Ricciardo to get Red Bull seat, German media claims

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In the round-up: German tabloid Bild claims Daniel Ricciardo will drive for Red Bull in 2014.

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Ricciardo wird neuer Vettel-Teamkollege! (Bild, German)

According to Bild, Red Bull have chosen Daniel Ricciardo over Kimi Raikkonen as Sebastian Vettel’s team mate for next year.

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes look to pick up where they left off (The Guardian)

Ross Brawn: “We’ll have a much more respectable second half. We’ve scored more points already than we did last year, and we’re just over halfway through. We’ve got a strong enough organisation to ensure we won’t let it slip. We’re on a journey here with Lewis and we don’t know where the limits are.”

Exclusive: Silverstone sold – paving way for redevelopment at home of British Grand Prix (The Independent)

“A senior motorsport personality, who is a BRDC member, told The Independent: ‘A deal has been done on Silverstone. I don’t know who bought it and I don’t know what the terms are, but it is absolutely categoric that a deal has been done and not due to be announced until next month probably.'”

F1 teams’ relief as Pirelli decides against changing 2014 tyre size (James Allen on F1)

“The F1 teams heading back to work after the enforced summer shutdown with next week’s Belgian Grand Prix, will be relieved to learn that Pirelli has bowed to their wishes and decided against increasing the size of the rear tyres for 2014.”

Ex-BMW man Kalbfell killed in crash (Autosport)

“Former BMW motorsport chief Karl-Heinz Kalbfell was killed on Saturday in a motorcycle accident at Brands Hatch, at the age of 63.”

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Comment of the day

@Schooner didn’t do to well on the Nelson Piquet Quiz but perhaps deserves a few bonus points for this anecdote:

I did get to meet the guy once, though. Back in my yacht captain days, we had a charter guest (and his family) on board who was a personal friend of his from Brazil. It was over the 1997/98 Christmas and New Years holidays, and we docked our boat next to his down in St Barts.

Come to think of it, I probably would have seen Nelson Jnr running around as well, but he would have been just a kid. Anyway, over the course of the week, Piquet came on board a couple times and was quite nice.

I was particularly taken by a very large photo (two feet by four feet, maybe bigger?) hanging in the main salon of his boat. It was of him driving his championship-winning Williams. Very cool stuff!
@Schooner

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Adam Smith, Hsvlvr and Pink Peril!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

John Surtees won the non-championship Mediterranean Grand Prix for Ferrari on the high-speed Enna Pergusa track in Sicily 50 years ago today.

Image © Red Bull/Getty

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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121 comments on “Ricciardo to get Red Bull seat, German media claims”

  1. Bild is usually fairly accurate I do believe so that coupled with the initial likelihood makes me very inclined to believe that story. If so, I’ll be in anticipation hopefully of a good battle on Saturday’s at least and then hopefully Vettel will begin to drag him forward in the races.

    1. I hope its true for dans sake, he’s got talent that kid, just needs a car he can prove it in. Go Dan!!

      1. I hope it’s true for Felix da Costa’s sake, I want him to be in F1!

        1. The one I would like to see in F1 is Kevin Magnussen, I don’t doubt that lad is a massive talent and will 1 day win the Championship for MacLaren. The problem for MacLaren is finding him a seat where he can learn the trade, perhaps Marussia as I don’t see Chilton surviving beyond this season.
          Anyway, If it’s true about Ricciardo I’m really glad for him. It’s about time one of the young guns got a really good shot at winning races in a big team. I know it didn’t quite work out for Perez but he never really had a chance anyway with the way MacLaren always manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I am tired of seeing the same faces at the front, we need an injection of new blood to liven things up. Next to go should be Massa to free up that seat for Hulkenberg whom I think is the only other guy out there who has the capacity to become the next new World Champion.

          1. @blackmamba – The Chilton family has bought a stake in Marussia. Whatever his performances, Chilton will stay in the team. Unless the family sells, or the team find someone willing to buy a big enough stake in the team that they can override the Chiltons (which would likely prompt the Chiltons to sell).

          2. I disagree. Now it’s just Ricciardo to Red Bull and Da Costa to Toro Rosso. Otherwisee we would have had Kimi to Red Bull, Hulkenberg to Lotus and a new young talent in the Sauber. Hulkenberg definetely deserves a seat in a atop team!

