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The Formula 1 2013 Season |OT| End of the Webber Era

Relative to how much one likes Vettel?

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Lach

Member
So who decided it was a good idea to have this 1week/3week rythm between GP's? I feel it's worse than ever this season...
 

Addnan

Member
I don't get the whole "OMG Vettel was a MONSTER in the final few laps" thing considering his fastest lap was still 2+ seconds off pole on Softs, with light fuel load *shrugs*

He was chasing down Hamilton and Raikkonen who were on 20 lap old mediums, Vettel chasing down with fresh softs which are over a second faster than new mediums. They lasted 4 laps and dropped off in the last lap. Seems about right what he did. Nothing unexpected really.

How did Kimi stay ahead of Hamilton, is the Mercedes that bad in race speed? I thought only the nose was damaged, the from wing bits are missing too.

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He was chasing down Hamilton and Raikkonen who were on 20 lap old mediums, Vettel chasing down with fresh softs which are over a second faster than new mediums. They lasted 4 laps and dropped off in the last lap. Seems about right what he did. Nothing unexpected really.

How did Kimi stay ahead of Hamilton, is the Mercedes that bad in race speed? I thought only the nose was damaged, the from wing bits are missing too.

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I'm pretty sure the Lotus is better at managing tyre wear than the Mercedes. With better tyres, Merc might have been in with a shout of winning.
 

Hammer24

Banned
Mornin´ guys!
While I´m still wearing my tinfoil hat, lets discuss for a moment how conveniently RBR, Merc and (to a lesser degree) FER sorted their #1 - #2 driver problems. Very convenient, right?

I think this weekend pretty much confirms WEB is a goner after the season. There are now so many sources connecting him to Porsche and next years Le Mans car, that it can´t be ignored anymore. And with VET going to FER latest in 2015, I can totally see RAI landing there at RBR.

Don´t know if its been discussed yet, but all the drivers using DRS under yellow got a warning, a second warning will automatically mean a time penalty.

Lauda confirmed, that after Bahrain Pirelli will bring new tyre mixtures, which will be harder. They can´t for Bahrain, as the tyres have already been set by FIA up to this race.

Oh, and the biggest LOL of the race goes to BUT. He drove slow, as he thought he´d otherwise ruin his tyres. Then the team asked him to despite his feelings push harder. He then drove 2 secs a lap quicker - and surprise surprise, the tyres didn´t degrade more. MCL is left wondering why, they still don´t understand those tyres the slightest.
 

Hammer24

Banned
I'm pretty sure the Lotus is better at managing tyre wear than the Mercedes. With better tyres, Merc might have been in with a shout of winning.

Yes that's true. The problem was, that the weather forecast said it would be way colder on race day than it actually was, and the Mercs setup the cars accordingly. Thus they had more degradation.
 

cmr-94

Member
Good to hear Bernie say that Pirelli will be bringing more tires for use in practice from Spain onwards

Also, why didn't Raikonnen change his front wing? Surely the benefits of a new front wing would have outweighed the extra time in the pit stop. Especially as it was pretty early on
 

Hammer24

Banned
Also, why didn't Raikonnen change his front wing? Surely the benefits of a new front wing would have outweighed the extra time in the pit stop. Especially as it was pretty early on

RAI said the team wanted to change, but he felt good enough with it, and didn´t want to lose the time.
 

Fuzz Rez

Banned
RAI said the team wanted to change, but he felt good enough with it, and didn´t want to lose the time.

Actually it was other way around. RAI wanted to change the wing but the team decided to keep it since it would take too much time to change.

"Kimi Raikkonen said he wanted to change the damaged front wing he carried until the end of the Chinese Grand Prix.

Raikkonen damaged his car’s nose and lost several front-right wing elements in a collision with Sergio Perez early in the race.

Afterwards Raikkonen said he “didn’t know” why the wing wasn’t replaced. He told the team during the race he wanted a new one."
 

ramparter

Banned
I think, had Kimi changed his front wing he would come out behind Hamilton and then who knows for sure if he would manage to get past him.
 
I'm pretty sure the Lotus is better at managing tyre wear than the Mercedes. With better tyres, Merc might have been in with a shout of winning.

Kimi said it made the car understeer a lot so the front tyres were getting destroyed more than they suposed to


RAI said the team wanted to change, but he felt good enough with it, and didn´t want to lose the time.

It's the other way around. And I think the team took traffic into consideration. It worked well, they might have had the chance to challenge for the win but the risk is bigger than the reward here
 

jambo

Member
Porsche denies Mark Webber deal

Porsche have denied reports they had signed the Formula One driver on a five-year enduro sports car deal from 2014 after the Australian Red Bull driver's miserable weekend in Shanghai was ultimately ended by a loose rear tyre.

Moments after Webber's Shanghai challenge ended, Twitter lit up over his reported Porsche deal, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The official Le Mans 24 Hour account added to the speculation with a tweet which included Webber's 'AussieGrit' handle.

"Mark Webber at the 24 hours 2014 with Porsche ...May be ... #LM24 AussiGrit (sic) #mission2014", they tweeted.

However, Porsche's Wolfgang Hatz said they had not signed Webber as they prepared to hit the test track later this year ahead of their World Endurance Championship assault.

"There is a test plan and for sure Mark Webber is not part of them," he told AutoAction.

"We can have perhaps some Formula One drivers in the future but it is not necessary."

Webber was last involved in sports cars in 1999.

