The 2013 Season

[Greenlantern101]

Its still wide open, all It would take would be a non-finish from Vettel be it mechanical or a crash.

If Lewis wins at Spa and Vettel fails to finish (he is due some of Marks bad luck) the points gap would be just 13 points with 8 races remaining. 7 points between 1st and 2nd place finish.

It may be a little optimistic but nothing is over.
Seb still has plenty time to loose this.

 

[sushifiesta]

Greenlantern101 That's for Raikkonen, not Lewis. Lewis would be 23pts behind if he wins and Vettel doesn't score, and Alonso 14pts behind if he wins. It's not impossible but it will take two out of three of them to be finishing ahead of Vettel on a regular basis I think, which means Ferrari, Lotus or Mercedes need to out develop Red Bull.

 

[Greenlantern101]

 

[Bill Boddy]

Had Grosjean not suffered a rush of blood to the head he might well have been challenging, or even in front of, Vettel. He finished 39.8 seconds behind having lost around 40 seconds on a drive through and an after race penalty, he also lost time being unable to overtake Alonso.

 

[Wombcat]

Il_leone I kinda remember the same thing being said of Alonso last year. Twice being knocked off the track by a Lotus did the trick.

 

[Slyboogy]

Vettel's closest challenger could be out of the running soon:

On the downside, the Lotus-Renault E21 is reaching the end of its development curve. There are some parts in the pipeline, but as trackside operations director Alan Permane points out, now is the time to focus on the new regs.

“We have got some more stuff coming,” he says. “We have some small upgrades for Spa, including a reasonable front wing upgrade. And we have our rear-wing [stalling] device that we'll be looking at. I don't think there will be a great deal more now because we are focused on moving on to 2014 and I think everyone will do that.

We all know Lotus is struggling money wise, and the fact that Red Bull strongest tracks are yet to come up.

Ferrari are in no mans land at the moment, and you don't know with Mercedes.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I wonder how many teams will be strangely quicker given their pre mid season break pace relative to other teams, once the second half of the season gets going? I know they enforce a factory shut down but in the modern era of IT systems that's a bit like asking to someone to shut down the interweb for a 3 week break.

 

[Kewee]

They're not required to close down for the entire break. They have an enforced two week shutdown and can choose when to take it before the next GP at Spa.

 

[cider_and_toast]

The calander this year featuring as it does the 1 race in 6 weeks middle to the season is driving me up the wall.

The other unusual factor is that there's nothing keeping F1 in the headlines. Since tyre-gate was fixed at Germany and that has now gone quiet, we haven't had the usual mid season controversy to keep the PR fires stoked.

I wonder if that has anything to do with the potential for Bernie himself to be the subject of most headlines at the moment with his ongoing issues in Germany?

 

[LifeW12]

I think the major headline before Spa will be the draft calendar being leaked, with New Jersey not on it.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Only for Bernie, the rest of the motorsport world and fandom, couldn't give the hairy crack of a gerbil's bum about New Jersey.

With the exception of Long Beach, US street circuits have on the whole been rubbish.

 

[KekeTheKing]

It's true that since the 80's, Bernie has constantly peddled the idea of a New York City race and used it as a bargaining chip when dealing with the other GP.

 

[cider_and_toast]

As you say, it seems in Bernie's head that treating North America like shit is fair game when working out a G.P. calendar and all because the organisers at Long Beach told him to take a hike in the early 80's.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

And of course New Jersey != New York anyway, but presumably he'll be happy because Manhattan will be visible in the background.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Apparantly Toto Wolff has warned Merc about ruining their 2014 campaign by throwing the kitchen sink at 2013. I suggest he looks at what happen to BMW from 2008 to 2009, you have to take your chances when they present themselves.

 

[LifeW12]

I just don't want to see another Red Dull walkover again

 

[RasputinLives]

What if a Red Bull/Vettel won by a couple of seconds after being chased down the whole race like say......Germany?

 

[Fenderman]

At least we'll be seeing an actual race ...

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

I fear the only difference between our current season and 2011 are:

* The Pirelli pallava ... now resolved ironically its seems to strengthen RBR
* McLaren shooting themselves in the foot with a blunderbuss
* Mercedes taking a small step forward

The rest is academic ... unfortunately ...

 

[Mephistopheles]

They think it's all over!!!!!