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The 2013 Formula 1 Pre-Season Thread |OT| Plenty of Time Left in the Silly Season

Wes

venison crêpe
What do you guys think of Gary Anderson's piece on trying to rank the teams performances based on these early times?

...the quickest cars appear to be those of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes, with Lotus not far behind. And Red Bull - the world champions for the last three years - look relatively slow.

Interesting how he gets there. I'm sure he's not absolutely right nor is he absolutely wrong. It's a fun article meant to stir up discussion but boy oh boy, it would be an interesting season if this early estimate of his is close to the money.
 
The doors of Sahara Force India Formula One team seem to be opening for Narain Karthikeyan. Ever since Vijay Mallya bought the F1 team in 2007, the businessman has been dismissive of Indian drivers even as he tested Narain and Karun Chandhok in a simulator a couple of years back.

But the 2013 season, scheduled to kick-start on March 15, could finally see an Indian behind the wheel of a tricolour-liveried machine.

The official pre-season test has already begun, but the Silverstone-based team are the only outfit who have not yet confirmed their second driver — a teammate for Scot Paul di Resta.

Sources say that Narain, who has managed to get more financial backing than last year, has already been offered a reserve driver role at Force India, but the 36-year-old is keen on landing a proper race drive.

lol, no way...
 

kharma45

Member
I thought Gary had said that RBR were the ones to beat and they had 10% more downforce than the rest :S we'll see some the next test, Jerez isn't that telling.
 
Interesting how he gets there. I'm sure he's not absolutely right nor is he absolutely wrong. It's a fun article meant to stir up discussion but boy oh boy, it would be an interesting season if this early estimate of his is close to the money.

I agree that it's a really interesting read to see how he's broken down the figures and arrived at those conclusions. For what it's worth, I'm sure it's pretty much on the money for the pace the teams showed at the first test, but as he points out, it's no indicator of what their eventual race pace will be.
 
What the fuck. Him over Bianchi or Sutil? No way.

Reports in the Indian press suggest that a commercial deal between Force India and manufacturer Tata could see Karthikeyan get the nod.

"As soon as Tata increased the budget for 2013, talks with Force India began,"

"Unlike the past, the negotiation has been a lot more positive."

Tata to buy FI / Cosworth / their V6 turbo and re-badge it Jaguar, that's the new engine manufacturer Wolff mentioned.
 
What do you guys think of Gary Anderson's piece on trying to rank the teams performances based on these early times?



Interesting how he gets there. I'm sure he's not absolutely right nor is he absolutely wrong. It's a fun article meant to stir up discussion but boy oh boy, it would be an interesting season if this early estimate of his is close to the money.

Can someone explain how he arrived at this conclusion/assumption?

Gary Anderson said:
So, the next step is to look at how many laps the driver did on the run on which he set his fastest time. You know he must have at least that amount of fuel on board.

Taking Massa as an example, his fastest time was set on a six-lap run, so he must have had at least six laps' worth of fuel on board.

Each lap of fuel burnt is equivalent to a gain in performance of 0.086 seconds. Apply that calculation to Massa's time, and you get a potential lap time of 1:17.536.

If Massa set his fastest time on a 6-lap run, why would you then assume he had six laps of fuel in the car at the time he set the fastest lap? He must mean he set the fast lap, then went six more laps after that at race pace? I don't get it.
 
Yeah, if he doesn't mean that then he's screwed up his figures.

Obviously if he set it on his last lap of six then he's already burned off the fuel.

Edit - Just tried to check it, but the site I was using for all the laptimes doesn't seem to have an archive of the first three days up yet.
 
Yeah, if he doesn't mean that then he's screwed up his figures.

Obviously if he set it on his last lap of six then he's already burned off the fuel.

Edit - Just tried to check it, but the site I was using for all the laptimes doesn't seem to have an archive of the first three days up yet.

That's what I was looking for too. He couldn't have messed up something that obvious...
 

dubc35

Member
If true, Marussia and Caterham now know they can beat one driver on the grid (besides each other).

a good tweet I saw related to RB being slow:
lf1_zps18fe6af2.png
 

Pimpwerx

Member
What do you guys think of Gary Anderson's piece on trying to rank the teams performances based on these early times?



Interesting how he gets there. I'm sure he's not absolutely right nor is he absolutely wrong. It's a fun article meant to stir up discussion but boy oh boy, it would be an interesting season if this early estimate of his is close to the money.

I assume it's gotten better since a decade or so ago, but winter testing is really hard to draw conclusions from. I still remember Honda being the winter testing champions every season, then being midpack fodder in races. PEACE.
 

h3ro

Member
I assume it's gotten better since a decade or so ago, but winter testing is really hard to draw conclusions from. I still remember Honda being the winter testing champions every season, then being midpack fodder in races. PEACE.

Loved their all black testing livery though.

KZiPV0J.jpg
 

Shaneus

Member
If true, Marussia and Caterham now know they can beat one driver on the grid (besides each other).

a good tweet I saw related to RB being slow:
lf1_zps18fe6af2.png
Were they slow at testing? I wasn't paying attention. But I thought Webber did alright on the first day?
 
Were they slow at testing? I wasn't paying attention. But I thought Webber did alright on the first day?

