The 2013 Formula One Season

Updated with latest contracts - sorry about the delay, I've been away for a couple of weeks training.

a very interesting fact:

after the summer break, all the races after spa (spa included), massa has scored 97 points. Alonso on the other hand, 114.

and all of this in spite of massa having to back off at monza, america and brazil. True, alonso was in a league of his own in monza and should have won, and another 30 sure points were lost in belgium and japan, but still... for a driver not fighting for the championship, massa has done a pretty decent job.

your thoughts

He certainly did have a strong end to the season. I just hope he is up there from the get go in 2013. I'd personally love to see Massa win again.

I'm personally still gutted for him about how cruelly 2008 ended.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Only five places up for grab for the 2013 season! Who do we think will get the remaining seats?

2nd seat at Lotus ?
1st and 2nd seats at Force India ?
2nd seat at Caterham ?
2nd seat at Marussia ?

Surely it'll be be Max Chilton in the 2nd Marussia? I'd expect di Resta at FI (although if it was up to me he'd be out) along with... errm, Alguersuari?

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]

It sounded as though Sutil would be back at Force India a few weeks ago. I don't expect di Resta to leave them, though he was very disappointing in the 2nd half of the season (or rather Hulkenberg rose up a level or 2).

I expect Grosjean will keep his seat at Renault - there were rumours that Kobayashi would replace him, but then, in my opinion, you're going from someone who has the pace to deliver, but often doesn't, to someone who, frankly, doesn't have the pace to deliver much unless the car is near the front. I guess with Grosjean you always have a chance of decent points, whereas with Kamui... I just don't feel he'll be much further forward than he was for the majority of the season at Sauber, which wouldn't be good enough. I think Heikki would be a happy medium - a bit faster and more consistent than Kamui and way more consistent than Romain.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2012 10:52PM by gav.

If Blowjean does keep his seat, Lotus will have another driver lined up ready to replace him in mid-2013 if he doesn't improve dramatically. They'll have to.

Heikki would definitely be an improvement over him, and I think they'd be better off giving Kobayashi a shot too. They've got Kimi, so they can afford to take a chance on their #2 driver.

I think di Resta has definitely done enough to keep his seat at Force India, and Jaime would be a better choice of teammate for him than Sutil would.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2012 11:11PM by EC83.

I think I perfectly agree on all your points, Eddy.

I wouldn't mind if Grosjean keeps his seat, but it's certainly last chance saloon.

I'd love to see Kobayashi get a front-running car (well, almost a front running car), and maybe the change will reinvigorate him. Likewise Heikki has done enough to warrant another go in a strong car... yet it looks like he'll be without a seat.

And yeah... Sutil left Force India, partly because he wasn't doing enough and di Resta made him look average. Now di Resta is the one looking a little average, so they're going to bring Sutil back to average out the averageness. Yeah, Alguersuari would be a good fit there - it was terribly harsh to kick him out of Toro Rosso in the first place.

Glock wouldn't be bad for Renault or Force India - he seems to have lost his mojo at Marussia, which isn't entirely surprising. Either that or Pic is quite a little driver, and certainly there was talk of him stepping up into a bigger team before he signed for Caterham.

Rumour has it that Senna's had a seat fitting at Force India...make of that what you will.

Don't quote me on this...just word on the grapevine.

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

I was reading that it was almost a done deal for Sutil to return. I think I'll wait on the official press releases to be honest.

I don't see why Force India would sign Sutil, he's been out of the sport for a year, has a conviction for assault and was never actually much kop the first time around.

Why no one has jumped on Alguesauri I don't know.

Can't believe he is out of F1. Imagine being told when you're 21 that your F1 career is over. It's ridiculous.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Grosjean has been retained for another year at Lotus. If he stops crashing in to things then its a strong line-up for them next year.

i bet the fact grosjean is a french helped his cause big time.

Max Chilton bags 2nd Marussia seat, although its nice to have another british driver on the grid, I can't help but feel this is "money over talent". he'll be a one season wonder like Di Grassi.

airefresco Wrote:
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> If he stops crashing in to things

He won't.


mitadumapaga Wrote:
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> i bet the fact grosjean is a french helped his
> cause big time.

I guess Boullier reasoned that he'd be left looking stupid if he booted Grosjean at the end of 2012, despite making the ill-advised decision to hire him in the first place. But this will only be a stay of execution - he'll continue to be a contemporary Alliot and will get "liberated" from his contract mid-season, giving Boullier the opportunity to save face.


gav Wrote:
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> I think I perfectly agree on all your points,
> Eddy.
>
> I wouldn't mind if Grosjean keeps his seat, but
> it's certainly last chance saloon.
>
> I'd love to see Kobayashi get a front-running car
> (well, almost a front running car), and maybe the
> change will reinvigorate him. Likewise Heikki has
> done enough to warrant another go in a strong
> car... yet it looks like he'll be without a seat.
>
>
> And yeah... Sutil left Force India, partly because
> he wasn't doing enough and di Resta made him look
> average. Now di Resta is the one looking a little
> average, so they're going to bring Sutil back to
> average out the averageness. Yeah, Alguersuari
> would be a good fit there - it was terribly harsh
> to kick him out of Toro Rosso in the first place.
>
> Glock wouldn't be bad for Renault or Force India -
> he seems to have lost his mojo at Marussia, which
> isn't entirely surprising. Either that or Pic is
> quite a little driver, and certainly there was
> talk of him stepping up into a bigger team before
> he signed for Caterham.

Only just saw this post now. If only the team bosses had the common sense we seem to, I think there'd be much better driver lineups. :P

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Grosjean was rehired because he is stupidly quick. In terms of raw pace, he got the better of Kimi on numerous occasions, and that says a lot. You can take a quick and reckless driver and try to take the recklessness out of him. But you can't make a sensible slow driver into sensible quick driver.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

A similar reason I really rate Maldonado. Rough diamond, with some work and taming, will shine more regularly.

Grosjean is very quick, no doubt about it. But like Maldonado, there are many days I roll my eyes at the immaturity of both as their frequent mistakes instantly override anything great they achieve.

Kerb the mistakes, and then people only have good results to mull over.

Right now, all we have to discuss are the crashes.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Early bets on Chilton being next years prince of fail.

Everyone is so against Chilton, it's so uninspiring!!
Give him a chance, at least (though I'm not expecting much )

Anyone remember Toyota NOT wanting to hire Kobayashi because, at the time, he was sponsored by the company??

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

Quote
Morbid
But you can't make a sensible slow driver into sensible quick driver.

I can only think of one exception to that - Pedro Diniz

While that had as much to do with his more illustrious team-mates on the downward spiral, I think it's fair to say that after he got into more competitive cars, Diniz shone a heck of a lot brighter than most of us even thought possible.