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The Official 2013 F1 Thread...

I'm new to F1 myself (3yrs on/off?) so i'm just barely witnessing how much of a team effort this is. I'm still trying to figure out how much of Seb/RedBull's win is due to Adrian Newey or due to Seb's superior driving. It's not like MotoGP where the riders can be given so much more credit.

I'm not trying to take away from Seb at all. His lead over Webber yesterday (who drives the same car, so they say) was remarkable and can only be attributed to superior driving?
 
Although I like to see Kimi or others winning more races, I think Seb is more "shrewd/cunning/mental"(I don't have the right words to describe) capacity/acumen to making sure only his results matter the most and will do anything to get it (ie. fighting on track with Webber against team order to assure his higher points). Eventhough he already won, he still wants to crush his opponents until the end to stamp his authority. The motivation comes from deep within oneself.
That is how a legend works. If he was driving 9/10, he will look like a fool on track.

Perhaps he has a deeper well to draw compare to the rest to not only won the championship but to show the rest that he will crush them all the way to the last race....with a smile. If he is a nice guy(like Webber), letting off and let others to win(quoting Roman G), that would not be a story of a legend.

Just like Senna out qualified Prost at Monaco by 1sec.+ You need to be not just in the zone to do that....you need to be possessed. Maybe a race is not a race to Seb but a mission. All of the drivers have the skills to win but Adrian's team is doing a better job than the rest to produce the car needed as all of them sound so polite/cordial/corporation/same answers during the post race interview compare to the old days.

BTA, we are only looking at this from the outside and guessing what we saw but I am sure there are more meat under the skin. Moto GP is more driver focused and easier to assess and has becoming more exciting to watch....at least to me and I only ride a scooter.:biggrin:
 
Liftnot, those are very good observations. I totally agree.
Exceptional talent backed by an aggressive and focused personality also needs an invironment and the tools to achieve greatness. So while i do not underestimate the role of the team and the car, it takes a Clark, Senna or a Vettel to make history. I have been lucky to observe all three at work. What I see are guys who are not just a notch or two over the competition but completely on another level. Seb, at 26, even more than the others.
 
I agree with both. What people need to remember about drivers like Fangio, Clark, Senna and Vettel and may be to some extent Schumacher, they were able to win races and compete for wins with cars that nobody gave a chance. Great equipment will always make a good driver seem great (Prost, Mansell, Button and a few others) but the great drivers in those cars will absolutely DOMINATE and will crush the other good drivers. While I was never fortunate enough to see Fangio and Clark race, I have been able to witness three absolutely great drivers make history.


That said; this is the 2013 forum and as such, the race the weekend was a good one. I still think that it is incredible that Alonso had to receive medical attention for the pass on Vergne. He recorded a 25g impact when he went over the curb! I would love to see a still of the car in the air!

It really is evident that all the constructors except for RedBull have given up on this year (who can blame them). No new real developments on the car with the exception of RedBull who was again running Flow-Vis during Free Practice. Who knows, maybe they are trying out 2014 parts as well! Vettel should claim another record of "Most Consecutive Wins" in Austin. It is time to just sit back and marvel at the talent that is Seb Vettel.
 
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Vettel started on the inside of the first corner, the racing line, and the track has better traction there, plus it is about the same distance to the apex for both cars on the front row. He probably also was smart enough to use KERS only when he got beyond 3rd gear, although I don't know whether Webber did the same.
 
britlude said:
thought this was the best bit of the weekend...
Click to expand...

click below
Trying to top britlude :biggrin:

Perhaps, just perhaps the pressure was off Seb to win the championship so he was "free" show us what he can do. My guess is he will do the same for the last two races to show case the world what he can do. To show us his brilliance not some of the time but all the time...24/7, any Sunday, right here right now. Sigh! Boring! but not enough to watch Jimmy Johnson. I sure like to see Kimi win a race.
 
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The word on the street saz McLaren chassis was a dud...not sure who to blame...Paddy Lowe?
planetf1.com is a good source for behind the scenes trash talk.....there might be 1 or 2 truth in there. :wink:...u have to sort it out.
Ferrari has more money/resources than God. I also heard this rumor. For the aero guy to blame the data or a faulty tunnel is lame IMO. He should be fired.
I think its all Adrian's fault....he raised the bar:smile:. Kinda like Honda raised the bar on the 1st NSX and now everybody caught on. I believe Seb will go wherever Adrian goes.


