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Thu 21/02/13 at 16:32
Regular
"@RichSmedley"
Posts: 10,009
Below are the results, upcoming races, and drivers and constructors standings:

Results

Australia - 1st Raikkonen, 2nd Alonso, 3rd Vettel
Malaysia - 1st Vettel, 2nd Webber, 3rd Hamilton
China - 1st Alonso, 2nd Raikkonen, 3rd Hamilton
Bahrain - 1st Vettel, 2nd Raikkonen, 3rd Grosjean
Spain - 1st Alonso, 2nd Raikkonen, 3rd Massa
Monaco - 1st Rosberg, 2nd Vettel, 3rd Webber
Canada - 1st Vettel, 2nd Alonso, 3rd Hamilton
Great Britain - 1st Rosberg, 2nd Webber, 3rd Alonso
Germany - 1st Vettel, 2nd Raikkonen, 3rd Grosjean

Upcoming Races
Hungary 28th July
Belgium 25th August
Italy 08th September
Singapore 22nd September
Korea 06th October
Japan 13th October
India 27th October
Abu Dhabi 03rd November
United States17th November
Brazil 24th November

Drivers Standings

1 Sebastian Vettel 157
2 Fernando Alonso 123
3 Kimi Raikkonen 116
4 Lewis Hamilton 99
5 Mark Webber 93
6 Nico Rosberg 84
7 Felipe Massa 57
8 Romain Grosjean 41
9 Paul di Resta 36
10 Jenson Button 33
11 Adrian Sutil 23
12 Sergio Perez 16
13 Jean-Eric Vergne 13
14 Daniel Ricciardo11
15 Nico Hulkenberg 7

Rest yet to score

Constructors Standings

1 Red Bull 250
2 Mercedes 183
3 Ferrari 180
4 Lotus 157
5 Force India 59
6 McLaren 49
7 Toro Rosso 24
8 Sauber 7

Rest yet to score
Fri 12/04/13 at 08:51
Regular
"@RichSmedley"
Posts: 10,009
Mercedes looking good in China:

Mercedes' Nico Rosberg topped the times ahead of Lewis Hamilton in opening practice for the Chinese Grand Prix on Friday.

Rosberg, last year's race winner, lapped the 5.451km track in a time of 1:36.717s. He was 0.454s faster than his team-mate, with Hamilton in turn quicker than Red Bull's Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

The top four was therefore a neat inversion of the finishing order in the Malaysian Grand Prix, the reverberations of which are currently being felt at the Red Bull end of the paddock at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Fernando Alonso finished the session in fifth behind Vettel, with Jenson Button (McLaren), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Romain Grosjean (Lotus) and Paul di Resta (Force India) completing the top ten.

Thursday's talk was all about team orders - largely about those Vettel ignored at Sepang three weeks ago, but also the ones Rosberg had respected in the same race to his own detriment.

If the German is looking to re-assert himself against his new team-mate, then he has no better track on which to try. Rosberg dominated here 12 months ago, taking pole position by a similar margin to that he enjoyed over Hamilton on Friday before leading the race from start to finish. He also led the race in both 2010 and 2011.

Mercedes ran a new front wing during the session and weren't alone in trialling upgrades, with Ferrari also running a new front wing while McLaren tried out a new floor.

Sauber have a new rear wing and floor developments, with Force India changing the floor of di Resta's car during the session.

And while Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz initially spotted nothing particularly new on Red Bull's RB9 - he did, however, see boxes arriving at the back of their garage, suggesting changes for P2 - Rachel Brookes reported a full house on Williams' car.

As the team look to overcome their poor start to the season, Pastor Maldonado (13th) and Valtteri Bottas (17th) took to the track in FW35s sporting new front wings, rear wings and new floors.

With Button setting the session's first timed lap (1:41.798s) half an hour in, Force India were also prominent early on.

Sutil (1:38.125s) was fastest after 50 minutes, by which time all the runners were undertaking their preliminary runs. Massa and Rosberg both took turns at the top, with the latter then setting the time that was to prove the benchmark.

As ever, tyre degradation is bound to figure this weekend. Pirelli have nominated their medium and soft rubber and with cars running in warm, sunny conditions, graining was noticeable on some front tyres.

Red Bull, for one, reported wear and Friday's afternoon session will give more pointers as to whether problems similar to those they experienced in both Australia and Malaysia - which precipitated the team orders row there - might happen once again.

Elsewhere, Kimi Raikkonen was 11th after suffering a spin while Sergio Perez wound up 16th and also, embarrassingly, in the gravel after the chequered flag fell.