Rumours of a split with Red Bull were fuelled by a report earlier in the Herald Sun that Webber had reportedly signed a new five-year contract to lead Porsche in their return to famous 24 hour endurance race Le Mans.

http://www.emirates247.com/sports/other/porsche-denies-mark-webber-deal-2013-04-15-1.502660


Sounds like it was all just bollocks, starting with rumours that steam-rolled thanks to Twitter and were picked up by mainstream media with little to no research.
 
Porsche denies Mark Webber deal



http://www.emirates247.com/sports/other/porsche-denies-mark-webber-deal-2013-04-15-1.502660


Sounds like it was all just bollocks, starting with rumours that steam-rolled thanks to Twitter and were picked up by mainstream media with little to no research.

Seems like very careful pr management, notice how he says they are testing later on this year and Webber, while still racing for RB, will not be a part of that. No mention of 2014 onwards.

While I'm not convinced anyone would sign a 5 year sports car deal, he doesn't really deny anything. I imagine some talks have been held maybe even a letter of intent signed, but I doubt anything more than that.
 

Leunam

Member
So what's the deal with McLaren?

Now that they can develop two of the same car given that Button and Perez have similar styles I would have thought they would be doing far better. It's almost like they started from scratch and are playing catch-up which coupled with tires they don't like puts them in a crappy place.
 

Leunam

Member
I thought the new compound was going to be for after Bahrain. This is better.

They did.

Shame. I would have thought they could use Jensons car from last year but I guess there were too many things in the setup that were meant to account for Hamiltons driving that it wasn't wise to do so.
 

dubc35

Member
This tire issue is becoming really annoying IMO. Tires are part of motorsports and should have an effect on the race, but they should not be the absolute, overriding, dominate force that they are now.
 
oh god that intro
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This tire issue is becoming really annoying IMO. Tires are part of motorsports and should have an effect on the race, but they should not be the absolute, overriding, dominate force that they are now.

Yeah. Tire strategy is one thing, but when tires last only 7 laps before the cliff is another. It's such a wildcard that I just think cars aren't being set properly.
 

Addnan

Member
So what was the point in going to Sky lol? If it ends up being free, great, but scared they would start putting ads in the middle of the race.
 

Dead Man

Member
Article on the viewing number woes and the free set top boxes: http://www.pitpass.com/48862-Ecclestone-reveals-free-Sky-F1-plan
It is nearly two years since pay-television operator BSkyB announced that it had snatched the exclusive rights to broadcast Formula One from the BBC. Although the initial uproar is a distant memory, it hasn't been forgotten. Sky broadcasts all F1 races live whilst the BBC shows just nine this year with delayed highlights of the ten others. The impact of this has not been hard to notice.

In February Pitpass' business editor Christian Sylt revealed that F1's viewing figures in the UK fell by 3.8m to 28.6m in 2012, the first year of Sky's deal. Lotus' team principal Eric Boullier told Sylt that the teams are monitoring the move to pay-TV and admitted that if it becomes global, they may need to review their sponsorship rates. Historically the teams' offering to sponsors has been based on them being seen by as many viewers as possible but Sky presents a hurdle to this as the minimum cost of the package which shows F1 is £318. If F1's boss Bernie Ecclestone gets his way it won't cost viewers a penny.

Writing in the Express newspaper Sylt reveals that Ecclestone advised Sky to distribute free receiver boxes which are restricted to picking up F1 in order to drive conversion rates to its full service and increase viewing figures.

Talking to Sylt Ecclestone said that following the announcement that Sky would broadcast F1 he received letters from fans saying "we aren't going to watch Formula One any more" and in response he "said to Sky why don't you give people free Sky boxes that will only be able to receive Formula One. I said you can guarantee that when you put a Sky box in the house, although it is only for Formula One, people are going to say 'why can't I watch the rest' and they will sign up.

"Kids will say 'my friends at school watch this so why can't we?' Sky are very good with that kind of idea. It would use Formula One to drive their subscriptions."

It is a fascinating scheme which could only have been dreamt up by a master wheeler and dealer like Ecclestone. Although it is nothing more than an idea it would in fact be a natural progression of Sky's strategy to tempt viewers with free or lower-cost access.

In January it launched Sky Thursdays which involves some of its premium entertainment content being broadcast once a week on its free-to-air Freeview channel Pick TV. Last month Sky added Sky Sports to its internet TV service NOW TV which gives access to its F1 broadcasts for £9.99 per day. It could pave the way for using free F1 coverage as a trojan horse to get Sky into viewers' homes.

"The big problem I think is that it is not just a case of getting the Sky box, you have got to get a dish," says Ecclestone. He adds that in order to make F1 free-to-air Sky "are probably waiting for some sort of wireless system to come in where you don't need a dish." If the TV viewing figures continue to decline that may just make its début sooner rather than later.

Clowns.
 

Hammer24

Banned
A little clarification on the ongoing technical problems, that the cars still don´t receive some central data, which f.i. in the last race gave us the drs-under-yellow problems:

European laws force the FIA to invite tenders for central equipment every three years. That's why they changed this winter the electronics supplier from IMM (a Magneti Marelli daughter) to the cheaper bid from Riedel, a German company. And they simply don´t get it to work.
That's why the electronic sending of flags into the cockpit is suspended since the start of the season, and the electronic disabling of DRS doesn´t really work.

That's why the eight drivers (Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Kimi Räikkönen, Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Chilton) didn´t get the mandatory 20sec time penalty, but a "yellow card" warning.
 

Hammer24

Banned
Bahrain is using Hard and Softs? Is anybody going to set a time in in Q3?

Pirelli brings hard and medium (of the softs). The tyres have been produced for a while now, no changes on short notice possible. The new compounds will be ready for Barcelona.
 
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