View attachment 106989
 
I agree with Liftnot and Sduff. Having known how Ferrari operates for a while now, one thing to keep in mind is that they are the only team that has to answer to a whole nation, let alone tifosis and the nasty Italian press for all their weaknesses. They never stay silent about their bad performance because that would invite speculation; they always pick an outlandish reason for their failure. I am told the team has been pretty "disturbed" since the German GP. I cant wait for next year to watch the fireworks.

As to Button IMO the guy is good but definitely not consistent. I watched him in 2011 Montreal gobble up the field in very bad conditions and come up a winner (albeit because Vettel's mistake on the last lap). I think his car was definitely his handicap this year. Perhaps his team mate's crazy antics have also affected him.
 
Don't disrespect the Ferrari nation; the old man will come out from his grave and haunt you!:) Being a blood member of the Tifosi, the last few years have been a disappointment. Even though they have been very close to winning the Driver's Championship with Massa and Alonso, their cars and their team haven't been as strong as when Jean Todt ran the team, Ross Brawn lead the team and Michael Schumacher drove the car.

Vettel and RB have won 4 straight driver's and manufacturers championships. I think Vettel is now the best driver (over Alonso) and RB is head and shoulders above everybody else. I don't know how long the dynasty will last, but it certainly is a dynasty. Vettel won in Toro Rosso, and now with RB is dominant. Schu won in Benetton and was dominant with Ferrari. Senna could drive anything, and for 1 lap of qualifying (or in the rain) was the best I ever saw. I didn't see Clark or Fangio, but am still in awe of Fangio's talent being so old (relatively speaking).

I await next year to see Ferrari win.
 
I haven't heard Ferrari say the wind tunnel was the problem for some years now!? I know they had a calibration issue back in 2010/11 and shut the facility down to fix the issue, but they have been using the old Toyota wind tunnel in Germany for the last few years. Come to think of it that could be the problem! LOL. The new/old wind tunnel in Maranello is back up.

In my opinion, Ferrari is best when not being run by the Italians. This is meant as no disrespect to anyone of Italian descent but rather there is too much pressure put on these folks as stated in previous post that they just cannot make it work. Ferraris last Championship run was under the leadership of a Frenchman and a Brit. Now it is much like the late 70's, 80's and 90's under Italian rule, with lots of misdirection and internal strife. That said they are still in contention for second in the Constructors Championship.<o:p></o>
 
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Since this thread is about 2013, let's not forget the huge (bad) effect Pirelli had on performance this year and how handicapped many of the teams were because of it. The tire re-do mid season made things worse. I, for one, would not feel sorry to see Pirelli get out of F1.

I thought this recent Newey interview makes an interesting point about Pirelli.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/11/05/ferrari-and-lotus-got-lucky-with-2013-tyres-newey/
 
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bboxer said:
Since this thread is about 2013, let's not forget the huge (bad) effect Pirelli had on performance this year and how handicapped many of the teams were because of it. The tire re-do mid season made things worse. I, for one, would not feel sorry to see Pirelli get out of F1.

I thought this recent Newey interview makes an interesting point about Pirelli.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/11/05/ferrari-and-lotus-got-lucky-with-2013-tyres-newey/
Click to expand...

He says "“I guess really we’ve kept pushing all the way to Singapore in terms of introducing new parts, even Japan, which you could look back on now and say perhaps we pushed harder than we needed to because in doing that of course it’s taken resource off next year’s car."

I wonder how many teams actually mentally "gave up development" to concentrate on next years car and rule changes and let redbull run off with it.

Is it 2014 yet? I'm ready for it to begin already, haha.
 
All of a sudden, F1 will be interesting again in 2014 with new-to-F1 drivers for McLaren, Lotus, and maybe Williams too. Checo is out. That was a great play from McLaren to deflate Ferrari's ego concerning that kid.
 
myhui said:
All of a sudden, F1 will be interesting again in 2014 with new-to-F1 drivers for McLaren, Lotus, and maybe Williams too. Checo is out. That was a great play from McLaren to deflate Ferrari's ego concerning that kid.
Click to expand...

Where did you read that? I did a search and nothing comes up with saying Checo is out.
 
I think redbull unfortunately is going to dominate next year as well. There's really no evidence that they'll be slowing down or the competition catching up. I mean besides the rule changes that everyone is being impacted by the one real upset is webber leaving. But esstially that doesn't really matter because it's not like he really did to much anyways this past year.
 
so you got that from some journalist? I'll just wait for the official word from McLaren/F1
 

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