F1 - Season 2013 *Spoilers*

[Trigger Happy]

And thankfully the Smog GP is not in the calendar in 2014.

I don't really think it's appropriate from motorsports fans to complain about this particular matter.

[Lukeno94]

Grosjean was the driver of the day for me, certainly from the half of the race I saw. A few good overtakes, and took his car from 17th to third, on a strategy that Kimi couldn't deal with. Massa comfortably outdrove Alonso again - Ferrari must be a little edgy, given that Raikkonen's form has dipped, as he's needed safety cars to get his best results of recent times...

[DuklaLiberec]

Well done Vettel! This one race pretty much summed up the season. Vettel dominating the field, could have won even more comfortably. Meanwhile the other Red Bull doesn't make it because xyz. Alonso losing the chance on lap one and Lotus having to gamble on the strategy due to bad qualifying.
A well deserved championship for Vettel!

I am glad you didn't even mind congratulating him sincerely

[1nsane]

Vettel laps a second faster than others. He is told to look after his tires, but still laps 0,8 seconds faster. Talk about dominance.

This race is so exciting.

[Krisu]

I am out of words. Maybe I won't even bother to watch the remaining races, they'll end up the same anyway. I'm just counting days till when the next season begins.

[bduddy]

If Vettel is going to win like this, I want him to really go for it, win by a minute or a lap... him holding back so much takes away the only remaining source of entertainment -_-

[1nsane]

Hehe, yeah. I was kinda hoping he could just lap the whole field. Too bad it's a bit of a tyre and car management fest right now.

[1nsane]

Guys predicting Räikkönen in top 10 in our prediction game might want to change that, as Räikkönen won't be racing in the last two races. He has a back surgery next week which takes him out of action for the next 4 weeks/2 races. No word on the replacement yet.

[Mad Dan]

I've read rumours about test driver Davide Valeschi but they're just rumours though

[1nsane]

Yeah, that's propably the most likely one as he was about to replace Räikkönen in Abu Dhabi as well. So it's either him or the guy who is going to drive for the team in 2014...

[Lukeno94]

Yeah, that's propably the most likely one as he was about to replace Räikkönen in Abu Dhabi as well. So it's either him or the guy who is going to drive for the team in 2014...

Well, it's highly unlikely that they could afford to break either Maldonado or Hulkenberg's contract; it would also be utterly pointless at this point, as they'd perform no better in a strange car than any of Lotus' backup drivers (remember the farce with Fisichella trying to replace Massa?) I'd actually like to see Nicolas Prost get a go, but I don't see that happening.

[Trigger Happy]

Technically Hulkenberg allegedly is not bound by his contract to Sauber, because he was in same situation like Raikkonen (no cash paid), so he formally terminated the contract and continues driving their car without it (with agreement of Sabuer, because it's still more advantageous for them due points scored than a paying driver) and can leave the team whenever wants, so maybe ...

[1nsane]

Hm, it just keeps on getting more interesting. So Hulkenberg was ruled out by Sauber. (And yeah, I was guessing on him because of what Trigger Happy said) But apparently Valsecchi wouldn't drive the car either because Lotus wants an experienced driver there. So ehh.. Who's left... We've seen Kobayashi hanging with Ferrari more often these past few races, but Ferrari won't give him for the main rival. Kovalainen has driven F1 this year for four times and has driven for Renault/Lotus before, but the management has changed completely after those times. Barrichello has also been wanting to come back but he has only driven Stock Car Brazil this year. Then there's maybe the Sebastians who drove for Toro Rosso, but I don't even know what they have been doing these past few years. Or maybe Petrov, as he has been wanting to come back and has driven for the team not long ago. And Glock was just dropped too.

In other news, 2014 cars could end up looking even worse than 2012 cars. And this time it would be way worse. While the 2012 duckface was pretty easy to handle, the 2014 d...face feels like an impossible task to get used to. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111262

And way more news as it seems to be more and more likely that Perez is dropped by McLaren to bring in Kevin Magnussen. It's cool to have a new driver in F1, but talk about kneejerk reactions by McLaren. First they get Perez in after two good results. I think they also did this to snatch him away from Ferrari who weren't too sure about Perez. And now they think he "underperformed" in a car that is underperforming. I mean that is the car that could be anywhere from 6th to 16th place depending on the position of moon and Saturn. Sure his driving style in the beginning of the season was rough with him clashing with Button and Räikkönen etc, but after what happened in Monaco I can't remember him being involved in any crashes. Now it feels like they just had to get someone for one year because Hamilton left too soon.

[Crowella]

I'm not too fussed about the looks of the cars. If they can produce a car next year that provides similar times and speeds to what they have now I will be truly astounded.

The whole drivers moving everywhere scenario isn't looking great this year. Lotus can't really be choosing too strictly if they're not paying as well as Kimi suggests. McLaren dropping Perez is a bit odd but I think they are so desperate for top end results that they'll try anything. Be very interesting these next few weeks.

[The Noose]

About the 2014 season, I read that they're going to have 8-speed transmissions, and if I understood correctly, teams must decide their gear ratios before the first race of the season. And they're permitted to change the ratios only once during the season...

[Bouncebackability]

About the 2014 season, I read that they're going to have 8-speed transmissions, and if I understood correctly, teams must decide their gear ratios before the first race of the season. And they're permitted to change the ratios only once during the season...

That's what I understand. But they'll only use 1-6 at somewhere like Monaco, only using 8 at monza and Spa

[Trigger Happy]

I understood they'll use by other way - 1-7 at some tracks and 2-8 at others.