Based on Gary Anderson's adjusted pace times, they were about 8th and 11th, I think. But no one is saying they're going to be there come Australia (Anderson has already pointed out earlier that the RBR appeared to have a comfortably higher level of down force in the first test).
 

jey_16

Banned
Woohoo....bought my tickets for Australian gp! First time I will be going in a long time, went a few years ago with a general admission ticket and it was a bit disappointing, couldn't really see much. Splurged for a grandstand this time, hope its worth it
 
Woohoo....bought my tickets for Australian gp! First time I will be going in a long time, went a few years ago with a general admission ticket and it was a bit disappointing, couldn't really see much. Splurged for a grandstand this time, hope its worth it
What is general admission anyways? Do you bring a lawn chair and they have an area you can watch from? General Admission for Sunday only in Montreal is $95. Grandstand for the entire weekend is around $260 the cheapest. I said last year that I'd go this year but money is tight.
 

jey_16

Banned
What is general admission anyways? Do you bring a lawn chair and they have an area you can watch from? General Admission for Sunday only in Montreal is $95. Grandstand for the entire weekend is around $260 the cheapest. I said last year that I'd go this year but money is tight.

Basically yeah, and unless you get in early to get a space on some of the small hills, you can't really that much due to the barriers
 

DrM

Redmond's Baby
It must be a nightmare using those things. I get confused by the volume control on mine.

Some info from Mercedes AMG FB page:
2013 steering-wheel!
- PL = Pit limiter
- PC = Pit confirm
- N = Neutral
- Talk = radio communication with race engineer
- Drink = allows the driver to drink thanks to a straw in his race helmet
- HARV = KERS ‘Harvesting’ system, allows driver/team to decide how much the battery will be charged
- Entry/MID/HI-SPD switches = rear differential for corner entry, midpoint, exit and high-speed corners
- MIX switch = fuel mix
- TYRE switch = useful for the driver to confirm tyres before next pitstop (if conditions are changing)
 

dubc35

Member

Kipp

but I am taking tiny steps forward
Bah. So depressing that there's no new news to talk about now that the first testing is over... I want the season to start already!
 

Lach

Member
Swiss TV runs out of the rights at the end of this year... :(
Even if their coverage is very basic I always new I could watch every race (I prefer bbc). I really hope they find a way to continue next year....
 
Force India confirmed on Thursday that Adrian Sutil could take part in next week's Barcelona test.

Autosport reported that the 30-year-old, who raced for the Silverstone-based team between 2007 and 2011, had undergone a seat fitting ahead of next week's test at the Circuit de Catalunya.

However, it is not yet 100 per cent clear whether Sutil will drive.

A Force India spokesman confirmed: "Adrian has had a seat-fit with the team this week. At this stage the test driving schedule for the Barcelona test is not finalised, but there is a possibility Adrian could be involved.

"The driving schedule will be communicated on Monday next week."

Force India are the only team yet to confirm their full driver line-up. Paul di Resta debuted the VJM06 at Jerez last week, with reserve driver Jules Bianchi - seen, like Sutil, as a candidate for the second seat alongside di Resta - also getting a run alongside James Rossiter.



i hope force india go belly up if they give this thug the 2nd seat


in narain we trust
 

Adamm

Member
He may be a thug but he is a good driver, I'd have him over Cucumber any day.

Define "Good", he is mediocre at best.

A average 30 year driver who has been out of the sport since the end of 2011 & was found guilty of assault just over a year ago. Unless he brings in a ridiculous amount of money, I cant see why any team would bother with him.
 

Mastah

Member
Canal+ won the F1 rights in France

Welp, fuck it now F1 is on a pay channel here, I won't be able to watch it freely anymore :/

It's worth mentioning the bid is 29M €/year, whereas TF1 was paying 31M € last year.

Is this deal only for main broadcast or will you also get onboard, pit lane and timing channels?

Here in Poland I would gladly pay to have all these options, be it for a channel or to watch it via internet. Unfortunately Bernie and FOM are still stuck in stone age, so I have to watch it illegally through UK proxy :/
 
Define "Good", he is mediocre at best.

A average 30 year driver who has been out of the sport since the end of 2011 & was found guilty of assault just over a year ago. Unless he brings in a ridiculous amount of money, I cant see why any team would bother with him.

But he's probably better than Narain and has more experience than Bianchi. Also, the dolphin told him to stab that guy in the neck, so it's not his fault.
 

DrM

Redmond's Baby
Here in Poland I would gladly pay to have all these options, be it for a channel or to watch it via internet. Unfortunately Bernie and FOM are still stuck in stone age, so I have to watch it illegally through UK proxy :/

Our national TV is cutting costs due to financial situation in our country, so we will probably lose F1 coverage.
 

Shaneus

Member
Fuck FI for not putting KK in. Cunts. So many deserving drivers not getting a drive this year because of young twats with too much financial backing :(
 
Fuck FI for not putting KK in. Cunts. So many deserving drivers not getting a drive this year because of young twats with too much financial backing :(

I would pay Caterham 100 bucks if they drop Van Der Garde now, before he embarrasses himself, and replace him with KK.
 

mclem

Member
https://twitter.com/andrewbensonf1/status/299934498487930880

Apparently in interview to the German Auto Motor und Sport Rory Byrne said that he is “working full steam” on Ferrari’s 2014 F1 car as well.

Steam-powered car in 2014, you heard it here first!


Interesting comments by Whitmarsh about the finances behind F1:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21463651

I assume three of the comfortable ones are Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull, fourth... maybe Lotus?
 
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