Vettel won’t dictate choice of team mate – Horner

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In the round-up: Christian Horner says Sebastian Vettel will not decide who his team mate is in 2014.

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Exclusive Christian Horner Q&A: Tyres will decide 2013 title F1)

“Q: How much of a say will Sebastian have on any future team mate?
CH: He is going to do the best job for himself. And to say, ‘this one, yes’ and, ‘this one, no’ was never Sebastian’s style, to dictate, ‘I must have this or that’.”

Kimi Raikkonen cannot escape talk of him leaving Lotus for Red Bull (The Guardian)

“There’s a long season to go and there’s a long time until next year. I have no contract for next year. There is talk about this and that. In the end I will make the decision at the right time.”

Formula 1 in limbo over 2014 rules (Autosport)

“The situation is difficult although not completely desperate right now. But there are fears that it could become harder in the next few months, when there is likely to be a push to make rules tweaks to help the transition to the 2014 regulations as painless as possible.”

Jenson Button insists morale will not be allowed to drop at McLaren (The Independent)

“We’re very good at improving throughout a season, and if this weekend doesn’t go to plan, we’ll still keep pushing.”

Force India test interlinked suspension (F1 Technical)

“Force India have tested their own version of an interlinked suspension system to better control pitch and heave. The system was however removed after FP1 to continue with normal tyre testing and aerodynamic evaluations.”

Gutierrez quick to own up to early errors (Reuters)

“When you are at such a level of driving on the limit and taking everything to the limit, sometimes I tend to risk a bit and this comes up with some mistakes. It’s part of finding the right edge, where exactly to risk and where not to.”

Plenty to learn for Grosjean (Sky)

“It’s not easy to drive and you really have to take care of everything, which doesn’t make it easy. Normally higher temperature will avoid a little bit of graining and that should be a little bit better for the tyre.”

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Comment of the day

Jack believe’s Pirelli’s tyre failures needs to be taken seriously:

I’m a fan of Pirelli, after all they’re just doing what the FIA ask. I think the issue of degrading tires and these structural failures should not be confused, I’m fine with the degradation, but the failures are worrying and dangerous, if the failure had happened earlier in the corner, Di Resta would have been thrown into the gravel at high speed. That isn’t good enough.
Jack (@Jmc200)

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45 comments on “Vettel won’t dictate choice of team mate – Horner”

  1. With teams coming to the end of their drvelopment curves and having half an eye on 2014 we haven’t seen massive gains in performance. I was hoping to see a breakthrough with the passive DRD but almost seems like teams have abandoned it. Would passive DRD be legal next year? If so you’d think they’d still want to pursue it, unless its too tricky a concept?…

    1. As far I know, there have been no attempts to ban it, so it should be legal 2014. Reading various articles and tweets here and there from f1 people, its looking like it’s fiendishly difficult to get working, so not really worth the effort …

      … mainly because it has to be set to work above the speed of the fastest corner, because its passive. So imagine suzuka with 130R, it would be almost useless at that track

  2. Ladies, you need to make sure you work as a team for a driver who isn’t one of the weakest female drivers, otherwise you’re doing yourself and your cause a disservice.

    1. Thank you!!!!!! There is so much wrong in a less tan 140 tweet…

      1. +1!!!!!

        Gah! That tweet from devillota encapsulates everything that’s wrong with this unnatural “push” from some agenda-swathed corners to jam a female-driver into F1 irrespective of their talent, or lack thereof!

    2. To be clear, Susie Wolff has (I prepare to be corrected) never won a race in a car. By that token, even Yuji Ide or Narain Karthikeyan would deserve a seat over her if one were given purely on merit.

      1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        11th May 2013, 1:41

        @matt90 Luckily, there are some girls (and I say girls, not women, for beaing very young, such as the one in the RB program) who are really talented to ahieve podiums and victories. Let’s hope one of the F1 bosses decides to give them a try in a real F1 deal (if they keep succeeding in minor categories to get the F1 chance).

        1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
          11th May 2013, 2:40

          TYPOS!!! being and achieve (facepalm*)

      2. In the same token Danica Patrick never won any races (or I think it was specified the last time I heard this stat as “Feature Races”) until her lucky Fuel Mileage win in Indycar, however she was a pretty solid mid-pack driver in Indycar. In motorsports not everybody can be winners, you have to have middle & back of the packers too.

        1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
          11th May 2013, 3:51

          @fisha695 but you must show some “profile wins” to get into F1. Please remind me if there is any case of a F1 driver who arrived without absolutely any win in minor categories. There must be a couple of guys, paid drivers probably, who have achieve that not-so-desirable feature

          1. Standard is pretty low lately (to get into F1) and I don’t see any future change to this trend, some people just might get their wish.