          3. @paeschli you’ve omitted to mention Ferrari: I do hope they have sense this year and sack Massa, the Hülkenberg can go to Ferrari, then Frijns to Sauber (as a temporary stand-in to allow Sirotkin to prepare for his debut, hopefully then in the place of Gutierrez after Frijns humiliates him) and obviously Da Costa in Toro Rosso as you’ve said.

            That’s my ideal anyway ;)

    2. But they do seem to take the spaghetti approach if throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, and then publishing that.

      After all, they were the ones who claimed Sauber’s Russian deal was in jeopardy because NIAT had not paid so much as a ruble to the team … until it was pointed out that NIAT never had any financial obligations to the team.

    3. I can see Ricciardo developing into another Webber, with the only difference being the :( turns into a :)! They’ve both taken their time to develop into having great one lap pace (think Webber at Jaguar), don’t have any karting superiority background to speak of (think Alonso/Kimi/Hamilton/Button etc.), started with not much money, Aussie, and will probably be edged out by Vettel in the race (as Dan is by Vergne). Kimi would likely have qualified behind Vettel most times but been a real hamper on him in the race. Think Alonso/Hamilton or Senna/Prost.

    4. Bild is usually fairly accurate

      This would mean Kimi have signed with Ferrari….omg!

      1. I hate to burst your bubble, but correlation does not imply causation. Bild can be right about one story and wrong about the other – just because they got the details of one story right, it doesn’t mean that every story is right. It’s especially tricky to judge considering that we’re dealing with the murky world of unnamed sources, which makes things almost impossible to verify.

        After all, Bild reported that Sauber’s deal with the Russians was in jeopardy because NIAT had not paid them anything. Technically, they were right – NIAT has not paid Sauber. But a little context sheds a lot of light on the situation: NIAT has not paid Sauber anything because they don’t have to. They are not the ones providing financial support to the team.

      2. If the Bild story is accurate, it looks that way. If Kimi had agreed with Lotus, it would have already been announced by the team. Or, an announcement was planned for SPA, but Red Bull leaked the information about Ricciardo now, in order to show that they were not rejected by Kimi and that Ricciardo was not their second choice.

        1. Or nobody is saying anything because nobody is home.

          We’re still in the middle of the summer break, which includes a mandatory two-week factory closure. Most teams close down in the middle two weeks, allowing them to return from a race, inspect their cars and do any necessary work. Many teams also like to sort out contracts during this time, as there is no pressure to get ready for another race straight away.

          As the Belgian Grand Prix is one week from today, today is the last day of the factory closure. Most teams will re-open their factories tomorrow. So silence from Lotus doesn’t prove anything except that there is nobody at Enstone. A contract could easily have been signed in the week after the Hungarian Grand Prix, and then everyone went on holidays for two weeks and nobody saw the need to announce the contract since the media spotlight is off Formula 1.

        2. in order to show that they were not rejected by Kimi and that Ricciardo was not their second choice.

          I can’t believe anyone would think Kimi wouldn’t take the Red Bull seat if it was offered to him (unless, granted the contract terms meant he had to do more promotional work or something like that).

          It will be interesting to see where Kimi ends up in the end. I think he’ll have to stay at Lotus for another year until something at McLaren might become available. Those Honda guys would probably love Japanese favourite Kimi driving for them in 2015.

          1. … Why dies everyone assume Raikkonen wants to leave Lotus? He’s been linked to Red Bull, Ferrari and now McLaren (I’m surprised no-one has mentioned Mercedes yet), but I haven’t seen a shred of proof to suggest he is so desperately unhappy at Lotus that he feels compelled to jump ship as soon as an opportunity presents itself.

            Sure, he’s called on the team to stop using conservative strategies, but drivers do that all the time. If anything, the fact that he can do it at all is evidence of his standing within the team, considering that Eric Boullier fired the last driver who publicly called on the team to get their act together.

          2. Actually Kimi wanted total autonomy in strategy, i.e. no Multy 2-1 and such. And of course no team orders and designation as number one the driver leading in points since he would most likely be behind Vettel in points during the first half of the season. Further, he would have to spend a lot of time in the simulator, the play station as he called it. I doubt these terms were accepted by Red Bull. So, it is either Lotus or Ferrari for Kimi, if he gets the terms he likes at Ferrari.

          3. @john-h who knows, maybe Lotus will end up switching to Honda in 2014. Renault have expressed interest at trimming down their supply – Red Bull are the works team so they’ll stay Renault until at least 2017, Toro Rosso will presumably follow Red Bull’s lead as they have recently signed a new deal and Caterham have a collaboration with Renault Alpine outside of F1.