Entering the pitlane too quickly, the Mexican locked up and ploughed to a halt in the gravel trap his predecessor Hamilton made famous during the 2007 race.
Thu 11/04/13 at 21:24
Regular
"@RichSmedley"
Posts: 10,009
Looks like it's going to be an interesting season at Red Bull!
Thu 11/04/13 at 19:55
Regular
"I like turtles"
Posts: 5,368
Smedders wrote:
Not long until China, looking forward to it after the break and to see if Vettel and Webber have made up!

I wouldn't be so sure...
Thu 11/04/13 at 18:58
Regular
"@RichSmedley"
Posts: 10,009
Not long until China, looking forward to it after the break and to see if Vettel and Webber have made up!
Sun 07/04/13 at 13:46
Regular
"@RichSmedley"
Posts: 10,009
Can't see him walking away myself:

Red Bull chief Christian Horner has insisted that Mark Webber will remain with the team for the rest of the 2013 season, in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports F1.

An angry Webber dropped a veiled threat to walk away from the Milton Keynes outfit in the immediate aftermath of the volatile Malaysian GP in which he was denied victory when Sebastian Vettel defied team orders and overtook his team-mate for the win.

Webber has since returned to his native Australia, but Horner has no doubts that the 36-year-old, whose contract runs to the end of the season, will be on the grid in two weeks' time for the Chinese GP. He also denied that Sunday's events were a display of Red Bull favouritism towards Vettel.

"Mark knows there was no conspiracy within the team," Horner told Sky F1's Ted Kravitz in an exclusive interview which was broadcast in Thursday's edition of The F1 Show. "We gave equality and our intention was to shut the race down and minimise the risk - particularly with the tyre degradation we had seen.

"It was the intent of the team for Mark to win the race. It wasn't that we suddenly gave Sebastian the instruction to 'go and pass your team-mate'.

"He is big enough to know there was no malice and no intent to create any situation like that. He is in a car capable of winning grands prix and hopefully winning World Championships.

"I have no doubt Mark will see out the contract with us."

Vettel apologised to Webber after the race and Horner revealed that the triple World Champion did the same to Red Bull staff during a visit to their factory on Wednesday.

"He's apologised to the team. He's apologised to every single member of staff earlier today for his actions, because he recognises that the team is vitally important and being part of a team is a crucial aspect to being able to challenge for those Championships," he said.

Of Vettel's decision to defy team orders and pass Webber after the final round of pit stops, Horner said that the German "probably underestimated the effect of his actions".

"He was quite surprised by the reaction after the race. But again, he received a call from his engineer pretty soon after that final stop and then I spoke to him a couple of times," Horner explained.

"I think the message we were trying to convey was quite clear. I think the situation was that he was very focused and very transfixed on making the most of the tyre he had on his car, a new set of tyres he had saved from the previous day, and capitalising on that in the early laps after that final pit stop.

"He's a race driver, a fiercely competitive individual and you don't win 27 grands prix, three World Championships and the amount of pole positions he's achieved at 25 years of age without being a very driven individual.

"We all know there's a bit of history between the two of them and I'm sure that was somewhere at the back of his mind as well."


The history Horner alludes to dates back to the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix, in which Vettel and Webber collided whilst disputing the lead.

Horner also had to fight allegations of favouritism at that year's British Grand Prix, during which a new front wing was removed from Webber's car to replace one which had broken on Vettel's during practice.

"Not bad for a number two driver," was Webber's pointed remark to Horner after he took the chequered flag at Silverstone the following day.

However, he pointed out that Webber has twice - at the 2011 British Grand Prix and also at last year's Brazilian Grand Prix - defied team orders not to race Vettel.

"There has been a breakdown of trust since Istanbul. It's something we've had to manage since 2010. But the most important thing is that they do have a respect for each other on track," he said.

"What happened on Sunday was unfortunate but let's not pretend it hasn't happened the other way round or in other teams."

Horner also defended Red Bull's decision to issue the order and joked that the 'Multi 21' and 'Multi 12' instructions his drivers have ignored in recent races might need a re-think.

"Of course, as a purist, you want to see the drivers race - and actually the show they put on was fantastic, it was great wheel-to-wheel racing," he said.

"But then you're steering the ship and your responsibility is to 600 people...they don't get paid on what the driver does, they get paid on what the team's constructor finish is. Then the responsibility is to make sure that the team achieves its maximum."

Explaining the codes, Horner added: "Multi 21 means car 2 ahead of car 1; Multi 12 means car 1 ahead of car 2. It's not complicated!

