In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas gives the first indication teams will use the new rule which allows them to avoid having stepped noses, stating the Williams FW35’s nose will be flat.
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Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more.
No ‘step nose’ on Williams’ 2013 car – Bottas (TopCar)
“With the new rules, the step nose is straightened. That is the biggest difference in appearance.”
F1 races to skip Istanbul after prime minister’s decision (Hurriyet Daily News)
“The project, set to cost Turkey around $20m in total, was supposed to receive 13 million dollars of state funding.”
Brabhams win legal battle over name (Autosport)
David Brabham: “I’m delighted that this situation has finally come to an end. It’s been a long and tiring battle, but this was something I felt we needed to do to protect the Brabham name.”
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Sergio Hangout (YouTube)
Sergio Perez starts F1 career with McLaren – video (The Guardian)
Video interview with Perez.
Finland in Formula 1 – The Past, Present and the Future (Rach F1)
“It would be amazing if our country had a proper race track and if F1 could arrive to our country, because we have such a good and successful history in F1. The population of Finland is only five million people, but there are so many racing fans and I’m quite sure the race would be a success.”
The Doctor Is In Session (Red Bulletin)
This is the full interview with Helmut Marko, an extract of which was published here on Tuesday.
Tweets
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
@Bobthevulcan on Perez’s move to McLaren:
While Perez did show good race pace in the Sauber last year, most notably in Malaysia and Monza, it’s worth noting that all of his stand-out podium performances came from him starting barely within or outside of the top 10, and running an alternative strategy. As for his absolute one-lap pace, he did out-qualify Kobayashi by a fair margin over the course of the season (11-8, with Perez missing qualifying in Monaco).
Exactly how well Perez will fare in the McLaren remains a great unknown. However, his willingness to identify/rectify his own shortcomings, and setting ambitious targets for himself, shows that he has the right frame of mind.
@Bobthevulcan
From the forum
- Hotly-tipped Red Bull junior driver Antonio Felix da Costa’s race seat for 2013 is confirmed
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Cameron, Nano Rock, SamS and Ryan-Veitch!
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On this day in F1
Toyota launched the TF108 five years ago today. It turned out to be another disappointing car, the team only finishing fifth in what turned out to be their penultimate season.
Image © Williams/LAT
thespuditron (@)
10th January 2013, 0:14
Good news about the stepped nose being dropped. Hopefully *all* the other teams will follow suit.
Although I have to say, and I don’t mean to be biased, but I quite liked the nose on the Lotus car last year……
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
10th January 2013, 7:15
@spud Certainly the best looking from a bad bunch.
OmarR-Pepper (@)
10th January 2013, 0:34
Is Brabham (the company or the owners of the name) interested in F1 any soon? I think that if any other team applying to get in F1 buys the name (or makes some deal with the family), it would carry a huge responsiibility on its shoulders. Few teams have had that rate of success as Brabham. I’d like to see an F1 team with that name getting victories again
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
10th January 2013, 0:47
@omarr-pepper
David Brabham has said they would consider their options once the legal ownership of the name had been sorted out.
I remember that story because Joe Saward was very critical of it, claiming that it was nothing more than an old story that accidentally got re-hashed, and people started believing it. This is what he had to say on the subject of those people:
<blockquote.It is a sad fact that in this day and age that people can declare themselves to be experts, without any real qualifications, and if they continue to shout loud enough and long enough people will start to believe it – even if they have never set foot in a Formula 1 paddock, never spoken to a single person in the business, nor ever even attempted to get (let alone be granted) an F1 media credential.
I wonder how he’s feeling now that he’s attacked people for believing something that he thought was obviously untrue, only to be proven wrong a week later …
Tyler (@tdog)
10th January 2013, 1:10
Joe Saward gets plenty wrong, but how has that happened in this instance?
The Brabham family has won some litigation relating to the use of the Brabham name. It does not automatically follow that a team bearing the Brabham moniker will now return to Formula One (which is what Joe was commenting upon).
David Brabham may have dreams of the Brabham name appearing again in F1, it could eventuate one day, but it’s going overboard to suggest that Joe Saward somehow has egg on his face simply because the legal proceedings have been resolved.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
10th January 2013, 1:14
Because he claimed that the entire story about the Brabham name was a sham, inadvertently restored after three years, and believed by people who didn’t know what they were talking about. Once again, it’s his “I’m the only real journalist here” mindset.
thejudge13 (@thejudge13)
10th January 2013, 2:11
Anyone who lambasts others, sets themselves up for a fall. I like a lot of JS stuff but the attitude of the old F1 hacks – who think 1) they have a God given right to get every F1 story first – is crazy. 2) Only they have the ‘deep’ knowledge is ridiculous.
