Formula 1 2013

[Lord_Iggy]

Pretty sure it's going to be Kevin Magnussen.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Question is if Maldonado still got the PDVSA money. Given that the Venezuelan government is investigating irregularities in their sports sponsorship.

I haven't seen anything about this. Got a URL?

Also Perez will not be driving the second McLaren next year, though no news yet who will take his seat.

Hmm. That seems as abrupt as the way Michael Andretti was treated. It's not like Button is light years ahead of Perez in the drivers standings, and the car was definitely mediocre this year.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I can't find a link, but IIRC Maldonado was not one of the Venezuelan drivers affected.

Also, it looks like Heikki Kovalainen will be the fill-in Finn for Lotus at the final two races. That'll be interesting to watch- a slim chance, perhaps, for him to get his career moving again.

 

[JohannaK]

Why does Kevin Magnussen sounds to me like a Vinlandic MP rather than a racer?

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I blame Mr. Grim Magnusson for that one. /NESing In-Joke

 

[Michkov]

I haven't seen anything about this. Got a URL?

http://racing.ap.org/article/engines-idled-venezuelan-race-car-drivers

 

[Formaldehyde]

It doesn't appear to be affecting Maldonado, as Lord Iggy mentioned above:

Maldonado, meanwhile, wrote on Twitter on Sunday: "I will be in F1 next season proudly representing Venezuela. Hopefully good news soon."

I seriously doubt Lotus would have signed him if he wasn't bringing the same level of financial commitment from Venezuela.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Qualifying was pretty good! To avoid spoilers, I'll just say that there was a good mix of predictability and big surprises in the results.

 

[Formaldehyde]

It got preempted in this country by Olympics curling trials. I kid you not.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I heard it on reddit, and ended up having to explain to people what 'ends, sheets, rocks, houses and buttons' were.

Speaking of which, apparently the US broadcast will be on NBC, and not on NBCSN.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel has now shattered the most consecutive wins record in F1 with 9. Both Alberto Ascari and Michael Schumacher are in 2nd with 7...

He also tied Michael Schumacher with most wins in a season: 13.

With two more wins, he will tie Ayrton Senna with 41. Alain Prost is in 2nd all-time with 51. But Michael Schumacher is still a long way away at the top with 91 wins.

 

[Calis]

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel has now shattered the most consecutive wins record in F1 with 9. Both Alberto Ascari and Michael Schumacher are in 2nd with 7...

He also tied Michael Schumacher with most wins in a season: 13.

With two more wins, he will tie Ayrton Senna with 41. Alain Prost is in 2nd all-time with 51. But Michael Schumacher is still a long way away at the top with 91 wins.

He's still very young. He has quite some time left to get these records, too.

But this also requires continous luck with the teams and cars in future. We'll see.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Well, there wasn't much discussion about the races at Hungary and Spa, but let's see if we can get a bit of discussion going for Monza- qualifying's just a few hours away now.

Also, here are my predictions of next year's teams:

Red Bull: Vettel, Ricciardo
Mercedes: Hamilton, Rosberg
Ferrari: Alonso, Hulkenberg
Lotus: Raikkonen, Grosjean
McLaren: Button, Perez
Force India: di Resta, Sutil
Toro Rosso: Vergne, da Costa
Sauber: Sirotkin, Gutierrez
Williams: Maldonado, Bottas
Marussia: Bianchi, Chilton
Caterham: Pic, van der Garde

Overall, we now know for certain that Ricciardo is Webber's replacement at Red Bull. Helmut Marko has, I believe, said that Vergne's seat at Toro Rosso is safe, and I think that Antonio Felix da Costa is likely to move up into F1 to fill the remaining STR seat. I personally think that Massa is toast, and I think that Hulkenberg is the driver that Ferrari would want to replace him. However, it's conceivable that Massa will somehow manage to stay at Ferrari, in which case Nico is kind of hooped (due to the fact that Sauber's current financial situation precludes giving him any money, and he doesn't have the sponsorship to survive as a pay driver). However, it's also possible that Raikkonen could be lured to Ferrari, in which case Hulkenberg is an obvious choice to fill the void at Lotus.

Chilton and Gutierrez... they're kind of in the balance. They're both unspectacular at the F1 level, but both bring sponsorship money to small teams, which might provide them with some bit of security, but if a similarly mediocre driver can bring a better monetary package, then they are likely to find themselves quickly out of a job. Charles Pic might be in a similar situation, but I'm not sure.

Updating on my silly season post, things are about to start getting locked down. Here are my guesses, and the bold positions are confirmed.