            Since it is reasonable to assume Honda may be wishing to expand their involvement past merely McLaren (and there probably aren’t many other teams who would sign – we can fairly safely exclude the three Renault’s mentioned, Mercedes and Ferrari obviously, Sauber – as they will stay with Ferrari for a while I’d imagine and Williams & Marussia due to new deals).

            That leaves Force India and Lotus, so it is quite probable that Honda may well end up supplying Lotus (as they did to the original Lotus team in the past). That’d keep Boullier and Honda happy ;)

    5. Not really, because they are a tabloid, they can afford to report any rumour and only those that happen to better will remembered as their genius. However, they have made many stories that not only didn’t realise, but also were hard to believe in the first place!

    6. @prisoner-monkeys true, I stand corrected then: I just seem to recall them being accurate from the depths of my brain! I’d still maintain he is the most likely candidate though.

      1. @vettel1 – They’re only really accurate when they keep running a story. Anything that gets mentioned once and is then cast aside is probably just the usual tabloid nonsense. Bild have run three stories in this past week: Sauber’s problems with their Russian investors, Raikkonen returning to Ferrari, and Ricciardo moving to Red Bull. Of those three, I expect that only one – the Ricciardo story – will get any continued coverage. The others will simply fade into the background, if they have not done so already.

        1. @prisoner-monkeys I think I may just be in confusion over their reputation as I cannot read German myself, so I simply pay attention to the headlines (and usually those that sound most probable). So in all honesty I didn’t make the link between Bild and the two other stories you have mentioned in my recollection!

    7. I am also expecting Saturdays to be very interesting if he has signed, he’s shown to be a solid qualifier. I think they will be more interesting than if it was Vettel-Raikkonen, but perhaps a bit different on Sundays. But as you say, Ricciardo could improve on Sundays in such a team, and he is still young so he has the time. A wise choice by Red Bull in my opinion.

    8. I’m hoping its not accurate this time. Kimi vs Vettel at Red Bull would do the sport a lot of good. We haven’t had 2 top notch drivers as teammates since 2007, so it would be good to see it.

      Honestly, I just dont think Ricciardo is good enough for a top team drive, least of all, a team that has dominated the sport over the past 3-4 seasons.

      I think Horner and Sebastian chickened out

      1. @todfod – It’s like Horner said, you won’t know how good Daniel is until you put him in the car. He has shown genuine pace in qualifying and that is the most important aspect for a racing driver. Redbull aren’t fools, they have known him for a long time and will have looked at his data and been quite satisfied with what they saw. If they felt as you do that he wasn’t good enough they would have cut him loose. you only have to look at Klein, Speed, Alguersuari, Chandhok, Luizzi and many others who fell by the way side. Kimi’s move to Redbull or otherwise will not make or break F1. The sport is stronger than that I believe.

        1. Redbull aren’t fools, they have known him for a long time and will have looked at his data and been quite satisfied with what they saw.

          They definitely aren’t fools.. which is why they are pairing Vettel with a driver he can beat comfortably, rather than a competitive driver who is also capable of fighting for championships and troubling their golden boy

          You cannot honestly believe that Ricciardo belongs on the best car on the grid. Sure, he has shown potential, but come on… he isn’t quite red bull material.

          1. @todfod:
            I am sorry, but your arguments are either from blind antipathy towards Vettel and trying to blemish his past and future achievements, or sheer naivety on how businesses work!

            Do you genuinely pretend that a billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz makes his business hostage to one person that, despite his talents and hard work, has been made who he is by him?? Vettel is only an million dollar asset, whereas Red Bull Racing is hundred million business and Red Bull group is a billion dollar one.

            In business there are no fake “golden boys”, if somebody is not good enough you replace them for a better one and as important as the drivers (and their fans) might think they are, they will be put to their place once they pass their limit. Look at why Luka did with Fernando and at least 4 champions (Prost, Mansell, Hill and Button) that were effectively kicked out of the team right after winning championship. Even the 7 time champion Schumacher who was the undisputed No 1 in Ferrari was faced with the choice competing with Kimi on equal foot or leave and he chose to leave.

            Drivers are like Divas, if the director thinks they are not worth the trouble, they would out of a job before they can say “Charley Sheen”!

