FORMULA 1 - 2013


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Hello all and welcome to another season of Formula 1 for 2013. Whilst this season is yet to kick off, I thought it a good idea to start posting any pre season news as they trickle through.

The 2013 Formula One season will be the 64th season of the Formula One World Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula One cars which is categorised by the sports governing body, the Federation Internationale de I'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars.

Eleven teams and Twenty-two drivers will contest the nineteen Grand Prix that will make up the calendar for the 2013 season, with the winning driver and team being crowned the World Drivers and World Constructors' Champions.

The season is due to start in Australia on 17 March and end in Brazil on 24 November.

The 2013 season will be the final year the series uses the current 2.4 litre V8 engine configuration; a 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engine formula is to come into force for 2014.

Sebastian vettel will start the season as the defending World Drivers' champion having won the title in the final race of 2012. His team, Red Bull racing will be the defending World Constructors' Chamipons, having secured their third consecutive title at the 2012 United States Grand Prix.

Many thanks to all Formula One fans for reading this thread and contributing from time to time, I hope you are all excited for the 2013 season and I'll already put my neck out and say that my top three drivers for this season are:

- Fernando Alonso

- Kimi Raikkonen

- Romain Grosjean

Also hoping newly signed Williams driver Valtteri Bottas does well this season and keeps the Finnish standard of having fast drivers on the F1 grid.ok.gif

Regards,

Mika

Previous Formula 1 threads:

Formula 1 - 2011

Formula 1 - 2012

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TWO HORSE RACE FOR FORCE INDIA ASEAT AS BUEMI IS RULED OUT:

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Sebastian Buemi has revealed to Swiss paper Blick that his chances of returning to the F1 grid with Sahara Force India are finished, after he was informed by the team that he is out of the running.

According to veteran Blick writer Roger Benoit, this leaves Jules Bianchi (pictured above with FI’s Bob Fearnley) in pole position for the seat, with former FI driver Adrian Sutil still a possibility.

Bianchi’s case is apparently being helped by discussions with Ferrari over a supply of engines for 2014. It seems that there is a possibility that Force India could switch to the Ferrari units when the new turbo formula comes in and with Ferrari keen to place its reserve driver Bianchi in a race seat, there could be a deal to be done there.

Bianchi drove for the team during a number of Friday practice sessions during the 2012 season but the feeling was that he had not impressed the team in that role to the same degree that Nico Hulkenberg had the year before.

Former Toro Rosso driver and Radio 5 Live F1 analyst Jaime Alguersuari was also in the running but is now being tipped to move to BMW’s DTM team.

Force India is due to launch its new car on February 1 at Silverstone.

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Brabham name could return to F1

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The famous Brabham name could return to Formula One, more than a decade since it made its last appearance at the 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Former triple world champion Sir Jack Brabham, an Australian who is now 86, founded his eponymous team in 1960 and it later raced under Bernie Ecclestone’s stewardship. The team contested 402 grands prix.

In 2009, a German automotive supply company, Formtech, claimed that it now controls the Brabham team name and filed an official entry for the 2010 F1 season.

But the Brabham family hit back, launching legal action to “protect the family name”.

Jack Brabham’s son David, a sports car racing specialist who contested 30 grands prix in the 90s, said: “Right now this is a very sensitive issue.

“But, yes, there is the possibility to bring the team back [to F1],” he told Brazil’s Totalrace.

The Brabham team won two constructors’ and 4 drivers’ titles in the 60s and 80s, last racing with Damon Hill at the wheel in 1992.

David Brabham continued: “For now, we have a predicament behind the scenes, involving the rights of the name.

“It’s 98 per cent resolved, and when it is 100 per cent we’ll see what we can do.”

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Whiting: F1 will get used to the sound of V6 turbo engines

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Charlie Whiting, the highest ranking FIA official at grands prix, is adamant that Formula One will not miss the sound of the current V8 engines.