Instead of recognising their niche, they lash out at the new media calling it ‘cut and paste’ journalism, when most of the people doing F1 stuff on the internet wouldn’t count themselves as ‘journalists’ at all. To them it’s a hobby. Problem is for the pro’s the quality of it is at times so good……
Girts (@girts)
10th January 2013, 8:06
@prisoner-monkeys I read that Joe Saward’s blog article yesterday. The quality of F1 journalism is actually an interesting topic (come to think of it, this would be a good forum thread). But I would find Saward’s thoughts even more interesting if his own standards hadn’t sometimes been questionable to say least.
It is hard to judge the Brabham case as I don’t know which particular article Saward is referring to. But he clearly has got it wrong more than once, he has been applying double standards and the infamous ‘meeting with the silent majority’ in Bahrain made me particularly careful about the content that he produces.
Although Saward seems to read all the readers’ comments, the discussion on his site is not being managed very well. He obviously has a lot of experience, he still travels to every race and seems to have some good contacts in the paddock but all of that still doesn’t guarantee high quality journalism.
In fact, Saward should be happy that there is lack of high quality F1 blogs (such as F1F or JAonF1) on the web as he would find it hard to survive in a more competitive environment.
BasCB (@bascb)
11th January 2013, 11:41
I have read that blog post too, and saw what he was reacting to (resulting from a question by one commenter about a rumour he had seen – link provided – a day before that) @girts
The article mentioned was indeed old news (related to the last 13th F1 entry, if I remember right), possibly brought up again by an editor who expected the news about the legal things finishing and thought it a good time to do so.
electrolite (@electrolite)
10th January 2013, 1:03
I’ve been thinking for years now how it’d be great to have a Finnish/Scandinavian Grand Prix. I can’t totally see it happening for the foreseeable future, but there’s a real motorsport heritage and the cooler temperatures would make for an interesting race.
M Dickens (@sgt-pepper)
10th January 2013, 15:10
That’s such an obvious idea I’d never actually realised it, and they certainly have more heritage than malaysia/india etc.
But I suspect it would be another Tilke drome, so I’m afraid that rather excellent idea would be almost certainly ruined before an engine was ever started.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
10th January 2013, 1:10
My reply to comment of the day, I think that Perez will do just fine at Mclaren. Sure, he makes a handful mistakes, but don’t most 22 year old drivers? I’ve always been impressed by some of the raw pace he was able to pull out of the pan during his Sauber days, amazing how much quicker than Kobayashi he was on multiple ocassions.
Lastly, perhaps it’s just me, but can you imagine the meltdown of Lewis Hamilton fans if Perez were to win the championship this season in a reliable Mclaren?
Bob (@bobthevulcan)
10th January 2013, 2:20
Absolutely. Perez has great potential, and this stint at McLaren ought to go a long way toward unlocking all of it. He has a promising career ahead of him, but this season is especially important – living up to expectations with a top team, acclimating to the McLaren work environment, and making a good impression. I’m sure he has it in him to succeed. As for that “what-if” scenario, I can’t begin to imagine the fan reaction…
(Also, thank you for comment of the day, @keithcollantine!)
sumedh
10th January 2013, 5:51
I am not so sure of Perez’s potential. All his giant killing performances came about because he started outside of top 10 and had extra fresh tyres. Towards the end of the season, when tyres ceased to be a factor, he was unable to pull out anything special and also got involved in needless accidents. That is not to say that he is a bad driver. He is easily the best rookie we have on the grid! Probably better than the Hulk as well! But to think that he could be the next Lewis, Seb or Fernando is a little premature.
And I am sure that when Mclaren signed Sergio, they had an eye on the Mexican money as well!
JCost (@jcost)
10th January 2013, 7:08
Sure money was a factor. Being him a fast driver just made it more interesting. I think he’s capable of winning a race or two in a competitive McLaren but I doubt he’ll be consistent enough to win the title.
Klaas (@klaas)
10th January 2013, 8:34
Yes, and for those laps that he actually had a competitive car he did brilliant (apart for that little flop in Malaysia). One could see the equilvalent of a competitive Sauber in abnormal conditions with a competitive McLaren in normal conditions. I think it was his performance in Monza that convinced McLaren of his potential – clean passes against world champs, a couple more laps and he would have stolen the victory from Ham.
