F138 / VJM06 / C32

I have a triple threat package for you today! In the past couple of days we've had releases in Italy, Switzerland and Silverstone! 

F138

Runners up to both the drivers and constructors championship last year, all eyes were in Maranello to see if the F138 was the car that can deliver Fernando Alonso his 3rd title.



Immediately the first thing I noticed was the amount of black on the bottom of the car! If you read my live coverage of the E21 launch you'll see how much I commented on the addition of the red and how much I disliked it. It now appears that Lotus stole Ferrari's red, and Ferrari stole Lotus's black! Only I really like the black on the Ferrari, it's the biggest addition of colour to the traditional red since the white on the wings which they have also kept.

Even though teams should be planning for the huge design process of 2014, Ferrari must focus on this seasons testing due to the embarrassing performance last year . Even though Fernando managed to squeeze every drop of performance to salvage a miracle second place finish, the team will be looking to hit the ground running considering the teams around them and their ambitions; McLaren will surely back Button in the early stages, Lotus are looking for a top three finish with Kimi in contention for the championship and somebody needs to catch the Bull, Alonso looks to be the closest to do it.

The suspension is the same as last year providing the smooth drive that Fernando craves. Most of the changes have occurred at the rear of the car. 

Fernando will not be the only one benefiting from the F138's changes. A revived Felipe Massa will be hoping that this is the car that shows his team that he can drive as well as Alonso on his best day. Was he the best man for the seat? That's honestly your opinion. For me, I would have had someone different, but 2012 was the season where I seen Massa for who he is, a fighter. I just want to see more of it.

The F138 is the second car released without the exposure of the stepped nose. The vanity panel reminds us of the shape we know and love. Ferrari definitely had one of the ugliest boxers nose last year so this is certainly an extremely positive feature. It's a really beautiful looking car and I dare say the best looking yet.

VJM06

If Force India don't have the common decency to announce a second driver, then I don't have the time nor want to write up a decent report. It's still orange, green and white. It's got a vanity panel. Love Paul di Resta. Get it sorted guys.








C32 

So far from all of the launches, this is by and far the most developed car both in terms of livery and technical aspects.

The side pods have been completely re-imagined. Chief designer Matt Morris stated that the side pods have been made smaller and narrower following findings after they examined the wreckage of Sergio Perez's 2011 Sauber at Monaco where he had a devastating crash during qualifying.

Following a more than impressive campaign that saw four podiums and a young driver head to one of the top four teams, Sauber have gone on a development rampage, creating a brand new braking system, making the chassis lighter and of course designing an all new colour scheme. Not the most important aspect of a car, but I'm a guy who is particularly fond of the livery's as you may have already gathered! It is a very beautiful scheme, hard to pull off with a grey-ish colour but it really looks the part here!

Sauber have also followed suit by adding a vanity panel, or a cover for the stepped nose and they desperately needed it. I maintain that Sauber had the worst stepped nose last season, it was like two 90 degree angles. Absolutely horrible! This means Lotus are still (at the time of this blog) the only team to keep the ugly stepped nose, a design that is supposed to add more aero performance. My issue is, if the other teams are adding these vanity panels, then surely there's no performance to lose?! Get the bloody thing off [James] Allison!

With an all new driver line up in GP2 ace Esteban Gutierrez and future racing superstar Nico Hulkenberg, first ever female F1 boss Monisha Kaltenborn will be praying that the extreme design changes will raise the bar first set by their 2012 season.

McLaren MP4-28 + Various News

Lotus may have started off the car launches with the E21, but Woking based team McLaren hold the honour of starting off six consecutive days of car launches, a truly wonderful time for Formula 1 fans! I covered the launch live this morning and published a full report on Let's Talk F1. To see the new MP4-28 take a read by clicking here.



2014 Comeback For HRT (sort of)?

As the FIA published the 2013 season entries last November, Spanish outfit HRT were not included due to their financial instability and insecure future, thus only 11 teams will be appearing on the grid this season. 