For the past couple of decades, fans have been spoiled by the ear-splitting tones of normally aspirated V12,V10, and more recently 8-cylinder power plants.

But from 2014, the sport will sound more placid, as turbocharged and comparatively low-revving 1.6 litre V6 engines power the cars around the tracks.

There have been fears the more sedate sound will turn off fans.

“I think people will get used to it pretty quickly,” FIA race director Whiting told F1 journalist Peter Windsor’s blog peterwindsor.com.

“Honestly, when I think back to the old BMW four cylinder engine we ran in the Brabham days, that revved to 11 000 rpm and it sounded fine. The new engines are not going to be silent.

“The sound is going to be different but people will get used to it very quickly, I think,” he added.

Whiting, ultimately in charge of all racing, safety and technical matters at grands prix, admitted to looking forward to the radical new rules.

“It’s a big challenge,” he said. “A very big challenge for the engine manufacturers.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the engines run – to see how complicated they are and how clever they are. They’re going to be extremely high-tech power units, that’s for sure.”

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Maldonado given most penalties in 2012 but none for Alonso

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If Pastor Maldonado was the penalty king, then Fernando Alonso would be the prince of fair play when the official FIA sanctions were tallied at the end of the 2012 Formula One season.

That is the finding of Brazil’s Globo Esporte, having compiled a list of the official FIA penalties attracted by F1′s 24 drivers this year.

Williams’ Maldonado tops the list with 15 penalties; almost double the tally of the penalty runner-up Sergio Perez, whose 8 penalties was also matched by world champion Sebastian Vettel’s official infractions.

At the other extreme is Ferrari’s Alonso, whose tally of zero penalties is matched only by German backmarker Timo Glock.

“I have no miracles, I make my miracles the correct rules,” the Spaniard tweeted shortly after the conclusion of this year’s 20-race calendar.

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Mercedes and Ferrari 2013 cars pass FIA crash tests

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The monocoques of two more Formula One teams’ 2013 cars have passed the mandatory FIA crash tests, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, one of them is Mercedes’ W04, to be raced this year by Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

The report said that the silver single seater will have a new and smaller gearbox, totally different sidepods for the Coanda exhaust, and rear suspension designed to be flexible to geometry changes if required to suit Pirelli’s new tyres.

Meanwhile, Spain’s El Mundo Deportivo said that the successor to Ferrari’s 2012 car has also passed the FIA’s monocoque crash tests.

Earlier last month, Sauber became the first team to announce that its new car, the C32, had passed the FIA crash tests and was therefore clear to begin winter testing in February.

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Cheers, Mika.

While I'm still waiting for you to start a NASCAR thread ( stir.gifdevil2.gifmob.gifwink.pngtongue.png ), I'm glad to see that you're continuing the tradition. Kudos for a job well done, and looking forward to see the updates on Bernie's continuing nose-dive into madness.... biggrin.png

Many thanks keith for following the thread, still weighing up the NASCAR thread bud, give me a year to think about it... wink.png I think Bernie will be forced to step down IMO but lets wait and see. I can't remember a season of F1 without some sort of political controversy.

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Raikkonen: Happy with DRS clampdown

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Banning the use of DRS, the Formula One moveable rear wing device, on Friday and Saturday of race weekends is a good move, Kimi Raikkonen has declared.

DRS was introduced in 2011 to make overtaking easier during grands prix.

But because the FIA feared that setup compromises would minimise the effectiveness of the system, it was decided that DRS could also be used during free practice and qualifying.

That will now change for 2013, when DRS is only used during races.

“It’s a sensible change,” said Lotus driver and 2007 world champion Raikkonen.

“It had been going more and more in the direction of everyone trying to take advantage all the time to use DRS earlier and earlier.

“At some point it was going to cause a big crash. The drivers wanted this change.”

Finn Raikkonen told Turun Sanomat newspaper that the DRS clampdown could also be useful for another reason.

