F1 2013

Getting ready for the new season already...

BBC Sport - Valtteri Bottas of Williams aims to be next Flying Finn

Valtteri Bottas of Williams aims to be next Flying Finn

The Finn replaces Bruno Senna and will partner Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado.

And it seems an illustrious lineage of 'Flying Finns' that includes Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen may already have a new generation in Valtteri Bottas, who has been turning heads as Williams's reserve driver this year.

Bottas took part in the first practice sessions at 15 of the 20 races, and he was faster than Williams race driver Pastor Maldonado in six of them, and usually pretty close in the ones he wasn't.

It is notoriously difficult to compare drivers' lap times in practice because the teams closely guard the information regarding how the car is set up, how much fuel it has on board and so on, all of which can have a significant impact on performance.

But Williams chief operations engineer Mark Gillan says Bottas's times have been "representative". That is impressive enough, for while Maldonado can be pretty wild, he is also obviously very quick.

 

BBC Sport - F1 2013: What the year ahead has in store for teams and drivers alike

There was the sense in 2012 that Sauber had produced a fantastic car out of which the team and their drivers rarely extracted the best.

If the team can develop it effectively and keep it at more or less the same comparative level, will the arrival of the highly promising Nico Hulkenberg mean a step forward in terms of pace and consistency? Between the lines, it seems the team believe so.

Hulkenberg finished 2012 very strongly indeed with Force India, firmly putting in the shade Scot Paul di Resta, who had edged their battle in the first half of the season. Can Di Resta recover from the disappointment of not being picked up by a top team and get himself back on track?

Williams did not score anywhere near as many points as they should have done given the performance of their car. They won a race for the first time in eight years but finished only eighth in the constructors' championship, behind two teams who did not.

Pastor Maldonado was quick but error-prone and Bruno Senna's qualifying performances were lacklustre.

With another season under his belt, and a winter to reflect on becoming a grand prix winner, can Maldonado deliver his occasionally electrifying pace more consistently without the red-mist moments that wrecked his 2012?

And will Finn Valtteri Bottas, who has replaced Bruno Senna at Williams, deliver on a potential that seems so rich?

At Toro Rosso, will either Daniel Ricciardo or Jean-Eric Vergne do enough to earn a call-up to the senior Red Bull team or be jettisoned in favour of the next generation?

And, now heading into their fourth year in the sport, can either Caterham or Marussia bridge the still-significant gap between them and the back of the midfield group?

It promises to be another fascinating year.

 

am very impressed with Finland's contribution to F 1. With a population about the size of Alabama Finland has done better than the entire US.I have followed F 1 for 50 years as well as the America's Cup. Strange sports for a rural farmer's son in Alabama. How the world has changed, I had to wait months for results and now can watch multi camera coverage in real time in my living room.

I , too, am ready for 2013 !

Gaines

BTW, my wife's maiden name was Jatko.....is it common in Finland ?. Her family were from the western area.

 

Cheers Gaines,

we also have great rally stars...

I checked from the Finnish name register, only 15 Jatko´s in Finland today.

 

Always look forward to the next F1 race!

Good luck to everyone's favorites in 2013! May they come second to mine!

 

Read that after some months the F1 track in Valencia is robbed of almost everything because it is not guarded anymore...

Valencia 'falling into disrepair' | Oldest Comments | Page 1 | F1 | Crash.Net

 

German ex-Formula 1 driver Adrian Sutil has had a seat fitting at the Force India team and may drive in next week's pre-season test.


The 30-year-old, who drove for the team in its various guises from 2007-11, is a contender for the vacant seat in 2013 alongside Scot Paul di Resta.

Frenchman Jules Bianchi is believed to be the other candidate.


Sutil was found guilty of grievous bodily harm in February 2012 and did not race in F1 last year.

Force India said at the time that the decision not to retain him was unrelated to his conviction for the incident at a Shanghai nightclub following the Chinese Grand Prix in April 2011.



A Force India spokesman said: "Adrian Sutil had a seat fitting with the team this week.

"At this stage the test driving schedule for the Barcelona test is not finalised but there is a possibility Adrian could be involved.

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What?! No three Finns only two driving in the F1 races...

 

Mercedes done a miracle?

Lewis Hamilton has set an eye-catching pace on the penultimate day of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

The Mercedes driver set a lap of one minute 20.558 seconds - the fastest time of the winter so far and 0.708 seconds clear of Ferrari's Felipe Massa in second.

Force India's Adrian Sutil was third, ahead of Pastor Maldonado's Williams.

Hamilton's pace prompted BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson to predict he could win the 2013 title.

BBC Sport - Lewis Hamilton sets outright fastest test time in Barcelona

 

Looking forward to more Kimi moments in 2013!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m52phKv3nA

 

Looking forward to the coming season, only a week to go.
We're not going to go to Silverstone this year.
Got too expensive.
Been 4 times & will have to want until I win the Lotto before I go again.

 

Go Kimi !!!! good to see Lotus on the podium as well.

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/

 

´Great start for Kimi for the season. Mercedes seems to be going well as well. Wonder if Lotus can win the Championship, Kimi can if the Lotus F1 car can match the competitors in speed for the rest of the season.

 

I just watched the entire race, did not feel like waiting up for the 1:30 AM start !!. Kimi was most impressive, as for speed he turned the fastest race lap two from the end on worn tires. The Lotus is certainly competitive , especially with kimi. Ferrari was certainly impressive, power and handling as was Redbull both of them as well as Mercedes paid for their speed with rubber, tire wear was a huge factor. It will take awhile to shake out if it was Kimi or Sutil's driving or the chassis of Lotus or Force India. I cannot see Force India being as sophisticated yet but they were impressive and a coming force.

It does look like parity is here again and it bodes well for the season.

 

Vettel won this time, but must admit he made a dirty trick as the team had told their drivers not to take any risque´s i.e. no overtaking.

 

I was very disappointed in Vettel's behavior, massive desire to win at all cost. I do like watching him drive. Mercedes is showing good improvement and they also issued team orders which were obeyed but I thought wrong, even Hamilton agreed. But big stakes at play to the teams.

Massa is certainly showing new signs of life. Bodes well for the new season but I still want Kimi to win another title....against big odds.

 

Well done Kimi! Second place is good enough.For now.

I like the press saying that Vettel has turned from Bambi to Werewolf.

Lots of rumours about Vettel and Webber not helping each other during this season. Might be so.

 

Bahrain: Vettel-Räikkönen-Grosjean. Lotus doing well here. Excellent Kimi!!!

 

Barcelona: Alonso-Kimi-Massa. Ferrari doing best this time but Kimi nicely second place again and catching Vettel there.Mercedes not doin well in the race although they are fast in the GP qualifying sessions.

 

Monaco GP today. The Mercedes drivers start from positions one and two, Nico having taken his third pole position in a row. In Monaco it is hard to get past other drivers ( as we saw what Senna did to Mansell in the early 1990´s ) so perhaps a victory to Mercedes this time?

Exactly 30 years ago Keke Rosberg won the Monaco race so there is some nostalgia to Nico Rosberg about winning this race today...!!!

 

The only race I've watched all the way through this year on TV - quite entertaining, it was, too.

At least I could tell where all the cars were without having to be told - places like the Gasworks, Tabac and St Devote haven't really changed too much.

I'm sorry, but all these new places - Bahrain, Singapore, Little Snoring ( OK, I made that one up ! ) all look unidentifiable and characterless to me........