"It's not that difficult to translate but both our drivers in the last three races have failed to understand both of those messages.

"I think we're going to give up on that code. We need to probably try something else."
Sun 07/04/13 at 09:52
Regular
"@RichSmedley"
Posts: 10,009
Somehow I don't believe him, in my opinion they see Hamilton as the Number 1 driver at the minute and will only change their minds if Rosberg does significantly better than him during the course of this season:

Ross Brawn has insisted there is no number one driver at Mercedes after the team told Nico Rosberg not to challenge Lewis Hamilton for third place in Malaysia.

The German was heard on the team radio arguing with Brawn that he was quicker than Hamilton, whilst Martin Brundle suggested during commentary that he felt the 2008 World Champion would not have left McLaren without some guarantee of preferential treatment.

However, Brawn told Sky Sports F1 that all Hamilton asked for during contract negotiations was parity with Rosberg.

"Of course Lewis wants to race - in the contractual negotiations we had with Lewis, never was the issue of who was number one or number two ever mentioned from his side," the Mercedes Team Principal said on The F1 Show.

"All he wants is parity - he wants the same equipment, the same opportunity and that is great that he has that confidence and that approach that he doesn't want favouritism - he just wants parity and I think that is what Lewis felt a little bit awkward about the situation."

The 58-year-old admitted he did not like calling off the fight at the Sepang International Circuit, but says both cars were running low on fuel - something that may have not been apparent to the fans at the time.

"I don't like having to take those decisions, but from a technical perspective we would have looked very foolish if we had run both cars out of fuel," he added.

"I think what wasn't fully appreciated at the time is that we had a situation develop on both cars with fuel. We weren't comfortable with either car and I could see a scenario with both drivers competing against each other, in a strong way, it is difficult to marry managing the fuel with a full blown fight with your team-mate.

"I didn't like having to give the orders I gave in Malaysia, it is not in my sporting nature and the team have demonstrated many times in the fast that we are very happy to let our drivers race each other - over the past few years we have often done that."

Brawn also hinted that members of the Mercedes management team were not happy about the decision he took during the race, but insists he has permission to make the strategy calls from the pitwall.

"I had to make a decision from the pitwall about what we were going to do," he said.

"Now Niki (Lauda) or Toto (Wolff) might not agree with it, but I had all the information, I had all the facts. I had what I feel was all the information to make that decision and they didn't and I think they both recognised after the event that it was the correct decision.

"I am clear to make the decisions that I need to make and I am quite happy to justify them and I will put my hands up if I have made the wrong decision. But somebody has to make those decisions - you can't have those decisions made by a group or a committee, there is no time. I won't get it right all the time - if I can get it right 70% or 80% of the time then I am doing well."
Sun 07/04/13 at 09:48
Regular
"@RichSmedley"
Posts: 10,009
Lotus weigh into the team orders debate:

Lotus Team Principal Eric Boullier has said he disagrees with the decisions made by Red Bull and Mercedes to impose team orders at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel respectively led Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg during the closing laps of the race at Sepang. Yet while Rosberg obeyed Ross Brawn's instruction to hold station behind Hamilton, Vettel deliberately flouted a similar order from Red Bull and fought wheel-to-wheel with Webber.

The fight was ultimately settled in favour of the defending World Champion - Vettel albeit incurring the wrath of both Webber and his team and later apologising to both.

According to Boullier, however, the situations should not have arisen in what was only the second of 19 races this season.

"Yes, it happens because of the adrenaline and excitement of winning a race, but I think in Formula 1 it should not happen," he said in Lotus's preview of next weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. "Firstly, we should not have team orders so early in the season; not while the championship is at such an early stage.

"When it happens you need to fix it and fix it quickly."

Boullier said that in a team which offers neither driver preferential treatment - which Red Bull purport to do - the primary concern of each should be their employer.

"Team orders are part of the sport. You have two main strategies to run a team. You might favour one driver, clearly stating 'driver number one' and 'driver number two' if your target is chasing the Drivers' Championship title," he said.

"Alternatively you have both drivers equal, as this is the way you want to go racing, meaning the team holds a lot of importance. The team gives both drivers the same cars, the same conditions, the same performance, but there is a commitment from the team to the drivers.

"In that case I can understand team orders, because you are working for the team, not for the drivers; they are working for you. Sometimes it seems that emotion takes over, but don't forget that the drivers are paid to work for you, as they are for the company.