“Probably it will stabilise the better cars, where for example the Red Bulls were able to drive through some corners with the DRS open, while others could not,” he said.

Meanwhile, Raikkonen rubbished suggestions that top drivers – like, for example, Lewis Hamilton – are able to switch teams and improve the performance of a team’s car.

“If it was true, you wouldn’t need engineers anymore,” he said. “That’s just rubbish.

“Of course we as drivers say our opinion and the engineers listen. We try what they come up with and see whether it works or how good it is or not.

“But it’s not right that they ask the drivers how to build the car,” insisted Raikkonen.

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I'll already put my neck out and say that my top three drivers for this season are:

- Fernando Alonso

- Kimi Raikkonen

- Romain Grosjean

Well done on last year's thread, Mika. Looking forward to 2013 season, too.

Curious choices for drivers to watch. Well, I agree Alonso and Raikkonen will be competitve... but Grosjean? That one I don't understand. Why do you think he'll be one to watch in 2013? Assuming you've listed him for positive reasons. :) I know Vettel had some issues a few seasons ago related to overly aggressive driving that got him into trouble (so it's clearly possible for a driver to dramatically improve year over year if he's an otherwise proficient and talented driver), but it seems to me that most of Grosjean's troubles were due less to being overly aggressive and more to simply making poor decisions in general. If he were in a contract year, I suspect he wouldn't have been renewed.

I think Vettel will continue to be a contender. Four-peat perhaps? :) And as much as I don't like Hamilton, I suspect he'll also ne a player next season, provided Mercedes puts a good car on the track, of course.

Cheers,

~ Greg ~

Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt using Tapatalk 2.

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Petrov set to stay with Caterham for 2013

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Russian media sources report that Vitaly Petrov is set to keep his Caterham seat for the 2013 F1 season, the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat claims.

Already this week, the 28-year-old’s manager Oksana Kosachenko revealed that “all the necessary work on our part is done — and it’s for Caterham to decide”.

Petrov’s teammate in 2012 was Finn Heikki Kovalainen, but Caterham has already announced that Charles Pic will be driving one of the green-liveried cars next year.

Among the other candidates to be Pic’s 2013 teammate are Giedo van der Garde, Bruno Senna and Luiz Razia.

Turun Sanomat quotes Kosachenko as saying: “I believe Vitaly’s race in Brazil securing tenth place in the manufacturers’ championship helps us to stay where we were.”

Also playing in Petrov’s favour is a recent visit to Caterham’s headquarters of his sponsor Russian Helicopters, and Bernie Ecclestone’s desire to have a local driver on the grid when Russia hosts its inaugural grand prix in 2014.

Organisers of the 2014 race in Sochi said this week that construction of the track is now in “high gear”.

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Well done on last year's thread, Mika. Looking forward to 2013 season, too.

Curious choices for drivers to watch. Well, I agree Alonso and Raikkonen will be competitve... but Grosjean? That one I don't understand. Why do you think he'll be one to watch in 2013? Assuming you've listed him for positive reasons. smile.png I know Vettel had some issues a few seasons ago related to overly aggressive driving that got him into trouble (so it's clearly possible for a driver to dramatically improve year over year if he's an otherwise proficient and talented driver), but it seems to me that most of Grosjean's troubles were due less to being overly aggressive and more to simply making poor decisions in general. If he were in a contract year, I suspect he wouldn't have been renewed.

I think Vettel will continue to be a contender. Four-peat perhaps? smile.png And as much as I don't like Hamilton, I suspect he'll also ne a player next season, provided Mercedes puts a good car on the track, of course.

Cheers,

~ Greg ~

Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt using Tapatalk 2.

Hi Greg and thanks for your contributions.smile.png

In regard to Grosjean, other than the gut feeling I have about him, last season placing aside Romains faults, I feel he was a very fast and competitive driver quite often matching the front runners such as Kimi, fernando and Vettel.

