On Track Review : Malaysia Qualifying 2013

Brought to you by TheJudge13 ‘on track correspondent’: James Parker Heat, humidity and tyre degradation are the three things that look set to dominate tomorrow’s proceedings for the Malaysia Grand Prix. In what was a hugely intriguing Qualifying session today, which saw RedBull struggle, the unpredictable nature of the famous Malaysian weather once again struck … Read more

Race Review – Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia

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

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

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

Brabham family win 3 year legal battle, Bottas discusses Williams 2013 car: FW35, Alonso responds to Her Marko – briefly, Grosjean strategy for F1 in 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.

Brabham family win legal battle: Before the start of the 2010 season, a German businessman who bought the remains of the Super Aguri team lodged an application with the FIA to start a team under the Brabham name. The Brabham family then began court proceedings, claiming they knew nothing about the team or the businessman’s rights to use their name.

Two other legendary F1 constructors, Lola and March, also lodged applications to join the circus in 2010 but their efforts that came to nothing.

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Kamui tweets ‘another season’, Bottas Sponsor speaks out, Rolex replace Hublot, Ferrari Cartoon, Alonso the Samurai, How much f1 drivers earn, McLaren 2012 profits set to decline, Brawn – staff jigsaw complete

Bottas Sponsor believes he’s getting value for money : The topic of pay drivers appears to be one I hear discussed all too regularly and maybe part of the reason for this is we are seeing F1 drivers come and go more quickly than in days gone by. I think there are only 11 drivers confirmed for 2013 that started the 2011 season.

But at times its hard to understand why the sponsors behind the drivers are prepared to pay millions of dollars to get their protoges an F1 seat. The man behind the Grove teams latest young star driver is Anders Antti Aarnio-Wihuri, chaiman and majority shareholder of WinPak Ltd.

WinPak area highly succesful international business, established in 1975 and they manufacture and distribute packaging materials and related packaging machines primarily for the packaging of perishable foods, beverages, and for use in health care applications.

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Drivers of 2012, Ferrari get biggest FOM payout,Raikkonen like Lauda?, #BOTTAS and F1 social media, Turkey 2013, Kamui in GP2, Bernie back in team ownership, Kimi goes snowmobile racing

Register with thejudge13 for email notification of new articles. 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.

Silverstone Media Awards: Many thejudge13 readers are outside the UK (65%) and I’ve had a few enquiries as to whether they are eligible to vote. The answer is yes and all you need to do is leave your name and an email address to vote on Silverstone’s website – the links are below.

Last years winner was a polish blog called F1 talks. (Link)

If you enjoy thejudge13 site, please take the 2 minutes to vote for it. I am committed to an advert free site, because all these pop ups drive me crazy but I do want to develop the site and an award like this will help me in two ways. I am looking to syndicate articles to International publications (mostly local media) where they have no local F1 knowledge and rely on Reuters news feeds to educate their readers.

Of course I would be paid for this syndication but the funds received will go towards taking thejudge13 onward and upward. One of the things I am looking at is a podcast for 2013. Much of the current media produced F1 audio/visual material is quite starchy and I believe there is room for a weekly discussion programme of a more relaxed nature – with regular expert fans and guests.

I am presently talking to a well know F1 media individual about this, but there will be a cost attached. Getting sponsorship is easier when you’ve won an award. So please take a couple of minutes to help thejudge13 in turn help you get even more from F1 in 2013.

31 people by last night have clicked through on the link previously provided, so here’s how Silverstone tell you to vote.

Fans can cast their votes now via Silverstone Circuit’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/SilverstoneCircuits. Voting closes 12:00hrs on 11 December, 2012. To vote from a mobile visit http://www.silverstone.co.uk/silverstone-media-awards-2012/

Ferrari ask FIA for clarification: 11:00 GMT just received this tweet – “Ferrari asked, in a letter, a clarification from the FIA ​​about the overtaking of VET/VER during the 4th round of the Brazilian Grand Prix”. It was in Italian, my best translation efforts.

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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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Heikki 2013 chances slim, Perez burns his bridges, Mercedes abandon Coanda, Luca relinquishes political ambition

Editor’s note: Thank you for the many kind words about my rehab. I am on less hallucinogenic tablets now and am raring to go for the seasons finale.

In line with recent habit of identifying far flung thejudge13 readers, I want to say Hello to those of you from Malaysia. Say hello in the comments – we’re glad of your support.

 Heikki on 2013: thejudge13 reported yesterday that Heikki may be struggling for a drive in 2013. Having had a chat with someone who knows more than me, I revealed the analysis of Kovaleinen’s performance against his team-mate which was not great – and this in part is what teams do look at.

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