            Whoever Mateschitz chooses, is the one he thinks would be of most profit to his overall business and in that not only Vettel, but even Horner or Marko can only voice their opinion.

          2. I am sorry, but your arguments are either from blind antipathy towards Vettel and trying to blemish his past and future achievements, or sheer naivety on how businesses work!

            @ifelix

            I have no idea what you’re on about. I’m not denying Vettel is a good driver, and he is well deserved ‘golden boy’.

            My simple point is that they didn’t want to put a driver of Vettel’s calibre in the seat next to Vettel as it would lead to problems like it did in 2010 between Webber and Vettel. The only people who lost out from this whole 2010 ordeal were Red Bull, who were accused of driver favouritism and were going against their Red Bull policy of letting the best man win. I’m sure they learnt from their mistakes, and they would much rather avoid a situation like this in the future. Hence, they pair up Ricciardo with Vettel. This seems like the safer bet for Mateschitz that Raikkonen

      2. @todfod – And Raikkonen staying at Lotus is a bad thing?

        Lotus would be hard-placed to find a replacement driver who could match Raikkonen’s form. Provided that they can keep giving him a competitive car, that means one more team with a chance to win the title. At the moment, the smart money is on a Red Bull vs. Mercedes fight for 2014, so I don’t see how Red Bull vs. Mercedes vs. Lotus will be a bad thing.

        1. Dont know how strong Lotus will be, especially after the loss of James Allison.

          Personally, I much rather see two superstar drivers as teammates in different machinery. In my perfect world, the 2 best teams of 2014 should have the top 4 drivers – Alonso & Hamilton at Mercedes and Vettel & Raikkonnen at Red Bull

          I know its only wishful thinking.. which is why I feel stupid in having believed that Red Bull would actually sign Raikkonen

          1. Argh ..

            I much rather see two superstar drivers as teammates, * than in different machinery

    9. If this turns out to be true then the Bild had all major F1 scoops this year. Or they guessed so much that they had to be right from time to time :) – anyway we’ll see – SPA isn’t that far away anymore.

  2. Turn 10 of the Singapore circuit (the Singapore Sling) is set to be changed from a chicane to a flowing left-hander. Good news, IMO, as that makes the hairpin after Anderson Bridge a much more feasible overtaking opportunity.

    https://twitter.com/cmckinleyF1/status/368829613314539520

    1. JP (@jonathanproc)
      18th August 2013, 2:03

      So the worst corner in Formula One will be gone. Great news!

      Many suggested revising that part of the track as that chicane was truly terrible, but there were concerns that the inability to add any run off would make it impossible. So it’ll be interesting to see how they fit it in.

    2. Great news – ’twas a very cumbersome beast to say the least :)

    3. That’s very interesting. The reason the Singapore Sling was installed in the first place was to reduce the approach speed of the cars at the Anderson Bridge.

      It’s a 400m run into SS and turning that into a simple flowing corner means cars will be turning at high speed and braking at the same time for the chicane before the bridge, and there isn’t a lot of run off there, hence Singapore Sling chicane to interrupt the flow.

      1. Zantkiller (@)
        18th August 2013, 2:43

        I never really understood why they had the 2nd chicane being so tight.

        Making the drivers take the normal road line seems much better.

      2. Hmm just wondering why the Singapore Sling couldn’t be a fast flowing left-hander just like Monaco’s Massanet. Massanet doesn’t have any run-off at all either, and it’s a fast 5th gear corner

        1. @issactham – Because Monaco is given a lot of leniency when it comes to circuit design regulations. Singapore has to follow the rules for Grade-1 circuits, and because there is no room for run-off (and an historic building) on the outside of that corner, followed by a section of circuit that narrows considerably, the Sling was a necessary evil. Until now, it seems.

    4. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      18th August 2013, 2:07

      I quite liked it tbh.
      Because it presented an awkward challenge, and punished your car (and your back) if you got it wrong.

    5. Michael Brown (@)
      18th August 2013, 3:39

      I’m one of the few that liked the Songapore Sling.

    6. @journeyer Great news…sense prevails finally…

    7. About time…. if the current F1 cars can withstand a Robert Kubica type crash at full speed (Canada 07), I’m sure anything this corner can throw at it will be fine (will be cool to have a blind corner, too). Having some danger factor is reduced when we have a wishy-washy chicane, although it does provide some corner variety.