For a rookie, he has amassed 96 career points, 3 podiums and one fastest lap out of 26 starts comparitive to say, Pastor Maldonado who was on the track for 39 starts only gaining 46 career points, one podium (Win) and one pole position. Both rookie drivers.

Lets not also forget the 2012 race of Champions whereby On December 14-16 Grosjean won after a Grand Final victory over Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen. The day before Grosjean got the second place in Nations' Cup event along with his teammate Sebastien Ogier in the French team. The winners were Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher from the German team.

I truly think Romain is a driver to watch not only this season but for the near future, watch this space. 2thumbs.gif

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Bernie: CVC will be forced to get rid of me if the Germans come after me

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Bernie Ecclestone has admitted that his bosses at Formula One owners CVC would probably oust him if he is pursued by German prosecutors, with convicted bribe recipient and ex F1 banker Gerhard Gribkowsky already in jail, it is reported that F1′s 82-year-old chief executive could be next in the sights of the prosecutors.

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Last month, German reports said that “detailed preparations” were being made to potentially replace Briton Ecclestone, if prosecutors decide, “as expected”, to charge him.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said more recently: “If Bernie is accused under process, I think he will be the first to give a step back in the interests of Formula one.”, Ecclestone has told F1 business journalist Christian Sylt that CVC “will probably be forced to get rid of me if the Germans come after me”.

“It’s pretty obvious, if I’m locked up,” he is quoted by the Sunday Telegraph.

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Grosjean: I made rookie mistakes wanting the first win at all costs

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Romain Grosjean thinks that he is ready to take a more mature approach to Formula One, after an incident packed season which tarnished his image and almost cost him his place with the Lotus team for 2013.

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After the abortive start to his F1 career at scandal-ridden Renault in 2009, the Frenchman got a second chance at the pinnacle of motor racing last year, with Lotus.

By mid-season, he had proved his speed with three podiums, but the 26-year-old also became the subject of intense criticism for repeat mistakes, culminating in his ultra-rare race ban following the Spa-Francorchamps start crash.

After a period of speculation about his seat, Grosjean has been signed for a second consecutive full season in 2013.

“I had figured F1 was hard, but not that much,” he admitted to Sport24. “Gradually I realised that the difficulty of the challenge was at least a multiple of two compared to what I knew at the beginning.”

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“For sure I have been criticised a lot, but if you had told me at the start that I would finish eighth with three podiums, I would have signed for it immediately.

“Yes, I made rookie mistakes for wanting to do things too quickly – for example, I wanted to get [Lotus'] first win at all costs.

“I hope I’ve learned now and grown up although there is still work to do,” added Grosjean.

“I expect a different pressure now; I cannot commit the same mistakes over and I’ll try to score points as often as possible.

“I hope to demonstrate the same pace as this year but be more consistent.

“In terms of the standings, I would rather not set any targets – that would be another mistake,” he concluded.

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Ferrari boss adamant that Schumacher will not return to the team

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Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo has ruled out a return to the Italian team for their former hero Michael Schumacher.

Schumacher, 43, is returning to retirement in 2013 as, at the end of his unsuccessful three-year comeback, Mercedes replaces him with Lewis Hamilton.

As for whether the great German – who won five consecutive titles for Ferrari, might enjoy a second F1 comeback, team president Montezemolo said: “That will not happen.

“It is a pity he did not win another race [in his comeback], nevertheless it was right of him to retire now,” the Italian added.

Montezemolo also played down new reports he might soon launch a bid to become prime minister of Italy.

“No, I would not want that,” he insisted. “Besides my family, Ferrari is my great love.”

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Domenicali: Why does Webber have so many failures on his car?

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Red Bull also has a clear number one driver according to Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali has alleged, claiming that more often than not it is Mark Webber who suffers technical failures to his cars.

