The Official 2013 F1 Thread. Spoilers possible!

[g®eg]

The wait is over, F1 is back
Everyone’s primed, to launch an attack

At Albert Park, in the land of Oz
No time to dwell, on the year that was

Vettel starts, his quest for four
With Hungry Heidi, the new girl next door

Winning for Webber, may prove to be hard
He’d love to claim victory, in his own backyard

But Alonso has plans, which might interfere
He wants the title, he didn’t win last year

But don’t forget Lewis, he’s ready to go
Though he’s feeling quite lonely without little Roscoe

Jenson is calm and quite relaxed
His shiny McLaren’s been washed and waxed

Checo’s got a new hair-do, it’s all been chopped
With his confidence soaring, he won’t be stopped

Kimi is ready, to reclaim his throne
He knows what he’s doing, so just leave him alone

Massa is willing, to show his support
Hoping his career, won’t be cut short

The F1 grid, new faces will see
There’s Chilton and Bottas and Jules Bianchi

Some other names, we must not discard
There’s Gutierrez and Van der Garde

Sutil returns with Force India
After much speculation by the media

I’ll give you a tip, watch this Hulkenberg chap
To get to the podium, he won’t need a map

The Williams looks sharp and the Marussia looks mean
Caterham is just stunning dressed in emerald green

The Sauber is sexy, some might say
Promiscuously dressed in shades of grey

The Twenty-twelve title was won in Brazil
A three point gap, proved quite the thrill

This year may be tighter, with five or six teams
With a legitimate chance of realizing their dreams

This season will be, one hell of a show
When those light go out baby, it’s Go Go Go!


Ernie Black - the F1 poet

[r_bin]

Hamilton not expecting miracles in Melbourne

[ramz]

I cannot wait to get home from work tomorrow and sit down with a beer and a cigar to watch some practice.

Tomorrow? I'm gonna watch first and second practice on NBC Sports / DISH 159 at 10:00pm and 11:30pm MDT tonight.

Do I have the wrong information????

It's programmed into my DVR.

[wxwax]

I hope (ten to the power of ten) times that Vettel doesn't win the title again. It would sour my delicate stomach.

[wxwax]

Originally Posted by ramz

Tomorrow? I'm gonna watch first and second practice on NBC Sports / DISH 159 at 10:00pm and 11:30pm MDT tonight.

Do I have the wrong information????

It's programmed into my DVR.

You're correct. He has to sleep, in order to earn his crust on Friday.

[g®eg]

Originally Posted by wxwax

I hope (ten to the power of ten) times that Vettel doesn't win the title again. It would sour my delicate stomach.

I have no words....

[wxwax]

Matchett was his bloviating worst in Prac 1. I sent a couple of futile emails to NBC but I don't have names for the people who actually produce the F1 coverage. Grrr.

[wxwax]

Fascinating graphic. All times from Barcelona. The number shown for each team is the difference between their best qualifying time in the 2012 Grand Prix, and their best test time in 2013.

Marussia -3.415
Mercedes -2.752
Caterham -2.162
Ferrari -1.808
Force India -1.499
Sauber -0.992
Lotus -0.766
Red Bull -0.370
McLaren -0.263
Toro Rosso 0.042
Williams +0.020

What grabs me is that the longer F1 stays with a given specification, the more the lap times will bunch up. While Marussia, Mercedes and Caterham are the eye-grabbers, what I find interesting is that Ferrari have basically made-up their 2-second deficit, while Red Bull and McLaren have only incrementally improved.

[g®eg]

Originally Posted by wxwax

Matchett was his bloviating worst in Prac 1. I sent a couple of futile emails to NBC but I don't have names for the people who actually produce the F1 coverage. Grrr.

oh great.....
time to fire up twitter & bomb them

[doyle]

I haven't yet watched the practice (I fell asleep a few seconds after I turned it on ) but I noticed over the past few weeks, Diffey has been tweeting a lot about Indycar. He is also voicing that as far as I know so I really hope we don't end up with endless references or comparisons between F1 and Indy racing from him. While I love F1, for whatever reason, I loathe Indycar racing...but that's just me.

[g®eg]

happy Kimi?

better watch out (he knows what he's doing)



http://www.f1plus.com/en/news/item/3...ar-performance

[g®eg]

apparently Barcelona times aren't an indication....

Rivals "knew" Red Bull was sandbagging


March 15, 2013




Red Bull's rivals are unsurprised to see the reigning World Champion team setting the pace in free practice for the Australian Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber topped the timesheets, with Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg best of the rest, four tenths off the pace. This is despite the best Red Bull lap during the eight days of testing at Barcelona being just over 2.3 seconds away from the best time.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has no doubts that Red Bull was sandbagging in testing.
"The Red Bull is massively quick as it always is; obviously they have been sandbagging the whole time in winter, as expected," said Hamilton. "All of a sudden, they have pulled out a lot of time, but I don't feel we are miles away. To be able to say that we've gone from being really far away to not being too far away from Red Bull is pretty impressive."



Ferrari chief designer Nikolas Tombazis admitted that he expected to see the Red Bull RB9 setting the pace, but he warned that it was too early to take the Friday times as indicative of the real pecking order.
"Red Bull showed to us they will be very competitive, which we never had any doubt about because they are a strong team and had a good performance in testing," said Tombazis. "We don't know exactly what the relative pecking order is between the top four teams.
"Clearly, there are people who have made progress and people who have made a bit less progress. We need to wait for proper conditions to really judge where people are."



This article originally appeared in Autosport.com

[wannaklr]

Qualifying
1. Vettel
2. Alonso
3. Webber
4. Kimi
5. Massa

Race
1. Vettel
2. Alonso
3. Kimi
4. Massa
5. Hamilton.

[BOOTLACE]

Pissing rain, howling wind, and getting dark. Will they/ Won't they???

( Doesn't look dark on TV, but that's just the flash cameras. Believe me it's DARK)

THEY WON'T!!!
Q2 will be run in the morning @ 11.00, which should be fine. Then again, it is Melbourne......

[ramz]

I wonder if they'll show qualifying in one of the two NBC Sports F1 time slots right before the race? The ones scheduled to show repeats of practice and qualifying.