However, an American/Canadian company called Scorpion have been attempting a buyout bid in order to salvage an entry onto the grid. Bernie Ecclestone even gave a nod to the bid but the FIA ruled out any possibility this year as the deadline is long gone, stating they will not accept any specialist circumstances. 

They shouldn't worry about pushing hard to get a 2013 slot because the regulations are more or less the same, meaning they would still be hopelessly uncompetitive. The best thing to do would be to develop a monster of a machine for the 2014 seismic shift in performance. They might even catch up with the rest of the pack!


Nurburgring Gastgeber 2013 Großen Preis (Nurburgring To Host 2013 Grand Prix).

Finally we have been guaranteed a German Grand Prix and will be returning to the wonderful Nurburgring!






Bernie Ecclestone has cast doubt over both the event and venue after the group who owns the circuit failed to raise the funds necessary. This means that we will most certainly have 19 races next season with the European venue still to be decided. Hopefully if anybody had any sense they'd be straight back to Hockenheim for both German tracks. That would be the definition of epic.

Time is Slowly Running Out

This is a message to Force India, Caterham and Marussia. It is time to get your finger out of your arses and get us a full driver line up. I'm sick to the death speculating, my #HireHeikki campaign has been working flat out (like 2 tweets every month, whatever), testing starts very soon and it's ridiculous how we don't know who's driving. I can't remember it every being this late!


The closest rumour I've heard yet is that Luiz Razia (pictured) has been linked to the Marussia seat but these are unconfirmed rumours and to be honest, I'd take Vitaly Petrov or dare I say it, Bruno Senna before another rookie. 

Force India launch their car tomorrow, I would like to think they would have the common courtesy for us the fans and Paul di Resta to name a second driver. I even think I'd take back Adrian Sutil at this late stage. 

Both Caterham and Marussia launch on the morning of the Jerez test on the 5th of February so at the end of the day, they have no choice but to name drivers soon.

This is however great for Max Chilton, Paul di Resta and Charles Pic as their team mates will be nothing more than a second thought, meaning the team will focus on them first.

Lotus E21

It's the day I have been waiting for since Brazil had ended! It's the time of year when teams start unveiling their brand new machinery for the season ahead. Lotus F1 opened the honour for us, live on YouTube and Sky Sports News. 

I provided live coverage on Twitter and now I'm going to review the Lotus E21. The 'E' stands for Enstone which is where the team is based, and the number is the amount of years the team and their previous incarnations have lived there. I watched the launch live on YouTube and the photos used are all screen shots from my laptop. The fact that teams are now unleashing their new beasts to the public is great and I loved seeing Kimi again, however it's not all highs as I'm about to explain. Here's my review of the Lotus E21 through live pictures.

The screen to the live feed on YouTube. The music was SO annoying!

The ceremony was supposed to be outside in a marquee, however due to heavy winds the event was moved in doors. It took the team only 90 minutes to do so. Well done to them!

Gerard Lopez, chairman of Lotus Formula 1 Team. He was discussing the success of last year and the ambitions for the upcoming season, including challenging both championships and placing 3rd overall.

Eric Boullier, Lotus F1 Team Principle. When discussing Kimi, he noted how he proved the doubters wrong, stating his motivation was nothing but well driven all season. When questioned about Romain Grosjean, he noted how great his qualifying results were but he also mentioned that he "raced well." Now correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the team principle sits at the side of the track and views both drivers performances live. Did he miss all of Grosjean's mishaps?! Particularly the one that nearly killed Fernando Alonso?! There were better drivers Eric, but making sure Romain knows he is without doubt a number 2 driver like Massa and Webber before him is a well thought through move.

James Allison, Lotus F1  Technical Director. More from him later.

Romain Grosjean. 3 podiums in 2012 including a second place in Canada.

