The Official 2013 F1 Thread. Spoilers possible!

Lotus has made it clear their priority is on Constructor for the rest of the year, as shown by today's "strategy". Given the large gap in Driver standings, I guess I get that. I wonder if anyone has told Kimi about this.

The fake commentary enthusiasm about Kimi's chance to win at the end was insulting, he never had a chance once the team pulled him out of the lead.

SEB!

Great drives by Kimi & RoGro!

You're right tho, it was very impressive. Just didn't please me.

Was it my selective eardrums, or did I hear more cheering for the Lotus lads mounting the podium than for Seb from his home crowd?

It was the "Seb sucks" region of your brain that made it sound like that.
Those were some very happy Krauts.

CW

Seriously, dude. Can you drop the orange font? It's annoying as fuck and its not as if you post anything that's a must read (which I guess is your reason for the color).

Aw, gee, I'm so very sorry I offended your delicate sensitivities.
Oh, and, NO! I can't drop the Orange font.
Get over it asshole.

Chris

Welcome to ignore (the first I might add)

Wow! Close race. Many problems and scary releases in the pits. How about the runaway Marussia being chased by a truck. :eek1

Kimi closes the points gap to Alonso with help from Grosjean.

Agreed. Leigh Diffey can be annoying.

The Lotus and the Ferrari got their softs with 10 laps to go. As expected, the tires were shot after about 8 laps. Not honest for the NBC crew to not even mention that and pretend that 1st and 3rd were in danger.

Glad the cameraman is OK. Worse than getting hit by a linebacker.

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I don't know....didn't Kimi, once he passed Grosjean, chop about 0.5 secs a lap off Vettel's lead right down to the end? And that's without the beneift of DRS which became available only in the last lap. Kimi's tires were going downhill, but not that quickly on such light fuel. And Vettel's tires weren't doing great either. I think the race was about 2 laps too short - I doubt Kimi would have made the pass, but I bet he would have given it a hard go. I'm not going to fault someone for being excited about this.

I'm as critical of the crew missing key things in the race, or screwing up basic information (which they do quite often), but to say they were being "dishonest" and to fault them for being excited about a race closing from a 5-sec lead to a 1-sec lead in the last ten laps is being downright curmudgeonly IMO.

- Mark

When thinking of tire management at the end of the race in regards of Lotus and Ferrari it's vital to understand that Alonso got brand new set of softs on his last pit stop. Kimi's tires were 6 laps used. Still Kimi could keep them performing all the way to the end. Alonso was superfast after his last stop on new tires but then faded (might have had an issue with fuel too which slowed him down).

Kimi was catching Vettel around 0.5 seconds a lap after he passed GRO. When GRO was 2nd and Kimi 3rd, they caught Vettel about a 1-3 tenths per lap. Maybe Lotus should have mayde the team order earlier so that Kimi could have had 1-2 more laps on Vettel. If he would have got DRS on Vettel earlier, he would have caught Vettel. DRS reduced lap time about 3 tenths per DRS zone so little over a half a second in one lap.

supposedly lotus was having radio issues and gro didn't get the message in a timely fashion.

there was an interview w/ Kimi & they asked him if he could have just gone to the end w/o stopping:

if they had not stopped him & Seb had caught & passed him (along with who knows who else) the uproar would have been deafening. I think they kept him out 1 or 2 more laps than they should have after Seb & Big John pitted, but hey, that's racing.


but the best quote?

Reports are flying around saying that due to lack of pay, the Hulk has decided to terminate his contract with Sauber early
If true, and Hulkenberg has indeed left the team, it will be a massive blow to Sauber who will need to replace him quickly
I must stress though, the Hulkenberg reports are just RUMOURS at the moment - no actual confirmation his departure as of yet.

also:

silly season starting to hot up already?
who is Sauber's 3rd driver?.......

Robin Frijns.

Maybe they can get Kamui back?

that may be a better solution....
who's to say if Hulk will walk (all rumour anyway)....
he may be just trying to stir the pot.

Kam is racing in the World Endurance Championship for AF Corse. Corse is a Ferrari works team, so they share the same engine supplier. Who knows.