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The Italian team is open about its policy of hiring a clearly superior top driver – presently Fernando Alonso – alongside a capable ‘number two’ such as Felipe Massa, as they did during their record breaking Michael Schumacher era with Eddie Irvine and later Rubens Barrichello playing the secondary role.

In Austin last month, this policy was highlighted when Ferrari deliberately incurred a gearbox penalty on Brazilian Massa’s car in order to give Alonso a better grid position.

“If the others don’t like it, we don’t care,” Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo is quoted by Marca sports newspaper. “Others are critical but do the same, although less transparently.”

Team principal Domenicali picks up the theme, ”Why does Webber have so many failures on his car? Because the best parts go to the driver getting the better results.”

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“And this is normal, and it seems so logical that we never say anything. We don’t like to speak of the others, but the others like to talk about us,” he added.

Meanwhile, Domenicali admitted that Ferrari is looking forward to 2013, even though Red Bull and McLaren had superior cars this year and the rules are not changing much.

Ferrari, though, thinks that the banning of DRS on Saturday is a “major change”, while Pirelli will supply softer tyres.

“This year it took us between two and five laps to heat the tyres,” said Domenicali.

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De la Rosa not expecting call from McLaren

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Veteran Pedro de la Rosa has acknowledged that, with HRT closing its doors, he is not expecting to simply stroll back into his former job as McLaren’s reserve driver.

“No, that’s not true,” he told the Spanish sports newspaper Marca.

“I took my road and I live with my decision, so I’m not going back to McLaren with their doors open wide, because I left twice.”

Spaniard de la Rosa, 41, was arguably F1′s most highly respected test driver when he accepted the challenge to become HRT’s lead race driver in 2012.

He expected to stay in 2013, but the Spanish backmarker has all but officially folded.

As for his chances of returning to McLaren, de la Rosa admitted: “I’ve been unfaithful and so it is normal to be starting from scratch.

“I am confident that I will continue in F1 as a test or reserve driver, but there is no guarantee of anything.”

Meanwhile, de la Rosa said that his season at the back of the grid with HRT was not his worst in F1.

“I especially liked working at McLaren – there can be no doubt,” he told f1news.ru.

“My least favourite team? Sauber. I did not like that they blamed every problem on the driver, not the car, which obviously did not have the speed.”

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Timo eyes windtunnel boost:

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Timo Glock feels Marussia can step up another notch or two in 2013 thanks to the McLaren windtunnel programme.

The Oxfordshire-based squad didn't have a happy start to their 2012 campaign as they were unable to test before the season opener in Australia, which resulted in a pretty shabby showing during qualifying in Melbourne.

However, once they were up and running with the MR01, they were able to draw on the expertise of McLaren as they have a technical agreement with the Woking squad, and the positive results were there for all to see.

Glock, who have spent the past three seasons with Marussia, is confident they will improve even further in 2013 due to the tie-up.

"I think the windtunnel work paid off since we went to McLaren, and that looks very positive for the future," he said.

"It was a difficult year in 2012 with a very difficult start; going to Australia with no testing.

"But I think since then we've improved the car quite a lot.

"I didn't think that we would close the gap again because we were 1.5s off Caterham [on race pace] and then closed the gap very quickly over the second half of the season, which is great."

Marussia came within a few places of picking up their first points in Formula One last season as Glock finished 12th at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The German feels there were plenty of highlights for the squad during the latter stages of the year.

"We absolutely got it right at that race [singapore] and took some risks," he said.

"Korea was also good as I could really challenge the Caterhams, and Austin was good as well because we had a very good qualifying.

"It was a shame that in the race we dropped behind the Caterhams again because the KERS factor was just too big. But that was a very strong race for myself."

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Raikkonen unimpressed by simulator

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Kimi Raikkonen doesn't believe the new Lotus race simulators will be much use to him ahead of next season, saying that he does the majority of his testing on actual circuits.

Romain Grosjean used Lotus's new simulator at Enstone for the first time ahead of the US grand Prix last year, after the team invested substantial funds in order to bring the facilities up to the same standards as those of their rivals.