      1. You have a curious definition of “withstand.” I recall Kubica’s feet handing out of his shattered monocoque. It’s no proof than runoff is unecessary.

    8. I wonder if this is to do with the time limit. Singapore has always been close to the 2 hour time limit, and I think last year the race was shortened by a lap or two. This change will presumably shave a couple of seconds off the drivers’ laptimes, which will all add up to saving a couple of minutes at the end of the race. This could be quite significant when it comes to cramming in all 61 laps before the 2 hours are up.

      1. They could also reduce the number of laps if that was the problem :P

        1. @paeschli they can’t really though, that’s the thing: unless they got a special dispensation, such as Monaco has, the races generally have to run for 300km I think is the value (give a few). So shaving off 2 seconds over 61 laps would save you as near as makes no difference 2 minutes, which isn’t that significant but it’s something!

          1. @vettel1 – I believe races must be run to the first lap past 305km, with the number chosen to allow longer circuits like Spa to have races that are over 300km, the original distance of a Grand Prix (if Spa were run over 43 laps, the race would only come in at about 297km).

        2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
          18th August 2013, 15:45

          @paeschl not exactly. As @vettel1 says, if you consider races have to be around the 300 km, having a longer straight means som e meters are lost when they “flat” the curves. And a blind corner can cause another safety car too

    9. Very interesting indeed. Just on a side note for gamers, I wonder if Codemasters will update Marina Bay now to include this.

      1. The answer being, apparently:
        https://twitter.com/Formula1game/status/369163487403982848

        It was an awkward chicane, wasn’t it?

    10. Hamilton said he wanted more danger.

      1. My bad he said he liked the danger.

      2. @crashkid81 He doesn’t like the chicane though:

        Hamilton slams Singapore chicane

  3. What were Pirelli thinking, leaving such a crucial design change so late into the season, this would have been sorted out when the new engine rules were laid out had Bernie or the FIA been in charge, oh um wait….

    1. It is still two weeks before the ‘regular’ deadline of 9/1 that Pirelli have to announce the tire dimensions to the FIA, though Pirelli have be granted until 10/1, which means they still can change it…

  4. So Dan is getting the RedBull drive, is that why Kimi is testing F3 ? ;-)

    1. @hohum I’m going to be nit-picky and correct you: *GP3 ;) Maybe so though – he’ll be getting replaced at Lotus by the massive talent that is Max Chilton :P

      1. Sorry, old habits and old names die hard.

        1. @hohum that’s perfectly alright ;)

  5. @schooner, hello from 1 (mostly) retired Yacht capt. to another.

    1. @hohum, that turned out to be my final winter down in the Caribbean. Time flies!

  6. And another thing, Mercedes 2014 engine will be 100hp more powerful than Renault and Ferraris’ !? Where do people get this info ? Apparently there is somebody out there who is privy to the dyno-information on all 3 engines, even the one that has not been seen or heard of. Even if such information was available it would be highly unlikely to relate to the final figures at the start of the season and given the virtual one-design nature of the regulations most improbable. I will eat my hat if it turns out to be true.
    PS: Where can I buy chocolate hats?

    1. regretfulstatements.com

    2. I have no real source but the rumour Goes like this:
      ‘Mercedes requested bigger tyres, based on their 2014 engine performance. Ferrari and Renault Challenged that and asked for some data. This was provided at Hungary and everybody wet their pants because Mercedes had 100bhp more.”

      1. Well that is a sure way to not get the larger tyres, I’d think @verstappen, showing that it would help you solidly beat the competition! Maybe that was faked to get the result, or they didn’t think they’d be that much stronger. Interesting.

      2. Hmmm, 100hp. more than what though ? Truth, Mind-games or a complete fabrication ? I tend to the latter.

      3. Based on the sound of the new engine ;)

      4. That’s 14% more power with restricted fuel flow, restricted alloys, regulated engine block and a cap on ERS power – a 5% performance spread like we saw in 2006 is already very unlikely.

        I’m with you on eating chocolate hats if that turns out to be true.

    3. I would not believe this kind of number, either.

    4. I am sure chocolate hats can be ordered over the internet somewhere @hohum, and I am convinced that is a more founded statement than the one you mention about the HP difference.

      I agree with you that a. no one would know this for sure and b. its hightly doubtable that anyone would be able to get such a big (about 1/6th) difference out of basically the same engines.

