West6MT

Shocked

F-C

India FP1:

POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT TIME
1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1:26.683
2. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1:26.871
3. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes GP 1:26.899
4. Romain Grosjean France Lotus-Renault 1:26.990
5. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes GP 1:27.227
6. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.335
7. Sergio Perez Mexico McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.416
8. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 1:27.692
9. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.770
10. Valtteri Bottas Finland Williams-Renault 1:27.800
11. Jean-Eric Vergne France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.035
12. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari 1:28.214
13. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.336
14. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Renault 1:28.342
15. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 1:28.468
16. Esteban Gutierrez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari 1:28.538
17. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Lotus-Renault 1:28.730
18. James Calado Britain Force India-Mercedes 1:29.197
19. Giedo van der Garde Netherlands Caterham-Renault 1:29.413
20. Jules Bianchi France Marussia-Cosworth 1:29.560
21. Charles Pic France Caterham-Renault 1:30.026
22. Max Chilton Britain Marussia-Cosworth 1:30.471

F-C

FP2:

POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT TIME
1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1:25.722
2. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1:26.011
3. Romain Grosjean France Lotus-Renault 1:26.220
4. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes GP 1:26.399
5. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari 1:26.430
6. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes GP 1:26.582
7. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 1:26.601
8. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Lotus-Renault 1:26.632
9. Sergio Perez Mexico McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.857
10. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.972
11. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:27.304
12. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 1:27.375
13. Valtteri Bottas Finland Williams-Renault 1:27.429
14. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.491
15. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes 1:27.608
16. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Renault 1:27.720
17. Esteban Gutierrez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.949
18. Jean-Eric Vergne France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.431
19. Giedo van der Garde Netherlands Caterham-Renault 1:28.692
20. Jules Bianchi France Marussia-Cosworth 1:28.799
21. Charles Pic France Caterham-Renault 1:29.366
22. Max Chilton Britain Marussia-Cosworth 1:30.164

F-C

Amazing race by Vettel to pull off that early pit stop strategy. I thought RB was mad to try that, but I guess with the soft tires only lasting a few laps, it was the right call. Four straight world championships. Amazing.

Great effort from Grosjean. From 17 to 3rd.

Don't want to second guess RB, but why didn't they just risk Webber and let him try to finish the race?

Chief F1 Fan

^^ agreed on all points, esp the Webbo part. It's not like the Manufacturer's Championship is at risk, why not roll the dice and go for it

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

Totally agree on the Webbo part too. With only 3 races left on the calendar I see no risk strategically in allowing him to grenade an engine as the worst case scenario. I really feel bad for him he was running great one of the last GP's of his career and they make him retire. If I was him I like to think I would have just went for it and ignored the order.

Chief F1 Fan

that's what I was thinking too Dougler, screw the ramifications and team orders!

Chief F1 Fan

BRAWN TO LEAVE MBZ:

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/89...er-The-Season-

Chief F1 Fan

I don't suppose we'll see the team directive from Alan Permaine to Kimi on a t-shirt any time soon taken from the Indian GP:

"Get out of the fucking way!"

F-C

Looks like Maldonado is taking his $$$ to Lotus. Where's Hulkenberg going to end up now?

F-C

Abu Dhabi FP1:

POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT TIME
1. Romain Grosjean France Lotus-Renault 1:44.241
2. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes GP 1:44.433
3. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1:44.499
4. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1:44.712
5. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes GP 1:44.741
6. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Lotus-Renault 1:44.929
7. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes 1:45.040
8. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1:45.099
9. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Renault 1:45.150
10. Sergio Perez Mexico McLaren-Mercedes 1:45.331
11. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Sauber-Ferrari 1:45.378
12. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari 1:45.440
13. Valtteri Bottas Finland Williams-Renault 1:45.823
14. James Calado Britain Force India-Mercedes 1:45.924
15. Esteban Gutierrez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari 1:46.068
16. Jean-Eric Vergne France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:46.114
17. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 1:46.124
18. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:46.126
19. Charles Pic France Caterham-Renault 1:47.600
20. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Caterham-Renault 1:47.670
21. Jules Bianchi France Marussia-Cosworth 1:47.723
22. Rodolfo Gonzalez Venezuela Marussia-Cosworth 1:49.568

Legend2TL

+1, great race by Vettel and Grosjean both.

I was a slightly surprised it was a alternator failure for Weber as RB had a bunch of those in the past and Renault supposedly redesigned the alternator and it's liquid cooling.

Too many chief's, since Brawn had Todt as his counterpart at Ferrari I would guess that having only Wolf at MB would also work. However when they brought Lowe in then it made for too made chief's on the technical side.

There's a strong rumor that it's hard to attract mid-level talent into MB since when Brawn got the buyout from MB in 2009, he kept the vast bulk of the money. So many Brawn GP engineers and technical folks worked alot of unpaid hours during the financially constrained championship year.

Since there were no contractual golden handcuff's, many left in 2010 for other teams. Some are bitter against Brawn since he did not spread the buyout money amongst the team. Then again when Bernie sold Brambam, Gordon Murray only got ~$60K buyout money for over 15 years of service.