          2. That is just not true. Even todays pay drivers arent bad drivers. Usually there has to be a reason for them to backed, they wouldnt of got backed if they could never get a result.

            Agreed there is drivers that should be in the sport but arent due to lack of funds (kova & JA being the best probably).

          3. If the driver had more impact, the financial penalty to the teams for taking on poor drivers would be greater.

            This is also the paradox for those advocating a more level playing field in terms of wealth distribution and sporting regs… it would actually lead to a worse quality of drivers being required.

            Things like driving to lap delta times for example turn the driver into a robot, and turn driving an F1 car well into something the ‘good enough’ can do, as well as the ‘great’ drivers.

          4. Buemi never won a championship before his F1 debut.
            Does that count?

          5. @xjr15jaaag – No because Buemi won races in FBMW, F3, FRenault & GP2.

        2. I recognise that. Those people have no place in F1 though.

      3. To be clear, the bbc programme on her showed a race where teenage suzie took 1st place from teenage lewis hamilton. Of course it wasn’t a high profile category like DTC or GP2 but a junior uk category.

        I don’t like the tweet – we all want meritocracy – but I can see why some people might feel biased and uninformed opinionation has to be compensated for by equally biased advocacy.

        If you believe in merit you shouldn’t be posting self invented rubbish about her.

        1. @boylep6 Did she keep first place until the end? I looked on wikipedia and didn’t see anything about a win since she left karts, which is why I said it. Also, I clearly said that I was prepared to be corrected, so there is no need to be so high and mighty. Particularly as even her own website doesn’t indicate that she’s ever won a car race:
          http://susiewolff.com/en/susiewolff/official/category/history/2547?customfilter=2547

        2. @boylep6 I just looked briefly at that documentary- unless I missed it, the only place I saw Hamilton was talking about winning a race ahead of Wolff. I didn’t look through much more as it appeared that the rest was devoted to her DTM and F1 efforts. If you have evidence that my comment was ‘uninformed opinionation’ please correct me- I’d actually be relieved to have my opinion of Wolff raised and my cynicism eased.

          1. I apologise matt — my memory was completely faulty and reversed the ordering
            in that documentary. You were correct.

          2. No problem. I’d really like to see a woman in F1- I’d just like to know that they would actually be able to compete with the men.

    3. Maybe Susie Wolff needs to make it to Formula 1 so that the idea of women in motorsport can gain traction.

      I’ve often said that the next woman in Formula 1 need to be on the same level as Lewis Hamilton, so as not to damage the idea of women in top-flight motorsports. But now I’m starting to think differently: if a woman can make it into Formula 1, then regardless of her talent, she’s going to inspire otehr women and girls to get into motorsport. Maybe that’s the curve that women in motorsport need to be riding. It’s all well and good to call for the next woman in Formula 1 to be on the same level as Lewis Hamilton, but if the sport is going to be that fussy, then it’s just going to turn talented female drivers off to the sport.

      Susie Wolff might not be talented enough to cut it in Formula 1. But if she can get a drive, then I’d welcome the idea if it means it will open the floodgates and we will get more women looking to compete. Personally, I’d probably prefer it if it were Simona de Silvestro blazing the trail, but maybe this is a good thing after all.

      1. Maybe you’re right. It would be nice to see more girls inspired to take up or keep karting. Unfortunately I still think it might do more harm than good if a woman joined and was awful. I also don’t like seeing drivers not reaching F1 on merit. Luckily, even when that has happened recently, the poorest drivers have been of a level that at least shows that occasionally they have beaten a full field of drivers in the past.

        I agree about Simona de Silvestro. When she won races in her second year of the Atlantic Championship, it was in a very small grid- but it’s better than nothing, and she’s also had the occasional other win. I know it isn’t realistic and still not ideal, but I’d also rather see Danica Patrick, as in her past she has a couple of wins and is a more consistent midfielder. Backing Beitske Visser for a Formula 1 campaign in the next 2-5 years also seems like a far better idea- after all, it’s not like there is a void where there won’t be any suitable women by the time Wolff is too old to race, meaning there is no need to rush shoe-horning her into an F1 car.

        Of course, in DTM Wolff has been in backmarkers for her entire career, as indicated by her team mates finishing about as low as her, so maybe such ardent criticism is a little unfair. What I find worrying is that she hasn’t proved talented enough to graduate to a better seat though.