  7. Daniel really deserves that seat, he has been blisteringly quick in a Toro Rosso and it will be interesting to see him in something that doesn’t eat its tyres. Dan has achieved the highest ever dry qualifying result in Toro Rosso history and that includes when they used to be Newey cars.

  8. Is there really no filter how many and what type of rumours you gather in this site? I mean yes, it’s summer break and there’s no racing going on but still, linking any rumour any press has about silly seasons rumours for 2014? I’d prefer to just wait until something is confirmed, meanwhile there has to be something else, like some technical stuff or statistics (which there has been), and that top-list was good read. Just skip linking all the rumours please, even if that’s good source to get people spamming these forums ferociously :)

    1. @lari this is the daily round-up, where articles from around the web relating to F1 are collated so we can view them all. Keith doesn’t dictate what other news agencies write about! All he’s doing is a service to us in allowing us to see the most popular articles ;)

      1. And unlike some of the other rumours, this one is notable because it is credible. This isn’t a case of a bored journalist linking a driver to a team – Red Bull are known to be interested in Ricciardoto the point where they have publicly acknowledged it.

      2. Not to mention the flak Keith would get if he did not list some news stories pertinent to F1. He is giving us the news round up and letting us be the judge of content and validity. If a story is particularly dodgy, which this one does not seem to be all that far fetched, he usually will mention that with the link. It’s a positive sign that even those giving advice on how to run a site are still here reading it.

      3. @vettel1 I’m well aware Keith is not writing these articles, but he dictates which articles he chooses to gather in the round-up. So I was suggesting that it can be done with less articles if there’s only rumour articles left to add. Yes, I know, some do like rumours and it fuels their evenings but just not my cup of tea :)

        1. @lari I don’t think there should be any discrimination is all – an F1 article’s an F1 article so I’m with @bullmello :)

    2. @lari If you’d read previous round-ups you’d know I regularly discount lots of potential material from them if I don’t trust the source or because this story is written anonymously or seems too far-fetched, etc… Here’s a recent example.

  9. Sad rumour . I was hoping for a titanic battle between two world champions in the same team . I hope Ricciardo mans up to the challenge rather than acting second fiddle . He would become my new smiling super villain to support. :-D

    1. Do you honestly think they would let that happen?

      The last time they let their drivers compete on a level playing field, it cost them two championships. Vettel and Webber were so busy taking points away from one another that neither had time to mount a championship challenge against Jenson Button.

      1. The last time they let their drivers compete on a level playing field, it cost them two championships.

        @prisoner-monkeys, I thought the last time they did was in 2010, when they did won both championships.

        1. @jeff1s – Please, do you honestly expect me to believe that Webber had a massive downturn in form and lost a championship that was practically his with a pit strategy that made no sense for him (but plenty of sense for Vettel) whilst his team-mate had had a massive upturn in form and won a championship, from a nigh-on-impossible position and that the team had nothing to do with it despite plenty if evidence to suggest they overwhelmingly favour Vettel?

          1. People who say this sort of thing can never quite manage to cite any of the alleged “plenty if evidence to suggest (Red Bull) overwhelmingly favour Vettel”. Instead they do as you do, and engage in innuendo.

            Webber lost a championship which was practically his when he crashed out in Korea. Did his team have “something to do with it”? You’re happy enough to imply that they did, somehow. You just don’t have any facts on your side.

          2. @prisoner-monkeys,

            Webber lost a championship which was practically his when he crashed out in Korea

            Sadly @jonsan, it’s true. I love Mark Webber.

          3. @jonsan – Webber was in a better position to win the championship before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix than Vettel was. And yet the team somehow made the one strategy call that would give Vettel exactly what he needed. Calling Mark Webber in that early made no sense for his championship bid, because he was obviously going to get stuck behind traffic. And, predictably, he did. All Webber’s strategy managed to do was take Alonso out of the equation. Meanwhile the team somehow managed to get Vettel’s strategy perfectly right. Absolutely none of this makes any sense unless the team decided to favour Vettel in advance.

            Webber’s accident in Korea might not have done him any favours, but he was still in with a chance until the team made one of the worst strategy calls in the history if the sport.

            And if you want proof of the team favouring Vettel, look at the way they blamed Webber for the crash in Istanbul. Or the way they gave Vettel the newer spec of front wing in Silverstone. Once might be an accident, and you can explain two instances as coincidence, but three times – Istanbul, Silverstone and Abu Dhabi – is a pattern. You can’t convince me that the team have not favoured Vettel.

