Arena FIA Formula 1 Racing

Hi guys

Season doesn't kick off until March with the Melbourne Australian Grand Prix.

Lotus have released their car for the season, the E-21:



And McLaren is, right now, launching the MP4-28 live on Facebook and YouTube right now:

http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialMcLarenVids
http://www.facebook.com/vodafonemclarenmercedes?sk=app_197826813689735

A moving tribute to Bruce McLaren just played, and we're about to see the 2013 car that Jenson Button and Sergio Perez will race this year.

Is anyone following these launches?

 

They're now going through famous McLarens in history - up now is the MP4-4, which was famously driven by Prost and Senna during their dominant reign at the team.

 

McLaren's 2013 challenger:



No news on the unfilled seats for 2013. So far, the driver lineup is as follows:

1: Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing
2: Mark Webber (AUS), Red Bull Racing
3: Fernando Alonso (ESP), Scuderia Ferrari
4: Felipe Massa (BRA), Scuderia Ferrari
5: Jenson Button (GBR), McLaren
6: Sergio Perez (MEX), McLaren
7: Kimi Raikonnen (FIN), Lotus
8: Romain Grosjean (FRA), Lotus
9: Lewis Hamilton (GBR), Mercedes
10: Nico Rosberg (GER), Mercedes
11: Nico Hulkenberg (GER), Sauber
12: Esteban Guiterrez (MEX), Sauber
13: Paul di Resta (GBR), Sahara Force India
14: TBC, Sahara Force India
15: Pastor Maldonado (VEN), Williams
16: Valterri Bottas (FIN), Williams
17: Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA), Scuderia Toro Rosso
18: Daniel Ricciardo (AUS), Scuderia Toro Rosso
19: Charles Pic (FRA), Caterham
20: TBC, Caterham
21: Max Chilton (GBR), Marussia
22: Luiz Raza (BRA), Marussia

With HRT's demise, there are no cars 23 and 24 this season.

So, two seats are up for grabs; one in Force India, one in Caterham. Force India was rumoured to be contested by Adrian Sutil, Bruno Senna and Jules Bianchi. Bianchi is the favourite to get the seat.

Caterham is expected to go with Dutchman Giedo van der Garde, which means that Heikki Kovalinen, Vitali Petrov and Bruno Senna will lose their drives from 2012 season.

New drivers and changes are:

Lewis Hamilton: McLaren -> Mercedes
Michael Schumacher: Mercedes -> Retirement
Sergio Perez, Sauber -> McLaren
Nico Hulkenberg: Force India -> Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi: Sauber -> No drive
Bruno Senna: Williams -> No drive
Heikki Kovalinen: Caterham -> No drive
Vitali Petrov: Caterham -> No drive

 

i'm gonna be in KL like 2 days after the Grand Prix. so annoying.

 

Oh boo! Though Sepang's a bit of a hike from KL proper.

 

would have been awesome but oh well!

hoping McClaren can compete with the top two this year. i would like Mercedes to be up there too, although part of me looks forward to seeing Hamilton struggle all season long.

 

Condition2SQ, G-FETT - new F1 thread up!

Ferrari have released their 2013 card, the F138:



OK, purdy. The lack of the platypus front, the colour scheme... so far this is my favourite of the 3 new cars. Mostly because the MP4-28 is so visually similar to last year's car.

 

Will 2013 be the year that the Red Bull/Vettel F1 stanglehold is broken?

Pre Season testing times will be interesting to say the least.

 

Here's di Resta and this year's Force India car. Di Resta is trying to smile, but not quite...



