Pre-Season 2013 Season

[teabagyokel]

Brogan - So why would they have to use GP of Europe as distinct from European GP when there is scheduled to be no European GP this year?

 

[Brogan]

Naming rights I suspect.

Who knows when it comes to F1, Bernie and the myriad of silly contracts and rights which are in place.

There is still also the TBA race, which could be the European GP.

 

[teabagyokel]

There is still also the TBA race, which could be the European GP.

That's what I was thinking, although it's difficult to work out exactly where that could be. It's obviously not Hockenheim based upon that observation, its not Valencia according to Valencia...

I get a feeling it might just be Imola; I wonder if the government of San Marino are unhappy to be associated any longer and they'll need the European GP moniker.

 

[Bill Boddy]

RasputinLives http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail/

 

[Andrea_Moda_Rules]

its not Valencia according to Valencia...
.

Not according to this either.
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns24731.html

Apparently all the copper as been nicked too

 

[teabagyokel]

Andrea_Moda_Rules - Well, Marca have to print something every day. I would imagine their account is greatly exaggerated!

 

[Brogan]

It would appear the calendar has been finalised and there will only be 19 races this season.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105424

 

[Bill Boddy]

According to http://www.formula1.com/races/calendar.html:

10 TBA (TBA)* 19-21 Jul

* Provisional

 

[Brogan]

Pirelli have announced the tyres for the first four races, 2012 tyres are in brackets.

Australia - Supersoft, Medium (Soft, Medium)
Malaysia - Medium, Hard (Medium, Hard)
China - Soft, Medium (Soft, Medium)
Bahrain - Soft, Hard (Soft, Medium)

 

[Bill Boddy]

If I were a Nazi I would point out that you have ")" missing, but I'm not so I won't.

 

[Slyboogy]

Ah, I see that they have mixed up the compounds a little.

Could bring out different strategies in Australia and Bahrain.

I always wondered why they didn't do this in 2012 when the pit stops became predictable.

 

[Bill Boddy]

What may be more important in Malaysia is which wet compound the teams use and which lap they put them on.

 

[mnmracer]

It's kind of funny, as in my mind, Malaysia is also almost equal to a rain race, but actually, of the 14 races we've had in Sepang, only 4 were wet, so there's a 72% chance we'll have a dry Malaysian Grand Prix this year.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Sepang has actually done quite well for dry weather races, particularly when the average day in late March/April has a 60% chance of a thunderstorm or a 13% chance of light rain. Light rain in Malaysia is a bit of a misnomer, it's more like European heavy rain.

http://weatherspark.com/averages/34041/3/Sepang-Selangor-Malaysia

 

[teabagyokel]

It was usually dry until some silver haired billionaire decided Europe needed to see cars sat on a grid in mid-morning rather than a race at 6am...

 

[gethinceri]

I reckon there was some Badillionare involvement.

 

[Brogan]

These apparently are the tyres ready to be shipped to Bahrain.
Paul Hembery Tweeted it last week and I thought it was an interesting photo.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Are unused tyres returned to Pirelli? There must be such a waste of intermediate and wet compound tyres otherwise...

 

[Brogan]

All tyres are returned to Pirelli, used and unused.

 

[Mephistopheles]

No doubt they are recycled...