          4. @prisoner-monkeys There was nothing suspicious about Webber’s strategy in Abu Dhabi unless you choose to ignore several salient facts about the race in a transparent effort to concoct some nonsense conspiracy theory.

            It was patently obvious Webber pitted because he needed to. Anyone who was watching that race could see he was struggling with his tyres when he ran wide and clipped the barrier at the exit of turn 19 on lap eight. Shortly after that he complained on the radio he was losing rear grip. It was not long after that he came in to change his super-softs.

            This is not information that took several years to come out, nor was it buried in some obscure race report, it was all shown on the world feed. You just chose to ignore it so you could pretend there was some devious plot by Red Bull to sabotage one of their own drivers. That goes beyond the kind of innuendo @jonsan is talking about – this is plainly misrepresenting the facts.

      2. Rubbish. 2009 was won by a team whose car was dubiously declared legal, not by any RBR driver war costing them the title. Only twice during the season did Webber cost Vettel any points, and those races were Turkey and Germany. Webber’s win in Brazil was a bit of a non-event in terms of costing anyone the title as Button only had to finish in the low range of the points to gets the title.

        I disagree with the idea of Dan being the best choice of driver for RBR, and this despite Dan coming from my hometown. With a complete regulation change next year wouldn’t you rather two experienced world champions developing your car? I would. However good luck to Dan if he has got the seat.

        But @prisonermonkeys really? You of all of us know that it was 2010 that almost cost RBR the title through drivers fighting instead of the year before.

        1. @clay I disagree the deceleration that the Brawn was legal was “dubious”, they interpreted the rules to their advantage in a way which didn’t contravene the wording and so along with Toyota and Williams I think the ruling was perfectly acceptable.

          Otherwise I agree with your comment.

        2. In what universe was Turkey 09 Webber’s fault?

          1. @austus I presume what he means is that because Webber finished ahead of him and nothing more really.

          2. @vettel1 you are spot on, all I meant was that race was one of two examples where Webber might have cost Vettel points by finishing ahead of him, and that made little if any difference to the ’09 title result.

          3. @clay Oh, sorry, I confused turkey ’09 and ’10. Just… disregard my comment.

        3. I would argue that, in 2009, the biggest reasons why Vettel didn’t win the title that season would be his failures to score in Australia, Malaysia and Monaco due to driver error (although the conditions in Malaysia meant it was more luck than judgement whether or not you span out), added to the mechanical failures in Hungary and Valencia.
          Failing to score in five races when Button only failed to score in one, where he was taken out altogether, meant Vettel had a substantial deficit to Button in the early part of the season that he was not going to easily close.

      3. 2009 was something special. At that time Vettel just arrived in the team, the car was incredibly fast (RB was a mid-range team before, now they were ahead of Ferrari and McLaren). Nobody expected that Vettel would be faster than his team mate, Webber was the implicit number one at that time.

        1. Except Webber was undoubtedly hampered by a broken leg and shoulder… could have been a bit different otherwise.

          1. @katederby If anything, that 2009 remains Webber’s best season against Vettel, like how Massa’s first season since returning from injury is still his best against Alonso.

  10. The world of Motorsport has lost Karl-Heinz Kalbfell 63 years old German who has died yesterday from his injuries during a motorcycle race in Brands Hatch ,he was hurt by another competitor when he fell from his bike in Druids curve.
    Kalbfell has been the sporting director of BMW from 1977 to 2004 taking care of both the road & competition divisions, he was the man that lead BMW in endurance racing with their V12 engine with the McLaren granturismo.
    He was also head of Alpha Romeo in 2004 & was responsible for the Alpha 159, he then left Alpha & moved to Maserati because of some problems with Sergio Marchionne & worked for them in the period 2005/2006.
    After that he left Italy & retired but he was also in the Lotus board of directors.
    RIP

  11. RBR will end up just like McLaren next season, choosing Daniel over Kimi?

    The decision making from some of these teams sometimes.

  12. Red Bull never wanted Kimi. He’s going to 34, he’s been inconsistent throughout his career, poor qualifier.

    Plus, the Vettel vs Kimi battle would become a huge distraction to the team. Why do that when Vettel has basically been the most complete driver since mid-2009.

    1. @anon

      Very harsh indeed.