Not happy to see that new noses, but IMHO the cars will look better than 2012, because from both direct front view and direct side view there'll be no apparent gap, the silhouette won't be complete from top (where is wing bellow it anyway too, so ..).

No clue why 1nsane says 'ruled out by Sauber', nobody cared about Sauber, all quotes I see go from Hulkenberg's personal manager (we received, we discussed it, we denied it), so I think those rumours about contract were correct. To tell truth, not too surprised by the denial, not because of cash, but why to risk reputation by defeats from Grosjean in an unknown car and engine, which Grosjean drives entire season.

[The Noose]

Welp! According to our Finnish MTV Sport, Heikki Kovalainen will drive for Lotus the last two Grand Prix! Not confirmed of course, but hopefully it's true.

[1nsane]

No clue why 1nsane says 'ruled out by Sauber', nobody cared about Sauber, all quotes I see go from Hulkenberg's personal manager (we received, we discussed it, we denied it), so I think those rumours about contract were correct. To tell truth, not too surprised by the denial, not because of cash, but why to risk reputation by defeats from Grosjean in an unknown car and engine, which Grosjean drives entire season.

Well the first news about it made it sound more like Sauber stopping him, but yeah, looks like it came from his own end.

It's actually pretty funny if Kovalainen does drive for Lotus as Oskari Saari (a commentator on our F1 feed) has predicted for the whole season that Kovalainen would drive an F1 car in race this year. Well, now he does, but that wasn't the team he was expecting it to happen.

[Trigger Happy]

In any case now it will be interesting with Perez and Maldonado without seat ... maybe you've seen this stats of Motorsport-Total.com of drivers' sponsors:

Pastor Maldonado – 35 mio euro (PDVSA)
Sergio Pérez – 30 mio euro (Carlos Slim, Telmex)
Fernando Alonso – 30 mio euro (Santander)
Max Chilton – 10 mio euro (Aon)
Esteban Gutiérrez – 7 mio euro (Carlos Slim, Telmex),
Giedo van der Garde – 4 mio euro (McGregor)
Romain Grosjean – 2 mio euro (Total)
Adrian Sutil – 1,5 mio euro (Medion)
Valtteri Bottas – 1 mio euro (Wihuri)

I wonder if Hulkenberg still has chance in Lotus, maybe even Grosjean can loose his seat in Lotus in favour of that much cash?

[1nsane]

So which seats do we have left..?

Red Bull 0x
Ferrari 0x
Mercedes 0x
McLaren 0x
Toro Rosso 0x
Williams 0x

Lotus x1(2)
Force India x2
Sauber x2
Caterham x2
Marussia x2

I'd say Grosjean is safe since he has improved this season and is Boullier's and Total's golden boy. As long as Boullier continues to 2014 and Grosjean doesn't do anything extremely silly he has the seat. It's going to be quite disappointing if Maldonado gets that other seat over Hulkenberg. But I guess those two are the realistic choises as Lotus want either a very good driver or a lot of money that will surely be delivered. Which ever won't get the seat propably goes to Force India
If I did a harsh guess on the Mexicans, I'd say Gutierrez will leave or go to Caterham/Marussia and Perez either takes that place or goes to Force India. Apparently one of the reasons McLaren kicked Perez is that the money didn't come in time from Mexico. So since Gutierrez has the same sponsor, it's propably the same over at Sauber. So while Perez can fix some of these problems by driving well, Gutierrez haven't really been dashing on that side this year.

Chilton continues on either Marussia or Caterham thanks to Daddy Chilton. vd Garde or Pic leaves, I can't see them both continuing. Depends on who gets the other Caterham seat. Bianchi either stays where he is currently or goes to Force India.

Both current Force India drivers likely out or to lower teams. (Disappointing, I know..)

Although it's so hard to predict who gets the Force India seats as those will change until the Thursday before Melbourne.

So to sum it up (To make sure I didn't do any mixing guessing... )

Lotus: Grosjean | Hulkenberg/Maldonado
Force India: Hulkenberg/Maldonado/Perez/Bianchi/(Sutil/DiResta)/Who knows
Sauber: Perez/Er.. Propably the same as Force India
Caterham: Whoever's left from above/Kovalainen/(vdGarde/Pic)/Chilton
Marussia: Chilton/Bianchi/Some random guy from the local Karting club.

[Bouncebackability]

I thought about this earlier. Here's how I think it will end up

Lotus: Grosjean & Hulkenberg
Force India: Maldonado & Sutil
Sauber: Perez & Sirotkin
Caterham: vdGarde & Pic
Marussia: Chilton & Bianchi

But, apparently Maldonado has visited Sauber's base in Hinwil, so maybe swap MAL and PER.

[Bouncebackability]

Things change by the day, Hulkenberg has said the Lotus drive is unlikely, and the PDVSA president has said Maldonado IS going to Lotus. Perez has apparently sealed a drive somewhere too!

Lotus: Grosjean & Maldonado
Force India: Sutil & ?
Sauber: Hulkenberg & Perez

[Trigger Happy]

I cannot say any team in only 2 names, but I think (more towards right, less %):

Lotus: Maldonado - Grosjean/Perez
Force India: Hulkenberg - Perez/Sutil
Sauber: Hulkenberg - Perez/Bianchi/di Resta
Caterham: van der Garde - Pic/random rookie with cash
Marussia: Chilton - Bianchi/Gutierrez/random rookie with cash

[Bouncebackability]

Marussia: Chilton - Bianchi/Gutierrez/random rookie with cash

Bianchi is guaranteed, its Chilton who isnt