Boullier added: "I don't see any people in the world who could disobey their company and not be sanctioned, or at least give clarification as to why they've disobeyed."

Meanwhile, Lotus's Technical Director James Allison has, unsurprisingly, failed to back Red Bull's bid for a move back to Pirelli's 2012 tyres.

Having struggled with tyre degradation in both Australia and Malaysia - where their concerns prompted the order which Vettel disobeyed - the World Champions are said to feel that the latest tyres, which are softer, compromise their car's performance unfairly.

"Certain teams are keen for a switch back to last year's rubber, but teams will always push for what's in their best interest," Allison said.

"We feel the current tyres makes for entertaining racing, but then we would say that as our car tends to prosper when the tyres are tender."

Allison also confirmed upgrades Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean will run on their E21s at the Shanghai International Circuit.

"We'll be upgrading Romain to the latest spec exhaust and related bodywork as run by Kimi in Malaysia. We also have a few small tweaks to the front wing, rear wind endplates and sidepod Vanes," he added.

"One of the benefits gained from the new exhaust package is an increase in rear downforce through lower speed corners."
Thu 04/04/13 at 18:23
Regular
"@RichSmedley"
Posts: 10,009
The season's hardly started and they're already talking about next year......

Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz has admitted that Kimi Raikkonen would be a candidate for a 2014 drive at the team - but also made clear that Mark Webber "definitely" remains in contention despite the team orders controversy of Sepang.

What has become now annual speculation over Webber's future at Red Bull was spectacularly fuelled by the events of the last grand prix in Malaysia when Sebastian Vettel ignored team orders to snatch the race victory from his team-mate's grasp, much to the anger of the veteran Australian.

And although Christian Horner, Red Bull's Team Principal, insisted to Sky Sports F1 last week that he had "no doubt" that Webber could see out the remainder of his one-year contract at the Milton Keynes outfit, the latest episode in the long-running Vettel/Webber rivalry has led many seasoned observers to conclude that the latter is now unlikely to extend his stay beyond December.

But while Mateschitz has left the door open for the 36-year-old to stay should he wish, the Austrian billionaire has nonetheless thrown several names in the frame for the seat should Webber move on or retire - with Lotus's star asset Raikkonen the most high-profile, and tantalising, of them all.

"Kimi is cool and fast and always a candidate," Mateschitz told Germany's Speedweek publication.

Although Vettel, as Red Bull's home-grown talent, is widely considered to be the favoured driver by the company's Austrian hierarchy, Mateschitz nevertheless has close ties to Webber and was said to have been unimpressed with the World Champion's actions at Sepang.

Indeed, Bernie Ecclestone claimed on the eve of the Malaysian GP that Mateschitz had given Webber the first refusal on the seat for 2013 despite the team having held talks with Lewis Hamilton's management.

The door for a further extension of his stay remains ajar, according to Mateschitz, who added the expected names of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo into the frame should Webber ultimately depart.

"Whether he retires, only he will choose but Mark is definitely a candidate for 2014," Mateschitz added.

"He is always welcome with us, so too would be a quick junior like [Jean-Eric] Vergne or [Daniel] Ricciardo from the Toro Rosso team. Sorry, I know it's a diplomatic answer which leaves everything open, but that's how it is. Everything else is pure speculation."

With Raikkonen's contract at Lotus believed to run to only until the end of the current season, the 2007 World Champion would appear as things stand to be an available target for Red Bull, with the Finn already having previously been sponsored by the energy drinks firm during his two-year stint in rallying.

The option of promoting one of their two junior drivers at Toro Rosso arguably remains the more straightforward choice. However, neither Vergne nor Ricciardo have yet clearly positioned themselves as the heir apparent to Webber.

Speaking in the latest edition of F1 Racing magazine, Vergne made clear his overriding goal was to take the next available seat at the World Champions.

Asked if he thought he was the driver who would replace Webber, the Frenchman replied: "I'd love to be that guy - and I'll do everything I can to get there."

He then added: "If I perform well then maybe I will get a Red Bull seat. If I am not good enough, they will replace me and I'll lose my place - but I'm here [at Toro Rosso] now, I deserve my seat and I have to prove that to everybody by getting good results."
Tue 26/03/13 at 22:51
Regular
"Too Orangy For Crow"
Posts: 15,844
Bernie is a total basket case at this point so I don't put a lot of stock into what he says.
Tue 26/03/13 at 15:29
Regular
"@RichSmedley"
Posts: 10,009
Be interesting to see in 3 weeks time how Vettel and Webber are.

My bet's on Webber still seething but the team behind Vettel.

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