Kimi Raikkonen 2007 Drivers World Champion. 7 podiums in 2012 including winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Notice the new Alpine Star race suit and the extra red.

Both drivers taking the cover off the brand new E21. For being the worlds fastest drivers, they took their time taking it off!

The first glimpse of the E21. Right after last season ended, Lotus announced a sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola owned energy drink Burn. The logo also appears on the drivers suits.

Continuing the iconic black and gold colours, we see the first hint of red on the side pod, but my worst fear had come true, the stepped nose is still there. More on that later.

The first full picture of the Lotus E21. What first struck me is the addition of the colour red. For me this is straying too far from the classic livery. 

A great angle. Notice Kimi's name above the drivers cockpit. Kimi is displayed on both sides, as is the number 7 (Grosjean is therefore number 8 as displayed on his cap).

Another shot of the rear.

Lotus were very coy in letting the camera men view the car, notice there are no shots of the diffuser . Hiding something are we team? Back to the stepped nose; Allison stated that the team had chosen to keep the stepped nose as the cosmetic cover they had trialled weighed several grams.  He noted until they find a material that won't affect the cars performance, they will run the stepped nose all season. I find this extremely disappointing, I was looking forward to seeing the return of our beautiful shaped cars but if it's not beneficial to run a cover, then most teams will follow suit. McLaren didn't have a stepped nose last year and their car was by far the best looking in terms of chassis. If I was Bernie or Jean Todt, I'd force both Sauber and Caterham to cover their cars. They were by far the most extreme and disgusting looking. 

A close up of Kimi's name on the side, I think it is a terrific touch, really impressed.

Kimi made a series of very important comments tonight. When asked about why he stayed, he simply replied "because of a contract." From the outside this sounds like he had no choice. However at the end he went on to say he was happy overall. Lopez made a very good comment early on when he stated Kimi was not "relaxed", rather he was in his perfect environment, and I believe this is why he's happy and proved every doubter wrong. You know who you are and I simply say: "ha." 

E21

Overall I'm not really impressed. When I think about Lotus, I think about Senna making his bones, Graham Hill winning the World Championship, 7 constructors championships and all in a black and gold livery. There is far too much red and I suspect it has something to do with Burn being named as a major sponsor. It doesn't affect the performance of the car but because it's my favourite team, I have a fancy for the body work.

As for the technical side of proceedings, I'm not one for spotting it from afar whenever it's not written on paper for me to make sense of. I've been told they are running double DRS this season after last seasons failed development.

Kimi Raikkonen in the 2013 attire.

I was quite negative about the event after it. The amount of red had me feeling blue and then I wanted to step through the TV to cover up the stepped nose but the aspect that ruined my night was the coverage. I hate Rupert Murdoch, he is a fascist and neo-Nazi in disguise. Murdoch owns Sky, bought all F1 rights off BBC meaning I can't watch all races live. You can probably tell, I do not like Sky. Essentially Sky F1 consists of Georgie Thompson wearing literally NOTHING, Ted Kavitz being the team's bitch and Martin Brundle taking centre stage, often leading the programmed to be called "The Martin Brundle Show." Damon Hill also dropped in my estimations with his association with the show. Simply put, I hate Sky.

Romain Grosjean in the 2013 attire,

Now you know why I hate sky, I'll tell you why tonight was a huge disappointment. The arrogance and ignorance of the presenter tonight was appalling. In true Sky spirit, he was rude enough to take the spotlight away from Lotus to ask everyone (INCLUDING MY KIMI) about Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. Who does he think he is? How dare he actually be that despicable and try to cover a big issue because it's the only live time they'll get with a team. His ethics were horrible but what can you expect from a man employed by some of the worst men and women in history. Criminals in suits.

E21

I hope the rest of the launches go down better than this one, you can find the dates here for the rest of the launches.

