Top man at Pirelli is calling the FIA out. No testing before next season? No tires. After Seb's contribution to India's smog problem I wouldn't half mind seeing his tranny fail next weekend from the abuse.
That's one of the original photoshop fun threads starting the trend but there are so many more motor-related ones on pistonheads which put a tear in my eyes. http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1098188
4th title warrants a Forbes piece with catchy title rolleyes... The World's Most Famous Athlete Celebrated His Greatest Moment Today. No, You've Probably Never Heard Of Him - Forbes
Ferrari's greatest hope to win a constructors sadly might only come from a Newey departure from the sport... From Telegraph: Red Bull could be set to lose its dominance over Formula 1 in 2015 as not only is head of aerodynamics Peter Prodromou set to join McLaren at the end of next year, but design guru Adrian Newey has hinted that it might be time for him to work on other interests outside of motorsport. The Briton has been with the team since 2006 and is credited with designing some of the best F1 cars of the current era. The RB5 came about when the regulations underwent a major shakeup in 2009 and went on to challenge for the title, eventually taking second in the Constructors' Championship. Since then, Red Bull has dominated the sport and taken both titles in each of the subsequent years and looks likely to do the same again this year in a car which is still based on the original RB5. Speaking to the Telegraph however, Newey hinted that it could soon be time for him to leave F1 altogether and work on 'other interests'. "I'm 54 now and there are lots of other things I would like to be involved in," he said. "At some stage, I'm not exactly sure when, I do feel it will be time to become involved in other things. Formula One is such an all-consuming sport, I think its very hard to be involved in it properly and also be involved in something else at the same time." Newey refuses to give an exact date but says he is focused on the major technical challenges for 2014, but after that, his mind could turn to another kind of racing. "My immediate future lies in F1," he added. "I'm fully committed to next year and the new regs." When asked what he would do after F1, he replied: "Maybe the America's Cup, who knows?"
+1000 Some news from Kimi & Lotus : Lotus team principal Eric Boullier will give Kimi Raikkonen a talking to in Abu Dhabi after he nearly came to blows with team-mate Romain Grosjean while fighting for position towards the end of the Indian Grand Prix. Grosjean attempted to pass Raikkonen on lap 56 at Turn 4 but was run off the road by his team-mate despite Raikkonen struggling on older tyres. Although contact was not made, the scrap delayed both drivers, pushing Grosjean within striking distance of Felipe Massa behind and taking more energy out of Raikkonen's heavily degrading tyres. Lotus appeared to warn Raikkonen over the pit-to-car radio and Boullier said he would sit his drivers down in Abu Dhabi to discuss the issue. "They are free to race each other," Boullier said. "But it is true that we were maybe expecting a little bit of an easier manoeuvre, let's say. You're never happy when you see both cars fighting and one car going off, so you just make sure they fight in the team's interest. "I'm going to speak to both of them again in Abu Dhabi. It's true that we are working for these guys to deliver, but there is a team behind, so you also need to think about that. If his [Raikkonen's] tyres hadn't dropped off we would say let them race, which is normal. "Kimi is a competitor so obviously he is racing everybody and I can understand that. He is racing everybody and he is racing against his team-mate. It's true that when you are racing in the same conditions, you are racing, and I'm fine with that. But when the tyres are dropping off and you are two seconds off the pace, if it's your team-mate you don't have to make a drama with this and you have to bring the cars as high in the ranking for yourself and for the team. But don't stop the other guy bringing points home for the team." Raikkonen, who went on to finish seventh after a late pit stop, only completed seven laps on his soft tyres at the start of the race compared to Grosjean's 13 laps. He said after the race that overheating brakes had caused him issues. "We ran maybe the first twenty laps with no brakes as they had overheated massively, so every time I got close to somebody I lost braking," Raikkonen explained. "At the end of the race I ran out of tyre performance too so it's been a pretty disappointing day. I knew the tyres would drop off quite quickly, but there wasn't much to lose between trying to get to the end and making an extra pit stop in terms of time lost. In the end it didn't work."
It's grown boring, especially with Red Bull just kicking the ***** out of everyone. They are SO much better than everyone else it's like ferrari and Schumi back in the day when Ferrari didn't have its head up its ass.
It was sad to hear Diffey, Hobbs and Matchett struggle to find something interesting to talk about throughout and after the race. The moment where Vettel sealed his and the teams 4th consecutive championship was expected since the beginning of 2013 so no surprises there. It is plainly obvious that someone at RedBull did not want Webber on the podium next to Vettel, in order to not spoil the moment. Was it Vettel that gave the order? Who knows.
FWIW, RB's did not fully dominate the first half of the season with the cliff tires. Only since the tires were changed and became more predictable (for everyone), Vettel won it all...
I have seen several posts here during qualy and now sites like PF1 complaining that the drivers did not really appreciate that the white lines indicate the track boundaries, and that no punishments were given out for that - matter of fact, during the driver briefing, they decided with the FIA that the track boundaries were somewhat artificial in some corners and could be ignored.
+1 IMO these tires can simply only work with refueling and free choice of compound. Cars will be lighter so can go further, and the different strategies will be good. Only issue is that it might be pitstop races again.... . If America learned to use the metric system we wouldn't have this issue Sucks for you guys that you can't get the BBC feed. Over here SuperSport buys the practise/quali/race commentary from BBC and it's fantastic. Yip. CW said it would be down right impossible to govern.
Personally, I think that was the wrong decision. A racetrack is an artificial thing and is defined by the white lines. If you ignore the white lines then you're not on the track. At some point, I heard them say that no advantage was gained by running wide because of less traction out the corners - but if no advantage was gained, why did everyone do it so often? Bad decision. All the best, Andrew.
IMHO that's silly, too. But the drivers and the FIA agreed on it, so it's the simple explanation for why there were no penalties in qualy or race, as some have noted.
Race was boring as hell, most exciting part was Vettel's doughnuts at the end and Massa actually leading a GP for a few laps. Can't wait for this season to be over. Doesn't Ferrari take the all-time consecutive finishes in the points for a team if they can score at the next GP?
Um, anyone without a tin foil hat? There was comment on NBCSC that the drivers had been warned that out of bounds driving would be punished. I don't know if they got it wrong or that it was ignored during the race. Either way Andrew is right, there should be a cost for going off track.
Interesting perspective, but I really doubt it. MW was mathematically out of contention, and RB didn't need the points if Seb won... but they couldn't be sure he would win. Would they risk 20 points just for that? And if Horner made such an order, it'd have leaked by now, no? With Webber leaving, and most likely several of his team members, I don't think they'd keep that quiet, but could be wrong. But yes, it's certainly plausible.
Would you still feel the same way if he was driving a red machine with a prancing horse badge on it though?
