The Official 2013 F1 Thread. Spoilers possible!

I would like it for him, but Porsche has already issued a denial.

Cool video, thanks Greg. Today, he'd be penalized for that rolling start. Was that Mansell or Berger? Never mind, I see it's Berger with Ferrari's only race win of the season, and he "beat" Senna at the start.

The #2 driver, on a top team that has a clear hierarchy, essentially sells his soul. He trades his pride and status with his peers, for race wins he wouldn't get anywhere else. We're seeing it with Webber, we saw it with Barrichello and we're seeing it with Massa, who has almost becomes Alonso's pet. They're pitiable creatures. and we can relate to their pain. For who among us wouldn't make the same deal?

I don't think you should put too much pity on Massa. Brundle made a comment at the end of the Chinese Grand Prix about Massa's resurgence lately, but the fact that he was 20 seconds behind Alonso with 5-10 laps left shows why Alonso is #1

quite a rolling start eh?
I wondered why he had lined up so far behind his grid spot... a man with a plan

boom!



LINK

Oops. Double tap.

Poor Sutil, just minding his business when... BAM!

Love the safety engineering on the cars.

Romain Grosjean breathes a sigh of relief...

Great vid, thanks for posting.
Berger gets 50 minutes into the race before his first stop, guessing he was not on the super softs!

Very eloquently put, and so true.

The thought that drivers are not pushing to the limit in a sport that is meant to be the ultimate test of man and machine has led to some disquiet. ...

Some hark back to the 'tyre-war' era of the late 1990s and early 2000s as an example of drivers being able to push to the limit throughout, but those who were there say that isn't the case either.

Raikkonen said: "If you take six or 10 years ago still you could not always push 100%. It's normal. These tyres are very good in qualifying with grip and in some places you have to look after them a little bit more than others, but it's not any different from last year so I don't really understand why people are complaining so much."

As Vettel put it: "I'm not sure it's that great for the people to watch because there are a lot of overtakings that are pretty straightforward because in the end you are racing yourself and just try to make it to the end as fast as you can. What I mean is look after the tyres, try to manage the gaps.
"You wave the people by or they wave you by - as in they don't resist - because there is not much point because you slow yourself down.
"That is how racing is these days but nonetheless it is the same for everyone and three guys were better than us today."
The thought that drivers are not pushing to the limit in a sport that is meant to be the ultimate test of man and machine has led to some disquiet.
On the eve of the race, Mark Webber - one of the most outspoken critics of the current F1 - said: "It'll look good in the first five laps with everyone fighting but it's a little bit WWF at the moment." He meant wrestling, rather than wildlife.
Red Bull, though, have a vested interest. They believe they have a superior car that is being held back by the tyres.

The above was quoted from the same article...

This is what I am seeing!

Pirelli announces late change to Bahrain tire choice

Keith Collantine
Apr 16, 2013, 11:33 AM EDT

2 Comments

Reuters Pirelli has changed its choice of tires for the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.
The official F1 tire supplier originally selected the soft and medium tire compounds for this weekend’s race. But in a late change the medium tire will now be used instead of the soft.
Pirelli’s soft tire came in for criticism during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend as drivers were only able to run it for short stints before it needed to be replaced.
Most drivers used the soft tire for only five or six laps during the race. Mark Webber ditched his after a single lap.
But Pirelli said the decision not to bring the soft tire to Bahrain was made before the race in China.
“When we made the allocation choices for Bahrain in December of last year, we had not done one winter test, let alone a race,” said motorsport director Paul Hembery.
“Our initial choice for Bahrain was soft and hard, but once we had seen the new generation of our tires run in Malaysia, a track similar to Bahrain, we decided that the combination medium and hard would be better suited for the Bahrain circuit.”
The medium and hard tire combination is the same as was used for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Hembery added Bahrain is “one of the most demanding tracks of the year for the tires, mostly because of the high ambient and track temperatures”. Three-stop strategies were the norm in last year’s race and Pirelli expect that to be the same this weekend.

I didn't want to overload on this topic. But since we're here, David Coulthard basically said the same thing as Kimi.

I think its easy for them to moan about the tires... but I can't see how managing the tires now is any different than its ever been (except for the amount of moaning).

remember the year they couldn't change unless they were flat? Kimi flat-spotted his front in the McLaren & the vibration finally broke the front suspension. That was a stupid rule!

Good one, I remember that. Crazy.

That was stupid and dangerous for Kimi !

The difference for me is simple, 20 to 30 laps of useful life compared to 3 to 6 laps...

Clearly F1 has lost it's way under Berrie, I hope his successer does a better job.

What do you think? Is the sport better with these tires that last a few laps (3 to 6) or did you prefer they last 15 or more.

Do you prefer tires that fall off a cliff with no real warning or tires that go off in a way that the driver sees it comming a few laps in advance. I prefer the later the former seems to me to be based more on luck.

Me, I think last season was one of the most entertaining I've ever seen in F1.

This season is shaping up to be just as fun.

Easy call. I like it.

Not really. The teams that do their homework in practice know what the tires will deliver. I doubt that anyone's surprised come Sunday. (Unless it rained in practice.)

Some teams do better on these tires, other teams do worse. Some teams are better at some tracks. Other teams get performance at different tracks.

'twas ever thus.

Yeah, but ONE team seems to be not able to get sustained performance (from one of the earlier quotes) as the rest. Wonder boy may be having issues.

After the flexi wing last season, it seems somehow "fair".