Red Bull: Vettel, Ricciardo
Mercedes: Hamilton, Rosberg
Ferrari: Alonso, Raikkonen
Lotus: Grosjean, Maldonado
McLaren: Button, Magnussen
Force India: Hulkenberg, Perez
Toro Rosso: Vergne, Kvyat
Sauber: Sutil, Gutierrez
Williams: Massa, Bottas
Marussia: Bianchi, Chilton
Caterham: van der Garde, Ercisson

Maldonado to Lotus seems like a done deal, given Quantum Motorsport's ongoing failure to actually come up with anything at all. Hulkenberg looks like he's going to Force India, although Monisha Kaltenborn said that she was interested in keeping him at Sauber if he wanted to do so. If rumours about next year's Mercedes engine are true, then Force India seems like the best seat available for him.

Perez has shown that, while McLaren might not want him, he's still a solid racer. He also has sponsorship from Telmex, so he's likely to end up in the midfield again. He might return to Sauber, but I've heard rumours that Force India is interested in locking him down, which would make for a powerful young pairing.

Sutil's in talks with Sauber, and he's a proven average driver with some sponsorship, which Sauber really does need. However, I could definitely picture Sutil being out of the picture next season. Gutierrez has had a solid rookie year, although I'm not wildly impressed. He was still the highest-scoring rookie, but he was also the rookie on the best team, so it's difficult to read very much from that. Esteban was thoroughly trounced by his teammate Hulkenberg this season, but... well, the Hulk is incredible right now, so I find it hard to picture any other midfield driver outdoing him right now. Anyway, Gutierrez might stay with Sauber and get a make or break season, or he might get chucked and replaced with Sirotkin. Overall Sauber is the hardest team to pin down right now.

It's also looking increasingly likely that Paul Di Resta will be out of F1, although IndyCar remains a decent prospect for his ongoing career.

Going to the backmarkers, only Bianchi is locked down, which makes sense as he's the most promising of the four young drivers. Chilton might keep his job by dint of being a pay driver, although if someone promising comes along with similar sponsorship, he's probably toast. I've been reasonably impressed with van der Garde, and I'd like to see him stay in F1, but again, positions at the back can be volatile. Pic has been quietly invisible, and I wouldn't be at all surprise to see him leave, though there's a chance he might make it through the offseason to drive again in 2014.

Anyway, Autosport has a pretty good article on the matter. Once the Maldozer's found somewhere to land his huge heaps of money, the rest of the market will likely sort itself out.

Iggy's Summary Off Season Comings and Goings:

In
Kvyat, Magnussen... and potentially Ericsson, Sirotkin, and a whole horde of junior drivers.

Out
Webber, Di Resta... and potentially Sutil, Gutierrez, and any backmarker driver sans Bianchi.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Any current F1 driver would be a real boon for IndyCar. Two would be simply awesome. This is really good news that many now seem to consider it a viable alternative to other series when they leave F1.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Yeah, I recently learned that Paul Di Resta is Dario Franchitti's cousin... I guess all of the Italian-named Scots are related?

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Maldonado to Lotus is Confirmed.

 

[Formaldehyde]

So is Hulkenberg to Force India.

The current 2014 line-up in full:

Red Bull Racing
Sebastian Vettel
Daniel Ricciardo

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton
Nico Rosberg

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso
Kimi Raikkonen

Lotus
Romain Grosjean
Pastor Maldonado

McLaren
Jenson Button
Kevin Magnussen

Force India
Nico Hulkenberg
TBC

Sauber
TBC
TBC

Toro Rosso
Jean-Eric Vergne
Daniil Kvyat

Williams
Felipe Massa
Valtteri Bottas

Marussia
Jules Bianchi
TBC

Caterham
TBC
TBC

 

[Lord_Iggy]

That's one of the guesses I made two weeks back confirmed. It's starting to look like Force India could be a major player next year. Consider that they basically gave up on development of this year's car after the post-Silverstone tire changes screwed them over, so the VJM07 has had a lot of development time. Now they've got a potential driver lineup of Hülkenberg and Pérez, which is an extremely strong midfield pairing. If the Mercedes engines are as good as they're rumoured to be, then I think Force India's going to be even more impressive this season.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I just worry about the front of the field. Adrian Newey seems to continue to be in a class by himself.

 

[Michkov]

Keep in mind that the energy recovery systems capacity will be increased in 2014. Newey doesn't like them and so far RB have struggled to get them reliable.
His car design may be the best but the engines and ancillaries will be the make or brake of next season.