Grosjean commented at the time that he hopes it would help "for testing the things that we don't have time to test on track", but the 2007 World Champion Raikkonen isn't convinced by the new training facility.

"I've never been a big fan of those and you never get as close to what real driving on the circuit is," Raikkonen said.

"We can probably do a lot of things to learn the circuits and stuff like that, but I don't think this is really going to change things."

Nevertheless, the Finn believes Lotus are moving in the right direction and that the team is a whole is working well together.

"It's the whole game together; there are a lot of people involved and you cannot make it happen by yourself," he continued.

"It's just the team work and everybody trying to do the same thing and deliver the best that we can. I think it's been a good atmosphere in the team."

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Ricciardo: 2013 make or break

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Daniel Ricciardo believes that next season will be crucial to determining whether or not he'll drive for Red Bull in the future.

The Australian enjoyed his first full season in Formula One in 2012 with Toro Rosso having turned out for HRT for half of 2011.

Ricciardo arrived with much hype surrounding him but failed to live up to expectations as he was outscored 16 points to 10 by his less-fancied team-mate, Jean-Eric Vergne.

With the Red Bull hierarchy keeping a close eye on how the drivers at their sister team progress, the 23-year-old is determined to up his game.

"I'm aware of that, and I know that my targets in 2013 will have to be more ambitious," he told Autosprint.

"I won't hide and I say that I must and can obtain a podium. I will push to the maximum to make it.

"My Achilles heel is that last year, in the first part of the season, I wasn't aggressive enough in the races. In some aspects I was the opposite of [Romain] Grosjean. Now, however, I think I've found the right balance in showing my capabilities."

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Russian circuit on track for 2014 debut

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The Russian Grand Prix, scheduled for 2014, is on target for the inaugural race according to the event's organisers.

The 3.7 mile circuit in the city of Sochi, winds around the new Winter Olympic Park and is in the 'final stages' of construction according to a statement.

"Many massive Olympic venues are already built, some sport facilities have been put in commission, while the motorsport venue is in the active phase of construction," it read.

"Construction crews are making good progress with the preparing of groundworks and laying of the asphalt coat.

"The first layer of pavement has been laid in some areas."

Circuit designer and F1 regular Hermann Tilke added: "Together with [track builder] Omega and Formula Sochi we are deeply involved in the Russian Grand Prix project and we are glad that all works are going according to schedule considering the large amount of coordination necessary with the Olympic construction."

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Ross Brawn says aero staff changes were key to Mercedes' F1 slump

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Ross Brawn believes that mid-season changes in Mercedes' Formula 1 aerodynamic department were the root cause of the team's slump in form during the second half of 2012.

Mercedes, which took over the world champion Brawn squad in late 2009, scored its first F1 race win as a constructor since 1955 when Nico Rosberg dominated the Chinese Grand Prix from pole position.

By the halfway point of 2012, Rosberg lay sixth in the championshp, only 34 points behind Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

But the squad's form suffered during the second half of the year, Rosberg eventually trailing world champion Vettel by 189 points and Michael Schumacher's sixth place in Brazil its only points finish from the final six grands prix.

Team principal Brawn said that the departure of head of aerodynamics Loic Bigois, coupled with a change in windtunnel philosophy while the team experimented with Coanda exhausts and Double DRS, also played a major influence.

Brawn said: "We made a decision to change the structure of the aero group. We had to wait for [new aero chief] Mike Elliot to join us because we had a notice period he had to fulfil at Lotus.

"We concluded the situation with Loic and there was a gap that we didn't fill very well."

"On top of that we were doing the transition from 50 per cent to 60 per cent models in the windtunnel, and there were a lot of other things in the aero group as well. It did have an impact."

Brawn said that the shift to 60 per cent models was necessary to increase the amount of technical data it could extract from Pirelli's tyres.

