lifelines, first HRT and now Nurburgring. To cut a long story short, in February the operators of the circuit, NAG, were given an eviction notice for non-payment of rent. Today Motorsport are reporting this matter is now ‘settled’ – how or by whom we don’t know.

2 weeks ago a spokesman for NAG said, “Formula 1 is no more at the Nurburgring”, discussions with Ecclestone were cancelled and all the other 2013 events were at risk.

Today, “Now we have to make progress in the talks with the Bernie Ecclestone toward a contract”, said Thomas Schmidt of NAG. I presume the operating company had been declared insolvent or bankrupt and the original contract is therefore no longer in force. Anyway, good luck lads – Bernie’s feeling a little down and unwanted at the moment, you may catch him in a rare moment of weakness.

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Quinghua in? Fernandes to step down? Austin Sherrifs unconcerned, Marko slates Webber, FIA needs $40m more, France GP – AGAIN!!! Turkey more likely in 2013, Wolff speaks about Senna,

Marko critical of Webber: Our favourite German newspaper Bilde.de tells us today that Dr. Helmut Marko has pointed the finger at Mark Webber, after the Australian’s messy race in Abu Dhabi. at thejudge13 we think Webber was lucky not to be penalised for his move on Maldonado and his clash with Massa. After the race Webber himself admitted he should have stayed clear of the dueling Perez, DiResta and Grosjean and by not doing so ended his own race when he was too close to avoid the inevitable crash when it occurred.

Marco, not known for mincing his words says, “You can’t have more errors than that in one race. That was not a good day for him.” As if that’s not enough, Marco wants to make his opinion crystal clear telling us, “The start was no good, and the accidents were not good. It’s too bad, because it affects us in the constructors’ championship.” This is a slightly dramatic conclusion from Helmut as Red Bull will inevitably collect the 5 points they require to win the constructor’s title for the 3rd successive year.

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