F1 Official Thread - Grand Prix of Britain

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Not necessarily. New regs next year, plus the new engines.  It's up in the air on which team will have an advantage.  New engine regs could be advantageous to teams like Merc or Ferrari, as RBR buys their engines from Renault. 

 

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[zk1mpls]

Kimi to Ferrari is confirmed?

Will Fernando leave eventually?

 

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Great cars. Senna's MP4/4 definitely is my favorite off the lot.

Brazil 2008 still sucks.

 

[Sinner]

Kimi-rumors are strong... Imagine if it turns out to be Kimi-Felipe! 

 

[flashout01]

yes Kimi and Filipe

 

[Sinner]

From 2014 i will no longer be driving for Ferrari. I would like to thank the team for all the victories and incredible moments experienced together. Thank you also to my wife and all of my family, to my fans and all my Sponsors. From each one of you I have always received a great support! Right now I want to push as hard as possible with Ferrari for the remaining 7 races. For next year, I want to find a team that can give me a competitive car to win many more races and challenge for the Championship which remains my greatest objective! Thank you all. Felipe

 

[zk1mpls]

Felipe will be missed. I think he still has some drive left in him... off to a Sauber return, perhaps?

Kimi and Fernando on the same team, though. One less driver to compete against in the WDC. Hopefully they take it to the Red Bulls next year.

Now, I really have to attend a grand prix next year!

(Even Singapore would do... )

 

[zk1mpls]

Signed and confirmed... for two seasons. Arguably the best driver lineup on the grid. No more excuses. Now, just get a good car for these boys!

http://formula1.ferrari.com/news/back-kimi

Welcome back, Kimi!
Maranello, 11 September 2013 – Scuderia Ferrari announces that it has reached an agreement with Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn will join Fernando Alonso in the driver line-up for the next two racing seasons.

- See more at: http://formula1.ferrari.com/news/back-kimi#sthash.PxCTUE7j.dpuf

 

[Sinner]

But really, it's kinda funny how Alonso calls his team out and everything... and now they throw Kimi in the mix which will put Alonso on his heels! 

 

[zk1mpls]

^ Yeah, quite an unusual move by Ferrari, but I like it. The talent is there for the taking, why not grab it, right? Luca Di Montezemolo putting his foot down in the process, as well.

Anyway, I hope Fernando doesn't back out (like with Lewis). Besides, Kimi can be a team player when needed (as seen in 200. Above all else, F1 is a team sport, and I do believe this pairing will bolster their chances at reclaiming the WCC title (given the right car, of course).

I wonder how Fernando really feels at the moment...

 

[flashout01]

Kimi back to Ferrari =

Alonso still with Ferrari = >:

 

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[Sinner]

*Dead*

 

[zk1mpls]

So Felipe was in town to do PR work for Shell, apparently.

Someone really had to ask, "Is Fernando really faster than you?". :\

 

[Sinner]

No way! 

 

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Nice Merc-fitted. 

 

[zk1mpls]

No way! 

Apparently the guy who asked was the editor-in-chief of our local version of Top Gear. So much for pre-screening questions. Lol.

Finally the weekend! Looking forward to that reprofiled turn 10.

 

[zk1mpls]

Pretty cool feature from McLaren.

http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/live/

 

[zk1mpls]

Nice Merc-fitted. 

Just wanted a fitted, after all.

Definitely suits him more than it does for Kimi. I don't think the look suits Kimi at all.

 

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[zk1mpls]

^ Looks like the F1 night races are tough to shoot

 

[Sinner]

^ They're hard to shoot in the sense that there's so little light (despite the track being lit-up), but for pro-photogs, their large-aperture lenses should still be good for the conditions.  It's a bit tougher for the average-fan of course.

Anyway... 

Kimi, Romain, Nico & Guti though...

 

 

[zk1mpls]

^ They're hard to shoot in the sense that there's so little light (despite the track being lit-up), but for pro-photogs, their large-aperture lenses should still be good for the conditions.  It's a bit tougher for the average-fan of course.

Anyway... 
Kimi, Romain, Nico & Guti though...  

Yeah, I reckon the panning shots are harder to take than usual (difficult enough as it is). The pros really benefit from their faster lenses. Besides, they could always bump up their camera's ISO setting as a last resort if there isn't enough light. Their cameras presumably can better get away with the image noise. Colours seem to be a bit on the warm side, as well (white balance perhaps?). The track looks quite bright on TV (washed out in some cases)... I wonder if it's sufficiently bright at the circuit? I've read the drivers don't seem to notice any difference.