"Our conclusion was that we would get a much more representative tyre at 60 per cent than at 50 per cent," he added.

"Pirelli have to make 50 per cent and 60 per cent windtunnel tyres. There are only two teams that are still doing 50 per cent.

"Even with Pirelli's best efforts, they're going to be getting better feedback about 60 per cent tyres than 50 per cent. So we wanted to make the move.

"The other thing that has happened over the years is that you're putting more and more equipment inside the windtunnel model to measure, monitor and check. We just ran out of space in the 50 per cent model.

"There were things that we wanted to do that we couldn't do, and we needed the 60 per cent model to accommodate those features. Sixty per cent is the legal limit you can go to, there is no further step we can make."

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2013 Toro Rosso car very different reveals Ricciardo

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This year’s Toro Rosso F1 car -the STR08 – is very different to the 2012 model, Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo has revealed.

Ricciardo and his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne finished last season eighteenth and seventeenth respectively, with the Faenza based squad only just ahead of the sport’s three newest teams in the constructors’ standings.

23-year-old Ricciardo has acknowledged the pressure to improve in 2013.

“I’m aware of that, and I know that my targets in 2013 will have to be more ambitious,” he told Italy’s Autosprint magazine.

“My Achilles heel is that this year, in the first part of the season, I wasn’t aggressive enough in the races. In some aspects I was the opposite of Grosjean.”

Another crucial element, Ricciardo admitted, is a better Toro Rosso single seater.

“I have already seen the new car. When you examine it more closely, it is very different to the old one.

“I believe that it is better. In any case, it’s not one of those cars that looks [like] a total copy of the [previous] one, as though nothing has changed,” he added.

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Fangio tops F1 all time greats list, but no place for Alonso in top ten

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A list of the best Formula One drivers of all time has overlooked Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna for a top-three spot, and left out current Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso completely.

Italy’s Autosprint said that Juan Manuel Fangio, the five-time world champion of the 50s, deserves the number one spot.

He is listed ahead of runner-up Michael Schumacher, with triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart also finishing ahead of the late, much revered Senna.

Jim Clark, Alain Prost, Sir Stirling Moss, Alberto Ascari and Niki Lauda are ranked fifth to ninth respectively, with reigning triple world champion Sebastian Vettel completing the top ten.

Spaniard Alonso, Ferrari’s double world champion who was recently voted the top driver of 2012 by team principals, was not mentioned.

“We have analysed not only the results on the track, but also the importance and impact a single driver had on his era,” the Autosprint report read.

MIKA: I agree with the list albeit Alonso who deserves top 10 spot along with Senna BUT I AM PLEASED that Senna is not top place as I feel only being a Triple world champion, he is no different than Vettel, Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda to name a few.

People should be judged by their achievements and people like Prost (4 times WDC), Schumacher (7 times WDC), Fangio (5 Times WDC) should be at the very top. How does Schumacher come runner up to Senna when his 7 WDC is compared to Sennas 3 WDC's? I don't get it. I like statistics and I challenge anyone to show me anyone else who compares or comes close.

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No 2013 F1 race return for Buemi

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Red Bull reserve Sebastien Buemi has kicked off his new year by learning that he will not be making his return to the Formula One grid in 2013.

Switzerland’s Blick newspaper reports that the 24-year-old has been told that he is out of the running to secure the vacant Force India race seat.

Veteran correspondent Roger Benoit said that Buemi, who lost his Toro Rosso drive at the end of 2011, will now work instead on having his deal as Red Bull’s official reserve driver extended.

Benoit said that Buemi, who had also been linked with a Ferrari test deal, wants his new Red Bull contract in place “as quickly as possible”.

“Buemi will not comment at this time. First he needs to safeguard his future,” the journalist wrote.

Blick added that the Ferrari-linked Frenchman Jules Bianchi, and former team driver Adrian Sutil, are now the favourites to become Paul di Resta’s new teammate at Force India.

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