    2. Yes that’s unduly harsh: he was inconsistent in 2008 yes but that was arguably his worst season to date and it wasn’t exactly shambolic. Since his comeback I agree he’s lacked in qualifying but he has always brought home the points (bar China 2012 which was only due to a horrible strategy) so I think “inconsistent” is probably the worst adjective to describe Räikkönen.

    3. “…poor qualifier”

      Clearly you never watched 2005 season! :/

      1. Yeah ’cause qualifying on pole with a teammate that never got into form in a McLaren that was by far the fastest car on the grid makes you an excellent qualifier.

        1. A bit unfair, that, but more accurately, Raikkonen took 5 poles that year (plus one lost through a grid penalty). He’s otherwise never taken more than 3 in a season.

    4. Realistically, there’s no upside to RB from their hiring Kimi. If he gets defeated by Seb (and he probably would) that would be a PR disaster for the team. Look at all the people moaning about how Webbers car is being sabotaged, Seb is being favored etc and multiply that by 300 and you get some sense of what next year would be like. Most of the people currently clamoring for Kimi to join Red Bull “so we can see what Vettel is made of” are simply never going to accept on track results which do not comport with their view of the drivers.

  13. As much as I would love to see Kimi vs. Vettel at Red Bull next season I won’t really be surprised or too disappointed if that does not happen. It seems as though most teams these days do not want to have two roosters, for lack of a better term. There is something to be said for having a fast and experienced veteran driver coupled with a younger and less experienced fast driver. Not to mention some of the potential conflicts that can be avoided. Plus, this way a team is always developing a younger driver to eventually replace or even surpass the veteran driver. So, if having Ricciardo on the team with Vettel is what the future holds, it may be better for Red Bull as a team in the long run. This also gives time to evaluate Ricciardo in top notch equipment to find out if he is the real deal.

    We can still look forward to Kimi vs. Vettel, maybe not on the same team.

    1. Absolutely. Red Bull aren’t in this to entertain us, they want to win. They’ve had a good thing going these past few years, so I can’t imagine why they’d want to change anything by giving Vettel a teammate he may struggle against. Ricciardo will go to this team knowing his place – he’ll be willing to learn from and help Vettel.

      1. Yep, just like Perez at McLaren

  14. Oh God please don’t let it be true that Red Bull is taking Daniel “media hype” Ricciardo instead of Kimi. We are being robbed of an epic battle (at least on Sundays). Who wants to see Vettel cruising to title after title without having a team mate who can put up a fight? Please not again.

    1. @pmccarthy_is_a_legend

      I don’t think Vettel will be cruising. In fact I think (if the RB next year is fast) Daniel will be a contender for the WDC.

      1. @full-throttle-f1
        DR is heavily overrated, and this will be even clearer when the RBR is not the fastest car next season.

        1. Absolutely there’s no doubt about that. RB just want a guy who won’t rock the boat, and DR is just that. @jason12

    2. 2011 was the only season where Vettel cruised to a title. This season he’s had the quickest package at about 2-3 races.

      1. This season he’s had the quickest package at about 2-3 races.

        Don’t make me laugh. Do you watch F1?

        1. Vettel simply has made the most of every opportunity and has basically made no mistakes. Vettel hasn’t had the fastest car since Montreal and it was only marginally faster than the Ferrari. Alonso blew qualifying (like he often does), so we didn’t really see the potential of the Ferrari. Red Bull quickest in Bahrain and maybe Malaysia. I think the Ferrari was quicker in Malaysia but Alonso had to retire from the race due to driver error.

          So two races Vettel has had the quickest car. Three if I’m being generous.

    3. Who wants to see Vettel cruising to title after title without a team-mate that could threaten him?

      I’d say the answer to that question is fairly obvious: Sebastian Vettel.

      1. And Helmut Marko .. and Christian Horner

  15. I think Redbull biggest fear in going with Kimi is if he tramps Vettel, that would have massive implications on Vettel’s 3/4 WDCs.

  16. if red bull get their 4th title this year it will be their last if they go with Dan. I like him, but I don’t think that he has what it takes.

  17. Oh for god’s sake. Listen to yourselves. I’m sure you all have access to Red Bull and Torro Rosso’s data and feedback from Daniel… and you all know so much more than a team that has won the last 3 championships. You should form your own team!!

  18. Looks like Ricciardo is the most likely candidate, as Steve Robertson (Kimi’s manager) has confirmed to the Finnish Turun Sanomat that he won’t be driving for RBR next year.

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