  3. Vettel might not dictate his next team-mate, but you can bet Helmut Marko will.

    I wonder who Marko might choose: a talented-but-subservient driver who will also acqueise and let Vettel through … or someone as competitive as Vettel himself. I’ve always felt that Marko favoured Vettel so indiscriminately because Vettel is a part of the Red Bull program when Webber is not. But there are other, talented drivers out there – Antonio Felix da Costa being the obvious choice – who are a part of the Red Bull program and who could probably give Vettel a run for his money.

    1. I think Marko will just want to flatter the young driver program he is in charge of, so if anything I think he’ll be wanting a more competitive driver than Vettel! AFD looks the best bet for that currently, so I can see him partnering Vettel if not next year then in 2015.

  4. Michael Brown (@)
    11th May 2013, 2:56

    Regarding the 2014 regs, are fixed gear ratios mandatory?

    1. last i heard, it’s 8 forward and 1 reverse gear declared at the start of the season

      1. Michael Brown (@)
        11th May 2013, 10:35

        Last I read, the ratios have to be declared by the team for use for the whole season, and for 2014 only they can be changed once. This means no more adjustable gear ratios.

  5. Rumours are rumours, but now they are amplifying ovver Kimi re-driving for the Bull Red.

    1. I wouldn’t go reading too much into it. Raikkonen is a popular driver, and with Webber’s future unresolved, it’s only naturaly for a) rumours to start up and b) Red Bull to take advantage of them.

  6. If Kimi replaced Webber would Vettel go to Ferrari? Would Alonso be up for it?

    1. Alonso wouldn’t care about Vettel entering the team. He’s got Ferrari built up around him, so he’s unlikely to be threatened by Vettel’s presence, especially since so much of Vettel’s current strength lies in the way that, like Alonso, he has so much of the team behind him. If he were to leave that environment for Ferrari, Alonso would naturally have the upper hand to begin with.

      Similarly, Vettel wouldn’t care about Raikkonen entering the team. He’s got Red Bull built up around him, so he’s unlikely to be threatened by Raikkonen’s presence, especially since so much of Vettel’s current strength lies in the way that, like Alonso, he has so much of the team behind him. If Raikkonen were to leave Lotus for Red Bull, Vettel would naturally have the upper hand to begin with.

      1. Alonso wouldn’t care about Vettel entering the team

        Vettel wouldn’t care about Raikkonen entering the team

        I completely disagree. These are clever drivers, they don’t want a top-rate team mate alongside them disrupting their superiority. Look at what happened when Button came into McLaren; Hamilton ultimately lost his number one status and ultimately left the team.

        It certainly makes it interesting to see who will take the Red Bull seat and what that will mean for Vettel. My money would be on Ricciardo to be honest.

        1. Raikkonen wouldn’t qualify as a top-rate team mate – not being able to string three words together doesn’t make him a top driver. He is only the master of the house when his team mates are the likes of Coultard and Grojean. When the other guy was not completely useless, he was beaten (Massa and Heidfeld).
          He wont go to Redbull because Vettel will clean the floor with him. And he knows it – it is just that he can’t quite formulate it in so many words.

        2. @John h
          are you sure lol, Hamilton beat Button, not the other way round. 2-1 in seasons, 9 wins to 8 and Button had 1 pole compared to 10 plus from Hamilton.

        3. Except that, as I explained, a large part of their superiority us down to the relationship they have with the team – a relationship that an incoming team-mate won’t have.

          1. Plus, if Alonso and Vettel felt threatened by incoming team-mates, they wouldn’t be multiple World Champions (the Alonso of 2013 is a very different man to the Alonso of 2007).

  7. Vettel will hire another driver anyway and laugh in Horner’s face

  8. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    11th May 2013, 8:45

    talented and strong driver

    …that couldn’t beat a single member of one of the most untalented DTM grids ever assembled in 2012.

  9. So what’s up with this link that Ted Kravittz tweeted? ( http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-1/turbomotoren-zu-teuer-mclaren-setzt-auf-honda-7054748.html ) I haven’t seen anyone else mention it so I assume it’s false.
    McLaren really to go with Honda engines?

    1. @bazza-spock – Old news, I’m afraid. Speculation linking McLaren to Honda 2015 has been around for a few months now.

      1. Having finally read a fully-translated version of that article, I find the most interesting thing is that if Honda were to enter, then they would have to supply at least two teams at the FIA’s request (and I suppose this makes it more feasible for them).

        1. Same for me PM, I hadn’t learnt that before.

    2. The rumours have been going that they are indeed planning that. But it seems nothing confirmed yet.

  10. Amusing to see Horner still pretending to have some semblance of control over the direction of Red Bull.

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