Another drive was confirmed for the lineup, leaving Force India the last seat on the grid:

1: Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing
2: Mark Webber (AUS), Red Bull Racing
3: Fernando Alonso (ESP), Scuderia Ferrari
4: Felipe Massa (BRA), Scuderia Ferrari
5: Jenson Button (GBR), McLaren
6: Sergio Perez (MEX), McLaren
7: Kimi Raikonnen (FIN), Lotus
8: Romain Grosjean (FRA), Lotus
9: Lewis Hamilton (GBR), Mercedes
10: Nico Rosberg (GER), Mercedes
11: Nico Hulkenberg (GER), Sauber
12: Esteban Guiterrez (MEX), Sauber
13: Paul di Resta (GBR), Sahara Force India
14: TBC, Sahara Force India
15: Pastor Maldonado (VEN), Williams
16: Valterri Bottas (FIN), Williams
17: Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA), Scuderia Toro Rosso
18: Daniel Ricciardo (AUS), Scuderia Toro Rosso
19: Charles Pic (FRA), Caterham
20: Giedo van der Garde (NED), Caterham
21: Max Chilton (GBR), Marussia
22: Luiz Raza (BRA), Marussia

 

Clearly the most interesting storylines of the season are going to be Perez' and Hamilton's performances at McLaren and Mercedes, respectively. Based on everything I've read this offseason Hamilton is clearly trying to downplay expectations for his debut season, though that's to be expected I suppose. I think the single person most likely to benefit from the shake-up is going to be Jenson Button, who is my pick to be the top contender to Vettel this year, at least to the extent one can make a pick before preseason testing.

 

JB had a fantastic season in 2011; 2012, not so much. But he's shown with a competitive car (something McLaren lacked in 2012) he is a solid driver and I've love to see him get the title this year (well. Barring Webber, of course... ).

Lewis - yeah, he has been downplaying expectations. Which is fair; Mercedes have really gone backwards in terms of competitiveness in the last season and Lewis has stated his intent is to build the team a la Schumacher with SF. I'd like to see more competition at the front end of the field, and Rosberg will be feeling the pressure...

As for Perez - this was a bit of a strange pick, in my opinion. I'm sure Whitmash had his reasons but Chico spent most of his season underwhelming us after he signed for the team.

Which driver are you guys most excited to see perform this year? For me, it's Bottas. The hype has to be worth it.

 

(double post)

 

Yeah, forget Lewis this season. Mercedes are supposedly the hot tip for 2014 when F1 goes back to Turbo engines.

Thats why Lewis left McLaren for Mercedes, IMO (well that and money)

I'm really not sure about JB and McLaren though. McLaren just don't seem to be managed properly these days. As I pointed out last year,McLaren haven't won a Constructers title since 1998 and haven't won a drivers title convicingly (i.e. not on the last corner of the last lap of the last race like Hamilton in 2008) since 1999. Thats a terrible decade of failure for a team of McLaren pedigree.

Perhaps what McLaren really needs is to dip into their purse and bring Adrian Newey back?

Given McLarens past failures, my guess is that 2013 will be another Red Bull/Ferrari dominated season, so that means Vettel Vs Alonso.

 

Sauber's car for this year:

 

That is one sexy beast.

 

Yeah I am very impressed with the look of the Sauber this year. Much, much sexier than the last few years. Though of course, previously it meant you could confuse Sauber and Williams; now you can confuse Sauber and McLaren!

So far, I think Ferrari's car is the best looking by a long margin.

Did you guys see the moving tribute to Bruce McLaren?

 

Two new cars launched:

Red Bull's RB9:



No, that's not lighting - the car does indeed feature purple, at Infiniti's behest.

and a very rough rendering of the Mercedes car:



(Mercedes were showing the car in low-light silhouette on their website, this is an enhanced image. There's probably a glitch with the rear wing's rendering)

 

Ender_Sai. A bit ironic that RB added purple, of all colors, to their car. When they took over the preeminent Salzburg football club, f/k/a Austria Salzburg, they negotiated with the clubs fans to keep them on when the team changed names to Red Bull Salzburg -- the negotiations died when Red Bull refused the fans demand that the the new uniforms include the clubs tradition color -- purple (violet).The fan groups ended up forming a new "Austria Salzbugr club, and RB Salzburg has never enjoyed the kind of fan loyalty the old club did.

