Essential reading: F1 Fanatic’s highlights of 2013

2013 F1 season review

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Did you miss any of F1 Fanatic’s highlights of 2013? Catch up on some of the best, most popular and most commented articles of the year.

Race reviews

The F1 Fanatic grand prix reviews had an overhaul this year and received a positive response from many readers. Here’s all 19 of them.

2013 Australian Grand Prix review: Strategic superiority gets Raikkonen and Lotus off to a winning start
2013 Malaysian Grand Prix review: Vettel defies team orders to seize victory
2013 Chinese Grand Prix review: Alonso wins race of champions
2013 Bahrain Grand Prix review: Vettel takes second Bahrain win on disastrous day for Ferrari
2013 Spanish Grand Prix review: Alonso hits back with home win
2013 Monaco Grand Prix review: Testing row casts shadow over Rosberg’s win
2013 Canadian Grand Prix review: Vettel makes amends for 2011 defeat with victory
2013 British Grand Prix review: Rosberg lucks in to victory as tyre failures wreak havoc with race
2013 German Grand Prix review: Vettel weathers Lotus onslaught for home victory
2013 Hungarian Grand Prix review: Hamilton emerges as title contender with first win for Mercedes
2013 Belgian Grand Prix review: Vettel brushes Hamilton aside for Spa win
2013 Italian Grand Prix review: Vettel takes third Monza win despite gearbox scare
2013 Singapore Grand Prix review: Vettel’s Singapore hat-trick leaves title rivals reeling
2013 Korean Grand Prix review: Vettel on verge of fourth title after dominant win
2013 Japanese Grand Prix review: Title beckons as Vettel denies Grosjean and Webber for fourth Suzuka win
2013 Indian Grand Prix review: Vettel seals 2013 title with crushing Indian GP victory
2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix review: Relentless Vettel cruises to seventh win in a row
2013 United States Grand Prix review: Vettel makes history as Grosjean denies Red Bull a one-two in Texas
2013 Brazilian Grand Prix review: Vettel wins as Webber waves goodbye with second

By the numbers: Top tens

Top ten: Unbeatable Formula One records

F1 records that could be etched in stone.

Top Ten: Memorable qualifying sessions

Saturday at Spa-Francorchamps served up one of the most exciting sessions of the year.

Mark Webber’s top ten F1 races

Mark Webber bowed out of Formula One – here are some of his finest moments.

Rewind: Race retrospectives

Crashgate’s shadow still lingers five years on

Reflecting on the controversial 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

1953 Argentinian Grand Prix: Peron’s race ends in carnage

F1’s first flyaway race, held at the behest of Argentinian president Juan Domingo Peron, ended in tragedy.

1993 European Grand Prix: Senna’s last great race at Donington

Ayrton Senna won after that first lap but fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello also starred on a damp day at Donington Park.

1988 San Marino Grand Prix: Senna’s first win for McLaren

A crushing season for McLaren included this dominant one-two at Imola, led by Senna.

1973 Swedish Grand Prix: Last-lap heartbreak in first Swedish race

Ronnie Peterson almost won his homeland’s first world championship race but was denied by Denny Hulme on the final lap.

And another thing…: Causes for comment

F1 demeans itself with double points gimmick

The decision to award points at the final race of 2014 came out of the blue and attracted huge criticism.

The pay driver debate needs to move on

Why the despair at the rise of pay drivers in F1 should instead be targeted at rising costs in the sport.

Why after 12 years F1 is ‘off my radar’ for Webber

Sad to see the departure of one of the sport’s great characters.

Bungling the tyre row will give F1 a tainted title fight

Tyres were a major talking point during the season even before the drama of Silverstone.

Button’s complaint shows we need more team radio

Jenson Button was unhappy some of his remarks about team mate Sergio Perez during the Bahrain Grand Prix had been broadcast.

A little more conversation: Most commented articles of 2013

Here is a selection of some of the most-commented articles of the year.

Vettel apologises to Webber for ‘win I’m not proud of’ (574 comments)

The Malaysian Grand Prix provided the most controversial moment of the season when Vettel ignored Red Bull’s order for him to stay behind Webber.

Double points to be awarded for season finale (395)

Not a popular idea, but there’s no sign yet the FIA are going to weed this dreadful rule from the 2014 Sporting Regulations.

