F1 2013 Championship

[Geckothan]

Hopefully the noses of the other manufacturers will be closer to the 2012 McLaren this year than last years broken (stepped) noses.

It's pretty amazing how ugly race cars have become today. You think back to the FW14B or the MP4/7A, or 1990's era Penske or Reynard Indycars, etc. Then compare them to the stepped nose F1 monstrosities of today, or the COT in NASCAR. Maybe motorsport needs some kind of aesthetics rule? I understand the military going for function over form, but this is sport.

If they brought back proper ground effect cars, they'd be able to go for form and just hide the function without losing it.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I see Dr Helmut's been shooting his mouth off again, about Alonso & Webber, and wanking over Vettel at Webber's expense...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20961585

 

[Geckothan]

^ You might even say Helmut is stroking his helmet. He's just a prick.

I don't see what's wrong with Alonso saying that he's racing Adrian Newey, because the truth is, Red Bull would be NOTHING without Adrian Newey. Put any fast, consistent driver in one of his cars (at least when he's found some loophole to exploit) and they'll dominate. Hamilton and Alonso would put Vettel to shame with identical machinery.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Ferrari have signed Pedro De La Rosa as a dev/test driver

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/1/14193.html

 

[Lonemagpie]

Testing dates and places are:

Jerez 5-8 February
Barcelona 19-22 February
Barcelona 28 February-3 March

Force India, meanwhile, aren't announcing their second driver until testing...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105187

 

[Lonemagpie]

Timo Glock has quit Marussia all of a sudden

 

[MacLeod]

^Or more likely they need a Pay Driver

 

[Geckothan]

Some big personnel changes at Mercedes! Wolff joining, Lowe possibly joining, and rumours of Brawn being dropped in the future.

 

[MacLeod]

And some changes to the Tyre's

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21167206


Though I wonder what would happen if they changed the Tyre rule and instead of the Tyre manufacture decind the tyre options for a race, the teams could nominate their own individual tyre choice. I.e One team might bring Medium and Soft, whilst another might go for Super-soft and hard.

 

[Geckothan]

All the red on the new Lotus just looks wrong.

 

[MacLeod]

Looks like we might lose another GP this coming season, the German GP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21263377

 

[Geckothan]

No doubt Bernie is already rubbing his disgusting little fingers together, deciding which stupid Far Eastern/Third World shithole to start a new GP in to replace it. It's sad to see all the proper GPs slowly disappearing.

 

[MacLeod]

Who knows maybe the French GP could be rn in place of the German GP this year, as the issue seesm to be about the circuit (Nurberbring) rather than the German GP itself.

If I had to pick which European races had to stay on the calender

Monaco
British
Italian
Belgium
+1 Other

 

[Defcon]

FWIW German media is now reporting that there has been an agreement and the GP will take place.

 

[Geckothan]

Germany should stay, and France, Portugal and Austria should return at the expense of a few crappy Third World events (Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, China, etc). Sadly, that will never happen, but in an ideal world...

 

[MacLeod]

Well in an ideal world many of those souless Tilke circuits would be gone from the calander.

 

[Avon]

they should bring back the old austrian circuit, but not the terrible 90's version.

and bring back adelaide. and go to bathurst. and the mexican gp.

 

[ITL]

Imola was always one of my favourite circuits. The Aqua Minerale sequence of corners is breathtaking.

 

[Geckothan]

Imola was always one of my favourite circuits. The Aqua Minerale sequence of corners is breathtaking.

Imola would be good, though it would be awesome with the pre-1995 layout (it was never THAT dangerous in the first place, they just overreacted and dumbed everything down 'just in case' after Senna died).

 

[ITL]

I quite like the re-profiled Tamburello, myself. But it was a great layout pre 95, it's true.