2013 F1 topic

[trix]

Thoughts & prayers go to the family of Maria de Villota today
rest in peace

[Ozmosis]

I share your condolances Trix, a great shame...

[Ozmosis]

Is anyone else getting fed up with Red Bull favouring Vettel?? Could they not have played the same tactic with Webber?? Something stinks!!

[skippy]

Yes - I am sure Webber would have won the race if he had stuck on a 2 stop. Even if Mark had got past Grosjean a few laps earlier and had been on the gearbox of Vettel, I am sure there would have been a 'no passing' instruction. Multi 12!

[Ozmosis]

Yeah it's not as if Vettel needs the extra points is it? He's so far ahead now it's just a matter of when he gets the title, not if...

Maybe Webber will sock one on him at the end of season party!!

[Kev]

Yeah when it was about 15 laps to go and he was 15 or so seconds ahead I was thinking, just stay out.

I still it all goes back to about 2010 when Webber was leading the championship and they gave Vettel his front wing at Silverstone and then when Webber was leading up to the last race and they just heavily backed Vettel on strategy who then bagged the title in that last race. The real scummer in all of this I think is Helmet Marko. He obviously hates Webber and does whatever he can to unsettle him psychologically and he has a lot of clout in the team, unfortunately.

Good tactical race today though. Just a shame Webber couldn't sweep past Grosjean at the first attempt. That would have made more of a race of it.

[skippy]

I think you summed up all of Webbers woes well there Kev, last weekend I was shaking my head in disbelief with the 10 place grid penalty, puncture and then the fire caused by clash with Sutil.

As Suzi Perry said last weekend, it is Iike heaven and hell in the Red Bull garage.

What do you think of Suzi Perry as a presenter? I think she has improved, but there is a slight awkwardness with her presenting style. It is a difficult job no doubt, but Jake Humphrey delivered the content seemlessly.

[Ozmosis]

I must agree with you Kev about Marko... He did have a wry smile on his face today.

I believe that Red Bull is way faster than the rest of the field, but only Vettel is seemingly allowed to demonstrate this (e.g. Singapore) as Webber is usually hampered by some mechanical fault or traffic...

I also think Ricciardo is going to find himself in exactly the same situation, unfortunately. We will see...

[skippy]

Well - the championships are decided for another year, no surprises there!

Could not believe Mark Webbers luck once again in India, he looked totally bemused by this latest bad luck!

I expect Vettel will win the last 3 races of the season as well, although there is normally a twist somewhere along the line, remember last year in Brazil when he got spun to the back, but he still came through and got the points he needed to win the championship!

Bring on next season with the new engines/regs and lets see what happens!

[Kev]

Yeah I saw one suggestion that Newey builds his cars to such tight limits regarding cooling etc that they only work really well at the front, like Vettel can do, so when Webber is back in the pack he gets cooling issues and things like KERS packs up.

Got to hand it to Vettel, he's really done the job this season but with the rule changes coming up, everyone pretty much gave up 4-5 races in and when they changed the tyres after Silverstone, it favoured the red bull hugely and he's won every race since.

Hopefully next season will mix things up a bit. It has to otherwise the viewers will start to go elsewhere.

In other news, I've bought my ticket for race day at Silverstone

[skippy]

Interesting comment there Kev about the Newey cars. Yes - I had read that his designs are very compact, barely enough room for the driver, but that could well be a factor if there is insufficient cooling getting through.

Webber as well is at a disadvantage to Vettel given his height and extra weight, not to mention that he is in 'Team Vettel'. I saw one of those NIgel Mansell clips on the BBC site the other day and he said in the days when he was racing Prost/Senna, they had up to 0.5/sec a lap advantage because of the weight differences. I would say closer to 0.3 but even so.

Vettel though (as you say), still has done the business. The Red Bull is a great car but you still have to drive it well, I bet many other drivers on the grid may only be able to get say 4th/5th place positions in a Red Bull rather than consistent wins.