 

Infiniti are footing more of the running costs at the team, which I suspect helps.

Two new cars have debuted. The first is the STR-8 from Toro Rosso:



And the proper reveal of the W04 Mercedes car:



It's funny; despite being the champions, I think Red Bull drivers get the worst road cars of the pack. McLaren drivers get an MP4-12C. Ferrari, a 458 Italia (plus a Ducati bike). Mercedes drivers? SLS AMG. Red Bull - Infiniti 4WD. Booo!

 

OK, so the last 2 out of 3 cars have been revealed.

Caterham's CT03:


And Marussia's MR02:



All we are missing now is the FW35 from Williams, which is set to launch 19 February.

Pre-season testing starts very shortly in Jerez, Spain (as in, in a few hours time). The lineup for these tests have been confirmed:

Red Bull Racing
Mark Webber
Scuderia Ferrari
Felipe Massa
McLaren
Jenson Button
Lotus F1 Team
Romain Grosjean
Mercedes AMG F1 Team
Nico Rosberg
Sauber F1 Team
Nico Hülkenberg
Force India F1 Team
Paul di Resta
Williams F1 Team
Pastor Maldonado
Scuderia Toro Rosso
Daniel Ricciardo
Caterham F1 Team
Giedo van der Garde
Marussia F1 Team
Max Chilton

Interesting. Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus and Mercedes are sending their #2 drivers out first whilst McLaren are sending out JB (their #1). I suppose that makes sense, in that Button is reportedly excellent at providing feedback and after losing 2nd place to Ferrari in 2012 McLaren will want better results this year.

Elsherwhere:

Sauber - Makes sense, as Hulkenberg is the only experienced race driver there.
Force India - Who else could they send?
Williams - Pastor is an idiot 9.9 times out of 10 but they're running the 2012 FW34 here so it really doesn't matter. However, more track time for Bottas would surely help?
STR - Ricciardo has more time in F1 so makes sense
Caterham and Marussia - Meh.

 

Oh - Autosport has a live feed now: http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/549

 

Those last to cars aren't just meh, they're flat out ugly.

According to Horner, the official team name is now Infiniti Red Bull Racing. They're still using Renault engines, though, correct?

As for the road cars, definitely sucks to be Vettel and Webber. I'd probably drive for Mercedes, just for the gull-wing doors, though the Ducati certainly does make a nice "cherry on top" if one chooses Ferrari.

 

Yes, they are still Renault. Renault and Nissan, however, have a global alliance which is why this arrangement exists.

I have the Red Bull as a background on my home and work machines, because you know - Webber and all - but I think so far, the prettiest car is the Ferrari followed by the McLaren. I cannot abide the dropped nose.

 

Day 1 of Jerez testing done. Ricciardo (STR) held the fastest lap time for a while, but Button and Webber were able to pip it. The McLaren was able to get nearly 1s up on the Red Bull:

01 Button McLaren 1:18.861 37 laps
02 Webber Red Bull 1:19.709 +0.848 73 laps
03 Grosjean Lotus 1:19.796 +0.935 54 laps
04 di Resta Force India 1:20.343 +1.482 89 laps
05 Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:20.401 +1.540 70 laps
06 Massa Ferrari 1:20.536 +1.675 64 laps
07 Hulkenberg Sauber 1:20.699 +1.838 79 laps
08 Rosberg Mercedes 1:20.846 +1.985 11 laps
09 Maldonado Williams 1:20.864 +2.003 84 laps
10 vd Garde Caterham 1:21.915 +3.054 64 laps
11 Chilton Marussia 1:24.176 +5.315 29 laps

 

Bruno Senna has inked a deal with an Aston Martin LeMans series and will no longer be in F1. Hooray!

This article about Caterham and Marussia cracked me the hell up, especially this part

"....both are promising massive steps forward in performance for 2013 thanks to aggressive designs and talented personnel.
Backmarker teams make this sort of promise all the time. They've hired some behind the scenes rockstars that are supposed to totally transform the way the cars perform. "