None the less, MB is 2nd in the constructor's championship so the timing of all this is awkward to say the least.

Legend2TL

http://www.crash.net/f1/feature/1976...of_pastor.html

It looks that way, Claire Williams is trying hard but doubt she will keep Pastor's $30M sponsor money. Very hard times at Williams F1.

West6MT

You guys see the 180 degree camera on Kimi's car this weekend? Pretty neat. It was on Alonso's car last week.



In P3 they were talking about Kimi's salary. His base is reported to be 6.7 million, plus 50k Euros per point he scores. So the estimate for his salary this year is about 17 million Euro.

They were saying they think that Lotus has to wait for their payout (based on where they finish in the constructors championship) at the end of the season to be able to pay Kimi.

Chief F1 Fan

Kimi had a press conference where he said "I have not been paid 1 Euro this year so far." Surely he doesn't have to wait till the end of the damn season to get paid.

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

I read something where Lotus was saying that Kimi is already a millionaire and they are focusing on making sure the team pays all the staff back at the factory in enstone who are not fortunate enough to have the financial security that he already has. They were not denying that he's owed money but were just saying that they need to take care of the small people first.

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

anyone see this tweet from kimi?

edit: apparently we can't embed tweets.

Fuck this shit, I'm outtie.; Kimi Räikkönen (@K_RaikkonenF1)

West6MT

During P3 the commentators were saying that apparently Kimi considered not showing up this race weekend, and might decide not to show up for the last two races.

When was that tweet from?

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

3:20PM after the race.

Chief F1 Fan

How 'bout this: http://en.espnf1.com/ferrari/motorsp...ml?CMP=OTC-RSS

I'd be pissed too if I was owed $15M Euros

Legend2TL

^ saw that in the BBC, 28G's is quite a impact.

F-C

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mot...h-Ferrari.html

Massa in at Williams, Maldonado out.

I guess that means Maldonado got his seat at Lotus?

F-C

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111249

Magnussen in at McLaren? I dunno, if it was up to me, I'd keep Perez and dump Button.

Aman

Nah, if I were McLaren I'd be holding onto Button for dear life. If they gave him the boot and had Perez as their lead driver, they'd be out of the top-tier team conversation entirely.

Good for Massa in finding a seat to race next year, though.

Chief F1 Fan

I was afraid Massa would go to Williams-they were one of my favorite teams for a long time. They suck so hard now it's pathetic. I really don't want to see a pay driver go to Lotus-Hulkenberg needs to be in a competitive car. If Maldo goes to Lotus, where does the Hulk go?

speedemon90

I'm with F-C. Perez is young, has lots to learn but is shows promise as a good aggressive driver.

Button's times up.

Mclaren hasn't been considered a top-tier team this year. I'd rank them high midrange.

Chief F1 Fan

give Button a car on par with Alonso and Vettel and I bet he would not waste that chance and give both a tough time. He is the master of tire management.

F-C

Um, no. Button couldn't keep up with Hamilton last year. Button has never been super quick, and he needs the stars to line up to get the best results. His results this year have only been marginally better than Perez, and on out right pace, I think Perez is slightly faster. If I'm running McLaren, I'd keep Perez because he gets pretty much the same out of the car as Button and he brings in money. On top of that, Perez has more up side potential as he develops.

Aman

But Button finished ahead of Hamilton the year before, didn't he?

You could say the same about Perez, that the stars have to line up for him as well. A big part of McLaren wanting him was that one second-place finish he had last year. He had a bit of a slump the beginning of this year. I don't think he'll ever be as big a name as Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, etc.

If I was McLaren I would've tried to court Massa.

F-C

No, Hamilton beat Button in 2012, although by just a few points, thanks to too many DNFs.
I was a big skeptic of McLaren signing Perez. If McLaren went by last year's results, they should have signed Maldonado, who at least won a race. I thought Perez would get destroyed by Button this year, but Perez has out driven Button this year, IMO.
McLaren should have tried to sign Raikkonen for next year.

Chief F1 Fan

It's looking more and more like Magnussen is in and Perez is out.

Chief F1 Fan

Button got beat by Lew by 2 points in '12 and both had 4 wins, Button is demolishing Checo this year considering how few points McLaren is getting.

speedemon90

Didn't hamilton have horrible luck last year like F-C said. Many DNF's with car failing or other things happening.

West6MT

I've seen a number of articles suggesting this is going to happen.




Re Aman's comment - A pairing of Button and Massa would be an interesting duo.

F-C

Yeah, McLaren would then be composed of a team of support drivers if that was to happen.

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

Would have been nice to see Raikkonen in the Mclaren seat, they are a top tier team and will be back next year with a lot to prove. I really don't like the idea of Raikkonen at Ferrari, especially if they don't bring the car he's expecting. With the massive changes in the regulations though and decent amount of driver moves it's going to be an unpredictable season.

StreetKA

iTrader: (8)

im worried about Hulk not getting seat in Lotus... i just dont want Maldonado to waste this seat next season

Can you imagine Grosjean and Maldonado combo ?

speedemon90

Chief F1 Fan

Not a Maldo fan

F-C

Perez out at McLaren!

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/90...aren-Departure

Where will he end up? Lotus, Force India, Sauber?