The Motorsport Thread 2013

MillsLayne wrote: And it looks like Jimmie Johnson will get his 6th Sprint Cup Championship in Homestead next week with a 28 point lead going into the last race of the year.  Bummer.

I'm a fan of JJ so I'm ok with it, but yes I would have liked to see more of a fight.

Still...anything can happen.

Didn't see this one coming, McLaren have apparently replaced Perez with Kevin Magnussen for next year, it's not been officially confirmed but it's getting reported as a done deal.

I'm surprised they didn't give Perez one more year, I know they've been worried about his consistency but he has had a poor car to deal with this year. The big question, though, is Alonso. It's been no secret that Alonso wants out of Ferrari and McLaren want him back but where does this leave Button, who I thought McLaren and Honda wanted to keep on for several more years (McLaren have been trying to get him to sign a 3 year contract) as I can't imagin they'll only take Kevin for 1 year.

Interesting bit of trivia, Kevin is now the second Magnussen to race for McLaren after dad Jan did a few races for them in 95.

JJLehto wrote: sleeper wrote: And as expected, Massa has been announced as a Williams driver for next year.   How the, kind of, mighty have fallen     Wow, I mean I get that (the whole economic thing) but still... Kimi wasn't paid? Kind of blows my mind Alonso wants out? God damn, my dream team is shattering already Is it because of Kimi? I did wonder how he'd cope with it, (last time Alonso was with another #1 it did not go well)

Signing Kimi is part of it, he wanted Massa to stay for obvious reasons, but I think the heart of it is that Ferrari have repeatedly failed to give him a winning car. Every year their developments don't work and the car falls further away from the pace, it came to a head in Hungary where he public criticised the team after the updates didn't work and they reverted to the previous spec (in effect he was driving the same spec car he had in Spain 3 months earlier) and Luca di Montezemelo public rebuked him in return.

And news on Raikkonen's replacement for the rest of the year. They had been trying to get Hulk to jump ship early but it seems he's backed out of it now, so Kovalainen has become hot favorite to take over the seat. I said it before, the smartest choice they could make.


Edited by sleeper - November 13 2013 at 09:09

Damn, Franchitti has just announced that he's retiring from motor sport due to the injuries sustained in his Houston crash and on medical advise. It's such a shame, I was really looking forward to Dario vs Montoya round 2 next year, but his health comes first so....  

I think it's the back injuries that are most concerning as it's not the first time he's brock his back.

wow! What a shame, I liked Dario and the last 2 years were so bleh..shame it has to end like this.
I see he's 40. Dang! Well given what was said above guess retirement is probably the rational thing to do.
Will miss ya Dario.

Also apparently it was about money...and I mean, not being paid for the year would probably irk me
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/sep/19/kimi-raikkonen-money-lotus-ferrari

I'll have to catch the replay of the USGP, and usually I cave and look up results but I really am interested so I'll wait it out. Which means avoiding all internet ha


Edited by JJLehto - November 16 2013 at 15:24

And now, Pastor is saying that Williams is basically screwing with his car.

Did you guys see this jackassery?  I know he's entitled to his opinion, and that's fine, but hearing this kind of thing my entire life, I get irked every time I hear it.

JJLehto wrote: Oh Pastor... I was gunna say this reminds of the claim Verstappen made that the team was favoring Schumi, actually giving him equipment that Jos did not have. Except while that seems batsh*t insane at least there WAS a gap of peformance between em.   Maldonado and Bottas have performed more or less exactly the same. Soooo his car is being screwed with? Sheesh

There might have been something in that with Jos, as the team definitely favored Schumy but since Verstappen and JJ Lehto shared the second car in 94 it was understandably completely developed around Michael's driving style which was quite unique.

Anyway, P2 times from Interlagos. A wet but drying session today, I suspect Jensen didn't go out towards the end which is why he's last as that looks like a full wet time. I really hope this keeps up for Sunday, we could get a good race then.

Pos Driver                Team                   Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m27.306s           12
 2. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m27.531s  +0.225s  10
 3. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m27.592s  +0.286s  18
 4. Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault          1m28.129s  +0.823s  13
 5. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes               1m28.147s  +0.841s  9
 6. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m28.405s  +1.099s  11
 7. Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m28.540s  +1.234s  9
 8. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari         1m28.560s  +1.254s  20
 9. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m28.739s  +1.433s  20
10. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m28.891s  +1.585s  12
11. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m28.928s  +1.622s  10
12. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari         1m29.049s  +1.743s  17
13. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m29.174s  +1.868s  11
14. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m29.717s  +2.411s  13
15. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m29.783s  +2.477s  7
16. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault       1m30.425s  +3.119s  15
17. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes       1m30.748s  +3.442s  8
18. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth      1m31.061s  +3.755s  18
19. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault       1m31.118s  +3.812s  16
20. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault       1m31.165s  +3.859s  15
21. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth      1m31.211s  +3.905s  19
22. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m31.770s  +4.464s  6

 

Holy sh*t, yeah just heard the news (not the text you wanna see from a friend)