Hulk proved to be a good qualifier but in the race he didn’t really moved any mountains.
petebaldwin (@)
10th January 2013, 12:30
Well yeah his good results came from using the tyres cleverly but you can’t forget that he was driving a car that was at best, the 5th fastest.
He made mistakes towards the end of the season but as the tyres became less of a potential benefit, he had to drive at 110% to score points and with that comes mistakes. If he drove comfortably at 100% all race, he would have finished 10th or lower so why not push it. His strategy clearly worked as he’s now got a seat at McLaren!
I would be willing to bet any money that he’ll beat Button next season in the Championship. It’d be an interesting poll actually to see what people think.
wsrgo
10th January 2013, 5:17
Not Kimi at Macca in 2002, or Fernando at Renault in 2003.
sumedh
10th January 2013, 5:55
You mentioned fans! I am sure even Lewis will be hacked off about that! But another side of me says that Lewis is going to grow up a lot in 2013 and if this does happen, he will handle it maturely. But, his fans would be hysterical I am sure :)
JCost (@jcost)
10th January 2013, 7:12
I think fans would handle it poorly even if it was Jenson. But if Perez becomes 2013 WDC it will be a blow to both Lewis and Jenson.
On the other hand, Lewis haters are rooting for Perez like he was their fave driver ever since he jumped into that Sauber last year :)
JCost (@jcost)
10th January 2013, 6:42
He needs to improve his qualifying and improve his decision making when it comes to overtaking. I rate him positively and I believe he’ll win races if McLaren has a race winning car.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
10th January 2013, 2:50
Call me strange, but I’ve actually gotten use to the new “platypus” noses. They don’t annoy me anymore as they did back in February. Likewise, these noses are now a regular part of my “vision” when thinking of an F1 car. Weird.
Carlitox (@carlitox)
10th January 2013, 3:56
Same happened in 2009 (wings), 1996 (cockpit sides) and 1983 (ground effect banned). We all get used to it after some time ;)
jimscreechy (@)
10th January 2013, 8:11
Really, I’m surprised, I hated the stepped nose look from the first unveiling till now. But I suppose with the McLaren MP4 27 being such a astoundingly beautiful car, and of course without the stepped nose (and to a much lesser exetent the Marussia) there was always the point of reference to adhere to. I hope the crocodile noses are a thing of the past. I think it is quite important for the cars to look aetheticallly pleasing, and the stepped nose didn’t do them any favours. It broke up the sleek contours of the cars in a very unflattering way.
BasCB (@bascb)
11th January 2013, 11:42
Ok, I call you strange @kingshark :-)
jimscreechy (@)
11th January 2013, 16:12
Why… thank you.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
11th January 2013, 17:58
Don’t you dare! :P
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
10th January 2013, 6:04
So, the international motorsport calendar has been disrupted for the possibility of making a last-minute deal for an F1 race in Turkey, which never really looked like happening.
Although I have to say 13 million in state funding does not seem that much compared to what other Grand Prix cost, and with decent crowd (that is a problem for Turkey, of course), it should be easily recouped.
^Mo^
10th January 2013, 6:40
They could have done it as they did in the USA. They received state funding, but only after the event took place and after certain conditions had been met.
With that said, I do agree with the Turkish government on this one. It’s ridiculous that if a private company wants to organize a Grand Prix, which apparently costs about $20 million, that 65% of that amount is state funded. I think state funding is partly why the whole system is so screwed up. Bernie can ask ridiculous amounts of money, and many governments will make up the deficit. And circuits where the government won’t (or can’t) do such a thing will disappear from the Calendar (Belgian GP, French GP, maybe even the German GP).
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
10th January 2013, 12:42
Ferrari has recruited the ex williams aerodynamics team leader Martin Bester , the interesting thing that when i was googling his name i found that he is already a Ferrari engineer in his linked in profile
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/martin-bester/27/a0/612
Dave (@dworsley)
10th January 2013, 19:55
That’s a hell of a linked in profile. Wish mine was that impressive.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
10th January 2013, 16:21
The RB9 is due to be unveiled on the 3rd of February, so they will indeed be present at the first test in Jerez.
Skett (@skett)
11th January 2013, 21:48
Great news about Williams using the modesty panels. If you took out the stepped nose the fw34 was a good looking beast