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Formula One - 2013


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:wave:

It's the new year so it's a new thread :hooray:

What do we know of the new F1 season so far?

Well we've lost the HRT team so there'll be 11 teams on the grid this year.

As of right now, 3 rookies with the potential for a 4th. Valtteri Bottas at Williams. Esteban Gutierrez at Sauber and Max Chilton at Marussia. The 4th might be Jules Bianchi at Force India but it mightn't be.

Still 3 seats available although one of those will be Paul di Resta at Force India. The other 2 are the second Force India seat and the second seat at Caterham alongside Charles Pic.

Currently 19 races with a place holder for a 20th on 21/07 a week before Hungary, provided they can find a logistically suitable venue.

9 driver changes on the grid with the remote chance of 10 if P di R doesn't get the FIFI seat.

They are:

Perez from Sauber to McLaren

Hamilton from McLaren to Mercedes

Hulkenberg from Force India to Sauber

Gutierrez in at Sauber

Someone in at Force India (rumoured to be either Sutil or Bianchi)

Bottas in at Williams

Pic from Marussia to Caterham

Someone in at Caterham

Chilton in at Marussia

Michael Schumacher retires.

Kamui Kobayashi leaves the grid :angry: :cry:

Bruno Senna possibly leaves the grid (he's linked to a vacant seat)

It is also possible that Kovalainen, Petrov, de la Rosa and Karthikeyan will all be without a drive next season. In Kovalainen's case that'd be a damn shame.

2013 pre-season dates

Car launches

2013 pre-season dates

Car launches

Team Date

Lotus January 28

McLaren January 31

Ferrari February 1

Force India February 1

Sauber February 2

Red Bull February 3

Mercedes February 4

Toro Rosso February 4

Caterham February 5

Marussia February 5

Williams February 19

Testing

Venue Date

Jerez 5-8 February

Barcelona 19-22 February

Barcelona 28 February-3 March

Discuss !

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The things that interest me are.

How Hamilton's move will turn out. It's undeniably a financial move (McLaren are notoriously tight with image rights etc). Although I expect the Mercedes to be better than it was last year, I can't imagine they'll be winning many races. I think his year there will be very tough and in a way my respect for him will go up if he can drag them up by the boot laces. Rosberg will not be an easy team-mate and I wouldn't rule out that they'll be neck and neck. Obviously his familiarity with the Merc will help early on.

None of the rookies look particularly brilliant and Valtteri Bottas looks the pick of the bunch. Max Chilton in particular looks like nothing other than a pay-driver thanks to Daddy's money and a C.V. that has nothing on it since he was 12. Glock will not be losing sleep.

I expect Marussia to make a (relatively) big jump in performance thanks to their hook-up with McLaren and use of their wind-tunnel. By all accounts last year's car was a good machine that suffered from chronic under-development, so in theory there is a lot of time to be found quite easily in it, given the proper resources. Of course even a big jump in time is likely to only put them at the back of the midfield but if they can become competitive and challenge the likes of STR for qualy 2 then I'd say they'd be happy.

I can't see anyone touching Red Bull. I expect Vettel to add his 4th title and do it much easier than he added his 3rd. Newey says they were caught out by the rule changes for 2012 and it took them half a season to rectify it. There haven't really been any significant changes for 2013 save for some DRS-usage tweaks so I expect they'll hit the front much sooner and stay there (probably in Australia ...).

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Not looking forward to the new season. It feels like casually following la liga and hoping barca dont dominate. Going to be very depressed come the end.

Still on the interesting side, looking forward to see if Perez lives up to increased expectations, and of course Hamiltons progress. Im sure he'll find his way onto a few podiums throughout the year. Just read the interview with the red bull owner and makes me hate the rocket polishers even more.

Rewatched 'Senna' about a week ago now theres afucking triple world champion, but il try not to be a bore and pollute this thread with vettel bitterness. Its anoying. I like Newey Webber and Horner and pleased for them... but Enough! Tis very boring I know.

Will just hope McLaren stop being thoroughly useless for a change.

Intrigued by the mid tier sides, how williams sauber and force india get on should be quite a battle.

are the tv rights the same this year?

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I think you mean the 'adviser', Helmut Marko i.e. person who thinks he's important but is actually just in the way.

TV rights are the same AFAIK yes.

Mid-tier should be interesting and also whether Lotus can stay at that level and whether Merc can overtake them.

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Hamilton's development will be interesting, think Ross brawn will enjoy working with him.

It will also be interesting to see if button can compete now that the "Hamilton mclaren affair" is over. Too be honest never really rated him an think he still has a lot to prove.

Vettel should walk the championship

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I have a feeling Hamilton is going to go into full on diva hissy fit mode by about the 4th race when his frustrations at being a 2nd/3rd tier driver all of a sudden. Hope Vettel doesn't make it a 4th Championship in a row and some of the luck he had last year finds its way to Alonso.

Not expecting much from Perez at Mclaren, good driver but not Mclaren good (imo) but time will tell.

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Yeah I'm holding council on Perez. That could go either way. I think he might be a rabbit in the headlights. Button is deceptively quick and managed to beat Hamilton in a car fundamentally designed to suit Hamilton. Now Button will get his 'own' car. Perez will get equal treatment from McLaren as is typical, but the odds are stacked against him matching Button.

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Same engine. There was talk that they were going to go it alone with a McLaren engine in and around the time that turbos were to be introduced for 2013 but Martin Whitmarsh has said that won't happen and I've heard nothing to alter that stance since.

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Yeah I'm holding council on Perez. That could go either way. I think he might be a rabbit in the headlights. Button is deceptively quick and managed to beat Hamilton in a car fundamentally designed to suit Hamilton. Now Button will get his 'own' car. Perez will get equal treatment from McLaren as is typical, but the odds are stacked against him matching Button.

I'm expecting a scenario similar to when Hamilton had Kovalainen as his 'wingman'. He just wasn't getting up into the places immediatly behind his team-mate and thus taking points away from the competition. Hamilton would have won it that year if Mclaren had a better No.2 driver. Might cost Button this year too. I hope not but thats my expectation at the moment.

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Timo Glock has left Marussia because they can't afford him. He was on a wage and they need a(nother) pay driver. So any corner I thought they were due to turn this year is less likely to happen now that the one bit of quality they had in the driver seat is gone. If I had to guess I'd say they'll go for Petrov or Senna now as both bring money with them.

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I suspect marussia will got the same way as hrt this season. 3 years of being 2 worst team, now relegated to gauranteed to be the worst performer this season, just wondering if they will bother to continue or call it day like tyrell, arrows, prost etc

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I don't think it's guaranteed yet. The odds are that they're likely to be. But they improved at the end of last season, they have linked up with McLaren to use their wind-tunnel and if reports are to be believed, they've a fundamentally quick car that just needed to be developed more - which it will be next season. They still have a way to go to catch the likes of Toro Rosso but I think they'll be a match for Caterham if they do things properly next year. Losing Glock is a bad start but Petrov wouldn't be a disaster. Chilton I suspect will be.

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