The 2013 Season

[RasputinLives]

So the super Red Bull is not so super, rumours of the unbeatable silver arrow were greatly exaggerated, rumours that Mclaren were a load of poo turned out to be true and the clip the apex member who suggested Kimi end up getting dropped for Valsecchi coz he 'might be rusty' is probably feeling a bit silly now.

Still its only round 1 and we know it can all change but right now it does look like Ferrari, Red Bull and the Enstone outfit are the front runners with Merc massively improved to be lurking behind them in 4th. Force India look like they are in front of Mclaren right now for 5th and 6th but I'll be interested to see where Hulkenberg would have put the Sauber.

Williams look like they need to go back to the drawing board and Bianchi looks like he's the clear king of the back runners.

Will it stay like that? Probably not.

 

[Brogan]

Whatever happens, it looks as if it is shaping up to be a great season already.

 

[Brogan]

The 2013 Race Hub has been updated: http://cliptheapex.com/pages/2013-race-hub/

 

[Boyle]

Wonder how much Red Bull are regretting not doing long runs and concentrating on qualifying pace. There appeared to be a lack of understanding of the tyres there. I fear once they get this sorted they'll be at the front again. I'd be mightily surprised if they don't do lots of long running in practice this Friday.

Anyway, Mclaren look crap but will no doubt develop to win a couple of races after mid season. Ferrari unusually starting well. The Mercs appear to have good tyre management but probably trying to 2 stop today was the wrong option and letting Lewis and Nico off the leash on 3 stops might have proved more worthwhile.

But Kimi. Here's hoping Lotus can keep that pace up. But please will you qualify better!!!

 

[Brogan]

I think this was a unique race in that the ambient and track surface temperature were much lower than normal.

I think it's going to be a few races before we get a really good idea of where everyone is.
By which time they will have started with the upgrades and we'll be none the wiser

 

[KekeTheKing]

So have you heard the paddock is rueing the fact that they let Pirelli use the Renault (Lotus) R30 to develop their 2013 Tires?

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rivals-suspect-lotus-has-unfair-tyre-advantage-report/

An unnamed rival team member was quoted as saying "we overlooked and underestimated this impact", and that "maybe we need to think about how we deal with this better in the future."

I do wonder about any benefit that Lotus has received from this. And obviously it would have been a complete by-product of their old platform being used, not collusion between the parties.

 

[Brogan]

Well it stands to reason any feedback Pirelli got on tyre wear was going to be specific to the chassis they used to do the testing.

 

[KekeTheKing]

And wouldn't you know, the last person to drive the R30 before handing it over to Pirelli was Kimi Raikkonen. He tested it at Valencia in January 2012 after signing with Lotus.

 

[Fenderman]

Just watching a re-run of P2 and Crofty, I think it was, just described the tyres as "melting". Heh, heh.

 

[KekeTheKing]

There isn't an adjective that hasn't been used to describe this "rubber". Today David Hobbs reckoned it was akin to having a jelly sandwich between your tire and the circuit.

 

[Fenderman]

 

[Westy]

Good old Hobbs, he's always got some cracking one liners. Having said that he and Matchet were on rare form today. I genuinely enjoyed the broadcast and the humor.

 

[aaron8831]

It was was nice having Bob Varsha on the broadcast as well.

 

[Westy]

Yeah, it was nice having the lads back together again. I wonder how often that will happen with Indy car having quite a few overlapping events throughout the season?

 

[Brogan]

The Race Hub has been updated.

http://cliptheapex.com/pages/2013-race-hub/

 

[F1 Shift.net]

The 2013 Race Hub has been updated: http://cliptheapex.com/pages/2013-race-hub/

Do you still have the track maps on the race hub? I'm not sure if I'm too dumb to find them or if they are missing?

 

[Brogan]

They've been retired as I don't have time to update them.

They are still linked from the 2012 page though.

 

[F1 Shift.net]

They've been retired as I don't have time to update them.

They are still linked from the 2012 page though.

Okay thanks!

 

[Fenderman]

Go to this FIA website page: http://www.fia.com/sport/championships/news/formula-1-world-championship
Click on the track diagram in the bottom right corner for the round you are interested in. E.g. The Australia map takes you here: http://www.fia.com/championship/eve...-championship/2013/2013-australian-grand-prix
Click on the picture labelled "EVENT TIMING AND INFORMATION" There you will find a list of drop down menus for the information that can be downloaded in the form of PDF's.

The screens look like this:


Happy hunting.

Edit: Just went on the site to check the China info'. The PDF's aren't available yet bit at least you can click on the track data map and get that on screen.

 

[Blog Zbod]

Go to this FIA website page: http://www.fia.com/sport/championships/news/formula-1-world-championship
Click on the track diagram in the bottom right corner for the round you are interested in. E.g. The Australia map takes you here: http://www.fia.com/championship/eve...-championship/2013/2013-australian-grand-prix
Click on the picture labelled "EVENT TIMING AND INFORMATION" There you will find a list of drop down menus for the information that can be downloaded in the form of PDF's....

THANK YOU!!!

I've been collecting and archiving these for years, but the FIA changed their web site's directory structure for 2013 and I'd not been able to track them down. I thought perhaps they'd been made available only to the credentialed press.

Mercy beer cups!