Various Bits & Bobs (2)

Concorde Agreement

After months of back and forth between teams, Bernie and TV chiefs all agreed to improve safety, a new finance structure and the agreement from all parties over a new penalty system.

The deal runs from now until 2020 so we can safely say our beloved sport is good to go, go, go for another while.

Let's just hope by then someone puts an end to Red Bull. Not literally...




22 Races in 2014? Nathan Says:

Piss off. 22 Grand Prix weekends? No absolutely not what a disaster of an idea. I love Formula 1, it is a huge part of my life, whenever it isn't on I do feel a little emptiness and boredom, but 22 races is a dangerous amount of Grand Prix weekends.

The world's economy is still recovering, some more slowly than others. Take this factor and put it with rising costs in Formula 1, we will see that the smaller teams especially will find it increasingly hard to compete in Formula 1. One guy has said to me (sarcastically of course) that Formula 1 couldn't live without Caterham or Marussia. He was a dick to be quite frank but what about Toro Rosso? Then Force India and we all know Sauber and Williams are struggling for cash. Imagine a season without Williams on the grid?

The current stranglehold that Vettel and Red Bull have over Formula 1 is disturbing, people who don't follow the sport have started to ask me 'isn't it boring with one guy winning all the races?' Hell yes it is, why would you want more races where Vettel can run away with it again? Less races, less chances of this happening.

I know you can't structure a calendar just to stop one team and one driver, but don't add races where it's going to hinder the situation.

There are too many events in far out countries, and not enough fans attending them. Bahrain, Korea, Abu Dhabi and especially India have very disappointing turn outs. Cut them along with the New Jersey track, Mexico and maybe Malaysia (like it but I think it has run its course) and we have an okay number of races. Glad to see Austria back though.

What's great though is that Christian Horner is against it, and we all know that him, Newey and the Newey driving the car will stamp their feet until they get their way.

F1 2013 Video Game

I've had all the Codemaster F1 games since the first one for the Wii and every year I've noticed vast improvements over the last. This years installment has been the best so far.

The AI are so aggressive and smart, it is unreal. In my first race, Bottas hounded me for P8 which was incredible. And in every event in either qualifying or the race I have had an incident with one or the other McLaren, with Perez bringing out red flags after a violent crash.

It's only a video game and I'm talking about it like it was an actual race. The addition of classic F1 cars is absoutely fantastic, each car has their own individual traits and characteristics. Tyre wear is the exact same in the game as in real life, either look after them or prepare to lose positions fast.

I strongly recommend buying this game, must have for any fans.

Korean Grand Prix

Lots of people have problems with this circuit, it's one I don't mind watching. Of course it is an Asian track, therefore Vettel had it won before he jumped on a plane but unfortunately the key focal points were negatives.

The marshals were unresponsive to a fire from Mark Webber's car, resulting in the chassis being destroyed. They had to build a brand new car in a few days for FP1 in Japan. They should do what Abu Dhabi done in 2009, bring in British marshal's to train the locals properly.

The other talking point was the low turnout and possible exclusion from next year. Whilst I like the track, I won't care if it's not featured next year, but it is a shame when fairly decent tracks are omitted for disaster tracks like Singapore and this stupid New Jersey track.