Anyway, part of me wants to see a wet Singapore GP. It's been a dry race ever since 2008 -rather unusual since it always seems to rain in the afternoons whenever I visit. Lol. Would a wet night race be too risky to take place? Especially with the track going under the grandstand?

Still find it quite insane that the drivers can get within inches of the barriers at race speeds. :x I wonder how Mark's gearbox would hold up during the race (as well as Kimi's back :\ ). He had a couple of shunts in one of the Free Practices. Although they did break the seal on his gearbox if I remember correctly (without penalty, too).

 

[zk1mpls]

A good pre-race analysis here:

Gearbox gremlins may be Vettel’s biggest worry

2013 Singapore Grand Prix pre-race analysis

September 21, 2013 at 6:38 pm by Keith Collantine 6 comments
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Singapore, 2013Sebastian Vettel is eyeing a potential third consecutive Singapore Grand Prix win after a crushing performance in qualifying which secured his fifth pole position of the year.

It’s hard to see any of his rivals threatening him on raw speed alone. Instead the greatest threat to his victory chances may be the reliability of his Red Bull.

Last year Lewis Hamilton led the Singapore Grand Prix from pole position until to the moment a gearbox failure snatched a likely victory from his grasp.

His team had known about the problem going into the race and endeavoured to fix it, to no avail. Twelve months on, Red Bull are in a similar situation. Both cars had gearbox problems in Italy, and both have to use the same units at this race – or face a five-place grid penalty.

If Red Bull have any serious concerns about Vettel’s gearbox, changing it may be a prudent course of action given the championship situation. A five-place penalty would leave Vettel ahead of Fernando Alonso, his closest championship rival, on the grid. And the new top three on the grid – Nico Rosberg, Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber – are all well out of championship contention.

The start

The configuration of the first corners at Singapore invited drivers to cut across it. We saw this last year when Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg cut the corner and had to exercise caution not to gain an advantage by doing so.

It’s a short run to the first turn at Singapore – just 200 metres. Given that, and the lack of grip off the racing line, it is unlikely Vettel will face a threat from behind at the start – second-placed Rosberg may be more concerned about potentially losing a position to Romain Grosjean.

Having made several poor starts already this year Mark Webber spent part of final practice going through the starting procedure in his car to improve his getaways. That may prove valuable as, like Rosberg, he also starts on the dirty side of the grid.

Fernando Alonso will have to extract all the benefit he can from starting on the clean side of the grid to make progress from seventh. Felipe Massa starts ahead of him in sixth, and a potential storyline of the race may be whether Ferrari ask their outgoing driver to make way for Alonso – and whether he obeys.

Strategy

Romain Grosjean, Lotus, Singapore, 2013The large difference in performance between the two tyre compounds may make for difficult decisions on strategy during the race. The super-softs are around two seconds per lap quicker than the mediums.

On top of that the high likelihood of a Safety Car appearance during the race is another consideration. It has been summed at least once in each of the races so far at this track, and teams know they must be ready to react to it appearing at short notice.

In Pirelli’s view the high chance of a Safety Car appearance may lead teams to avoid the risks of a three-stop strategy, which is theoretically faster, and opt for a more conservative two-stop plan.

Having an extra set of fresh super-soft tyres will give drivers more strategic options. The risks taken by Vettel and Grosjean in Q3 and Q1 respectively to avoid using a set of super-soft tyres shows the potential value of this route.

Grosjean is an especially interesting prospect for the race because the Lotus has been so good on its tyres in hot conditions. Webber, who starts alongside him, has had a slight edge on Vettel for pace on the harder medium tyres.

The top nine will all start on super-softs. Behind them the Saubers of Esteban Gutierrez and Nico Hulkenberg are the first drivers to have free choice of tyre compounds.

Daniel Ricciardo, who qualified ninth and is the last driver who has to start the race on used tyres, suspects that getting into Q3 may prove to have been a mixed blessing: “the guys who went out in Q2 might have a little bit of a tyre advantage, so let’s hope that doesn’t have too much influence tomorrow”.

It looks set to be a long, hard race for Kimi Raikkonen who starts in 13th place and is nursing a sore back. He had to have painkillers injected into it before qualifying, and faces 61 gruelling laps of the bumpy Singapore track on Sunday.