2013 Formula One Season

[AZUCAR!]

Alonso winning the Chinese GP

His GF is really hot too. Hope Ferrari can keep the pace up next week in Bahrain.

 

[Troy]

That race was tough to watch. Webber had to start from the pitlane but they had a good strategy pitting him after one lap to get onto fresh tyres and to use up the soft tyres. Webber was doing so well moving through the field but what are the odds that the first corner after he is in front of Vettel, Vernge turns into him and drops him back. Then after a pit stop he gets stuck in third and the back wheel falls off after not being put on properly. No luck at all for Webber. Shocked that he has been punished for that crash, Vergne left the gap for him and then closed on him leaving Webber no room for the corner. Happy that Vettel didn't get the podium in the end. Was very happy that Ricciardo managed to finish seventh, his best ever result and a good sign heading forward.

Glad that Bahrain is next week and that there isn't a three week break again.

A lot of reports in Australia saying that Webber has signed a five year deal with Porsche for Le Mans starting next year. Wouldn't surprise me if he did since he is probably sick of the politics in F1 and wants to go back to where he started.

 

[Ryan]

I didn't get to watch the entire race since I thought it started at 2:30, not 1, but I did see the nail biting last few laps with Vettel breathing down Hamilton's neck. I was glad Hamilton clinched it. I just couldn't bear to see Vettel win a fourth title. Alonso was absolutely dominant though. Aside from the fact that he's a superb driver, it's clear that Ferrari has a fast car this season. I still have no doubt though that if Kimi had a better car, he'd be killing it. Apparently, he was extremely annoyed when Perez cut right across the front of his car and damaged the wing and who knows how much closer to Alonso he would've been if he hadn't had a damaged wing.

I know it's delayed, but just to illustrate how pissed Webber was after Seb used an underhanded tactic to get the win in Malaysia, here are some videos:

Webber flipping Seb off:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbb3tYcyRvw[/youtube]

Webber cutting as close to Seb's car as he could without hitting him:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykG06ixh92c[/youtube]

 

[Troy]

Perez was driving so erractically yesterday, was amazed that Perez wasn't punished for running Kimi off the road especially since Webber was punished for the Vergne incident. If Kimi didn't have that front wing damage I think it would have been a close battle for first, would have been great seeing Kimi and Alonso going at it.

Webber flipping off Vettel is great, pretty bold as well to take one hand off the steering wheel at that pace.

 

[Ryan]

Ayrton Senna didn't think much of one handed driving. Did basically half a lap at Monaco with one hand off the wheel cause of the manual transmission.

[video=youtube;AyPJfV5iMlE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyPJfV5iMlE[/video]

Gotta love that Webber was basically like screw it, I'm going 200mph and I'm still gonna take my hand off the wheel just to flip off Seb.

 

[Ryan]

Again I forgot the GP was on last week. I can never remember the dates. Kimi's killing it this year. Seb might be in the lead and Alonso might be gunning for first, but in the inferior car, Kimi is in second overall... he's an animal.

 

[Doink]

Gonna start posting in here again as I enjoyed the discussions I had in the past seasons. Really impressed by Lotus and Raikkonen so far however disappointed with Button's start, hopefully they can improve. Glad to see Massa back up there after the accident, really good driver.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Paddy Lowe has been allowed to join Mercedes on June 3rd, rather than next year as expected. He'll be their new Executive Director (technical) so he could make his first appearance for Mercedes at the Canadian GP.

I enjoyed the last race, especially because Alonso won in Barcelona. We do need to work on our qualifying and get Massa and Alonso up nearer the front of the grid, instead of them starting 5th & 6th or 5th & 9th like what happened at the Spanish GP. Also, since James Allison has left Lotus and has been linked with Ferrari, i'd like to see him sign with the team. Especially since he's worked with Alonso in the past at Renault.

And there's now an issue with tyres. Red Bull made a big fuss after the Spanish GP saying 4 stops was say too many (which I kinda agree with, especially because there were over 80 pit stops in total in Barcelona) but Lotus because they've mainly been doing 3 stops this year and they've worked out for them, they had a dig at Red Bull. And so did Ferrari from what I read. But Pirelli have said they'll change the tryes around for when Canada comes around so we should be then seeing 2 stops from teams.

 

[Troy]

Was great watching the crowd in Barcelona. So involved and their celebrations when Kimi passed Seb were hilarious, on their feet going crazy. Great passion.

With the tyres there does seem to be a lot more pit stops this year and some teams cars are much better on the tyres. What is a bit worrying is how the tyres are delminating frequently, seems like it happens at least once each weekend.

Looking forward to Monaco this weekend. Some don't think that it is the most exciting race but I love it. Fantastic scenery, great street circuit and tight corners. Drivers can't allow their concentration to lapse at any stage on the circuit because the barriers are so close.

 

[Doink]

Love Monaco, predicting a Vettel win here. Always a cracking race.

 

[AZUCAR!]

I don't see Red Bull honestly doing that well this weekend. They struggled in FP1 & FP2 yesterday, especially Vettel, who just barely was inside the top 10. They've had the day off today to no doubt analyze what they can do to improve the tyre situation, but unless Vettel IMO improves by FP3 tomorrow morning, he won't get pole, and won't win the race.

Mercedes seem to be strong again judging by practice yesterday, so i'd say either Rosberg or Hamilton are the favorites for pole. Monaco is a hard track to overtake too, so Mercedes may be able to get their first win of the season this weekend. Although, i'll be hoping for another Alonso win

 

[Troy]

Mercedes locked out the front row so this could be an interesting race. Mercedes are much slower in the race so I expect a massive train to form behind them but they may be able to protect their positions because it is so hard to overtake at Monaco. Hoping that Webber can get on the podium and that Riccardo can get a point finish.

Hopefully the start isn't anything like the GP2 race from the other day.

[YOUTUBE]ht-bfjcKJME[/YOUTUBE]

No idea what that pole sitter was doing, first he locked up on the start and then he just didn't turn and went right across the pack. Crazy pileup.

 

[Troy]

This right now is the annoying thing with tyres this season. Drivers are trying to protect the tyres within ten laps and aren't actually racing, I want to see drivers driving 100% for the majority of the race not for a fraction of it.

Apparently Pirelli aren't allowed to test on a current car because none of the teams signed off on it. They use a 2010 Renault to do their testing and that is a completely different design. No wonder the tyres don't quite work the way that they expected.

 

[Doink]

More strategic though, will be more interesting later on, least we don't get a Vettel dominated race every race. C'mon Kimi

 

[Doink]

Massa huge crash, neck brace. Gutted for Massa as hoped he'd do well.