Maldonado confirmed at Lotus in 2014 (301)

Many were disappointed to see Lotus pass over Nico Hulkenberg for Pastor Maldonado.

Lauda adds to criticism of Vettel booing (266)

Niki Lauda joined the list of major F1 figures who criticised the booing Vettel was subjected to at some races.

After 50 races, DRS is killing my passion for F1 (231)

This mid-season comment piece on F1’s Drag Reduction Systems seemed to strike a chord with many readers.

Vettel: "You don’t want any gifts" (228)

These remarks from Vettel drew many comments from readers, particularly in the context of Malaysia.

Pirelli bring tyre changes forward to Canada (216)

Pirelli originally attempted to solve the problems with its tyres failing at the Canadian Grand Prix. Even before the British Grand Prix blowouts this was already a major talking point.

Comment counts correct at time of publication

Your favourites: Most popular articles of 2013

FIA to guard against "extreme engines" in 2014

The new 2014 engines will be tightly constrained and subjected to a new development freeze.

How four classic F1 liveries might look on today’s cars

The 1991 Jordan 191, 1984 Toleman TG184, 1997 Lola T97/30 and 1990 Leyton House CG901 as they might look on current cars.

The many helmets of Sebastian Vettel

No one has got through as many helmet designs as Sebastian Vettel – here’s a look at all the designs he’d used up to the start of this year.

Sky to raise F1 channel cost and offer cut-price stream

F1’s switch to pay-per-view television in the UK remains a source of contention, and the price of a season’s subscription has swiftly risen to over 500 per year.

Codemasters add retro cars and tracks to F1 2013

A welcome new addition to the official Formula One game.

Red Bull celebrate titles with doughnuts in Dubai

Vettel celebrated his fourth world championship by performing doughnuts at the end of the Indian Grand Prix. Red Bull carried on the celebrations on the helipad of the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.

New video shows how barrier blocked track after Chilton-Maldonado crash

The Monaco Grand Prix was red-flagged after a major crash at Tabac which was captured on camera by this spectator.

Over to you

What were your favourite articles on F1 Fanatic in 2013? What would you like to see more of next year? Have your say in the comments.

2013 F1 season review


Browse all 2013 F1 season review articles

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

Author information

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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10 comments on “Essential reading: F1 Fanatic’s highlights of 2013”

  1. I would have imagined the team radio transcripts would have been in here: the best addition to F1F in 2013!

    1. @andae23 Glad you enjoyed them! Here’s all the team radio transcript articles for anyone who wants a look.

  2. It’s been another great year for F1 Fanatic (I wish I could say the same about F1).

    I particularly enjoyed reading ‘Why F1 cars keep running out of fuel?’ I really had not thought about this before:

    “You can’t just put a dipstick in there,” explains F1 technology expert Craig Scarborough. “At Spa the fuel is actually at the top of the fuel tank as you crest the rise coming out of Eau Rouge!”

    The comment articles were obviously excellent, I would like to see even more of them. I rarely disagree with anything and, even if I do, it’s still always a great pleasure to read well-argumented and beautifully written opinion pieces.

    I would also like to thank @greg-morland for his top tens, even professional F1 journos couldn’t do the job better.

    Finally, thank you @andae23 for all the spectator videos, it takes a lot of time & dedication to find them. To quote F1 race engineers, “great job mate”.

    1. @girts

      I would also like to thank @greg-morland for his top tens, even professional F1 journos couldn’t do the job better.

      Finally, thank you @andae23 for all the spectator videos, it takes a lot of time & dedication to find them. To quote F1 race engineers, “great job mate”.

      Hear, hear. More to come in the usual end-of-year ‘thanks’ article :-)

  3. Work kept me so crazy busy in 2013 and I hardly get time to browse in the office and at work. However, I took time to submit my weekend predictiions before the race. I also read the round up articles everyday.. Great job Keith. Have a great new year

  4. @keithcollantine So when can we expect a review of the end of season DVD/bluray? It takes about a month for my copy to arrive where I live and it would be good to know if it’s any better than last year.

  5. I think this shows the incredible breadth and depth of coverage here on F1 Fanatics. For a free-to-read resource, the quality is unsurpassable, and the comments and dialogue from the respondants is astoundingly responsible and intelligent. No fanboy screamers here, no trolls or flamers either.
    Pretty damn good, Keith!

    1. couldn’t agree more.

  6. I’m not amused that the Lotus article was very popular…

Comments are closed.