[Formula 1 2013] Grosjean to win it all (by destroying everyone else)!

oldmanken

Here we go again, another exciting Formula 1 season is about to begin. Unlikely that we'll get as exciting an opening to the season as last year, but there are a ton of new faces and a lot of team movement. How's Hamilton going to do with Mercedes? Will McLaren sort their car out? Can Vettel blow the field away with what looks like a better car? Can Alonso rise to the challenge again? How many races will Grosjean miss due to recklessness?

And can Kimi be any cooler?



(no)

Anyway, Australian GP qualifying starts in an hour or so... so pumped! I'm hitching myself to Lotus this year, as I think they could surprise a little and have a more consistent start to the season. Vettel and Alonso are beasts though, so who knows...

iguanacus

I predict that Hamilton's move to Mercedes will result in him being a mostly non-entity this season much like Schumacher and Rosberg were last year. He'll win a qualifier or two but won't make podium more then once or be a real contender for the championship. Real question is will Red Bull dominate from the outset this year or will we get a repeat of last season with it taking about half way till they got their feet under them.

oldmanken

Based on the pre-season and practices, the Mercedes is apparently looking much quicker than last year. I can see it being a battle between Vettel and Alonso all season though, with the Lotus' and Mercedes' fighting it out just behind.

iguanacus

Kimi is a man who gives no fucks about you Pele!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MlsMVzrp2o

Or how about the time in 06 in Monaco when his car caught fire during the race and he got out, walked out of the course to the waterfront then boarded a yacht, all while still wearing his race gearing including his helmet. I remember hearing stories about him downing a bottle or two with the helmet still on and proceeding to tear shit up.

chrisnl

F1 in the rain is great entertainment, but I'm not sure how much longer I can stay up so I'll probably miss Q2 and Q3. Took me a while to find the new channel it's on in the US, heh.

yotes

Not dealing with moderate rain really well, are we?

japan

I haven't decided if it's worth the effort trying to keep up with the F1 since the BBC lost most of the broadcast rights to Sky.

They only show half the races and the rest are just highlights. I'd have to get cable or satellite to watch the rest, and it seems silly to pay ~£500 a year just for the F1. I usually have a spurt of half-hearted enthusiasm at the beginning of the season and then gradually lose interest as I lost track of what's going on.

oldmanken

Well that was an unexpected result! Little shocked by how poorly Red Bull did in comparison to expectations. Sutil for Force India was fantastic, but seriously let down by that last pit stop.

Foomy

So sad, had to give a ride to the airport this morning at 6am so i couldn't stay up and watch the race, and no channel is giving any sort of reshowing or recap on the race like they did last season.

Looks to be an interesting season though.

JRosey

Fantastic race. Ferrari is going to be the team to beat this year, methinks.

Really disappointing NBC isn't streaming these online like I thought they would.

oldmanken

Alonso was excellent as usual, but Massa was phenomenal as well. I wonder how long that will last. Either way, Ferrari look to have the most complete team at the moment.

Grosjean was really disappointing for me, and I wonder if he's lost too much of his aggressiveness in order to avoid accidents and maintain his seat.

chrisnl

If you're in the USA, I think that it was re-aired at 1 pm Eastern. I guess that doesn't help at this point, but I'm pretty sure they showed it during the afternoon. I was disappointed that they didn't show the delayed Q2 and Q3 live, but still live-tweeted the results.

jimb213

I read a team-by-team recap this morning, and it sounded like an exciting race. Between F1 and the new season of Game of Thrones, I may be coaxed back into cable.

oldmanken

Ugh, and that right there is why I dislike Vettel. Respect for his skill, but jesus...

Uncle_Balsamic

Ignoring the politics of it, some of that was bloody fun to watch

101

Bah. I'd have liked to have gone into the replay unspoiled, but the BBC had it up on their front page.

Sounds really fun to watch. Feeling a bit sorry for Webber, but I'm also not a fan of team orders.

e: also Hamilton entering the Mclaren pits is hilarious

japan

101 wrote: »

Bah. I'd have liked to have gone into the replay unspoiled, but the BBC had it up on their front page.

They always do that.

They have even gone so far as to have the announcer say who the winner is when introducing the highlights broadcast.

Not a fan of team orders either, but ultimately they will happen whether they're permitted or not. When you run two cars that are basically identical save for set up preferences it is very likely that those two cars are going to end up in consecutive positions at some stage. I have some sympathy for teams watching their two drivers slug it out in the dying laps of a Grand Prix desperately wanting to just see those two cars finish rather than take each other out.

yotes

Hey, we're back!

If you've missed the news, somehow Vettel has turned into a huge cunt, Webber is still incredibly whiny in context (the context being that he might want to grow some self-awareness when it comes to being the teammate to a triple-fucking-world-champion, I mean seriously, dude, you're just a very tall Felipe Massa with better hair at this point, you should accept the role.)

Aside from that, somehow they put Kimi into a car ad. What can I really say, it's exactly what you'd expect a Kimi Raikkonen car advertisement to be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7s-hsVfe9Q

chrisnl

That ad is terrific. I can't help but root for Kimi, it was great when he was driving for Ferrari and I had my favorite driver on my favorite team.

oldmanken

I will be really disappointed if Kimi moves to Red Bull next season.

oldmanken

Nice try by Vettel, but probably should have come in a lap or two earlier.

Uncle_Balsamic

That last lap was fun.

yotes

Thought Vettel might not even have made it to the end if he'd switched to the soft tyres two laps earlier, the way he was pushing to catch Hamilton. The way he lapped Pic (I think it was him?) and barely managed to hang on seemed really desperate and the rubber was probably about done at that time.

Am I completely wrong in thinking that Kimi is a much better driver now than before his hiatus? He's been in a bunch of extremely tight scraps in the last 20 races and he's never been the guilty party whenever contact was made. I can't remember anybody being as good as he's been recently. I rate Alonso about the same as prime Schumacher (in his first few years at Ferrari, when he actually had competition. The Mercedes years and the last two years at Ferrari don't count) as a battler, when it comes to risk/accident ratios. Hamilton and Vettel both have been guilty when it comes to unnecessary collisions.

Maybe I just disliked Kimi as a person before and that might be clouding my judgment, can't really tell.

chrisnl

As far as I can recall, Kimi has always been a fantastic driver. His "ice man" persona does turn some people off, but he's always seemed to get the most out of the car.

oldmanken

Kimi has always been good, but considering that the Lotus car may be a few ticks behind the Ferrari and Red Bull, he's really showing just how good he is. I was really impressed how he held off Hamilton last night, effectively not letting him get in DRS range for much of the last ten laps.

Wicked Uncle Ernie

Is there any way to catch these races without cable? Reruns are fine, something on the internet? Sky has the rights now don't they?