E21

Don't forget, I am also a writer for Let's Talk F1 who are providing reviews similar to this one for every car launch. On the 31st of January I will be reviewing the McLaren MP4-28, so be sure to keep up to date with the site throughout the season as our talented group bring you awesome articles through a passion for the sport like none other. You can follow us @LetsTalkF1 on Twitter.

Same Story, Different Rubber

"The goal is to continuously set new challenges for the drivers and to ensure that all the teams start the season with a level playing field when it comes to the tyres." Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport director.

On Wednesday, Formula 1's exclusive tyre manufacturers Pirelli unveiled their new range of 2013 tyres. For those of you who recall the Brazillian Grand Prix last year, the teams got a taste of the brand new orange wall tyre to test in free practice, with most teams noticing higher degradation. 

Pirelli made the start of last season unique, producing 7 different winners in the first 7 races. However the teams eventually cracked the code to unlocking less tyre wear and as a result we ended up with Sebastian Vettel boring us all again like he did in 2011. 

This years tyres ensure more pitstops with at least 2 per race. I'm not sure I like this too much. Yes it's all well and good bringing in more pit time to shake up the race, but I don't necessarily like the fact that there's more of a chance to lose a grand prix or position in the pits as opposed to seeing great overtaking on track. Kimi Raikkonen (last season) scored at least a point in every race except China because his tyres wore away on him unexpectedly  Granted this was not entirely Pirelli's fault and I'm no blaming them, but this is an example of how unpredictable they were and how they changed races. Raikkonen dropped from 2nd to 13th.

All tyres now have softer compounds, this means softer sidewalls and stronger shoulders, producing faster thermal degradation. For those who struggle with the technical aspects, this means tyres will reach their peak performance much sooner with Pirelli even quoting they will be half a second quicker than last years.

According to the Formula 1 Official Website the colours still represent the same compounds, with orange replacing silver as the hard wall tyre. I think it was absolutely ridiculous to have both white and silver markings, you couldn't tell the damn things apart!

A lot of fans have a real disdain for Pirelli and I can see why. Even God himself (Michael Schumacher) stated he had a hard time figuring them out. I had no issue with the tyres until Monza last year. What IDIOT decided to use the hard and medium only at the fastest track on the calendar. If you're going to have hard braking points which you do at Monza, for the love of all that is holy, bring compounds that'll wear quicker. Not the hardest you can find. There really is no excuse I don't care how technical or fancy anyone puts it.

I also found it interesting that each tyre has it's own individual bar code which acts as its 'identification' so the FIA can keep track and note who's using which tyre. Teams get 6 sets of the harder compound and 5 sets of the softer compound to use during a racing weekend.

Let's Talk F1

I am pleased to announce that as of last night I got accepted to write for a wonderful young Formula 1 website called Let's Talk F1!

I've now joined the ranks of a tremendously talented group of writers who share the passion for Formula 1 as I love to do through this blog.

My first story; Absentee Alonso is now up and live just click on the link and after that check out the rest of the site and the wonderful posts that have been made.

First post

If you're on Twitter you can follow us @LetsTalkF1. Say hello and chat to the lovely team.

It's a great pleasure of mine to be writing for a bigger audience through a bigger site. Don't worry, for those who regularly read this blog; I'll still be operating here and keeping it running providing opinion blogs, in depth race reviews and other features that I currently have planned.

Please check out and subscribe or favourite the sit to your desktop, you don't want to miss any great future articles from the team! 

Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to my new post!

Nathan Houston

Wishing Robert Kubica The Best Of Luck

I want to wish Robert Kubica the very best of luck in his new motorsport venture.

If you're unaware, read this great article from ESPN.

I hope to see him race in the DTM because he really was a future champion in the making, I can't help but wonder about a Raikkonen-Kubica partnership at Lotus. Kimi doesn't agree with many people, Robert may have been one of the only ones.

Maybe somebody single seater racing will be on the agenda, right now I'm just glad he's getting back on his feet.

Glock's Gone!

UPDATE: 

It appears Glock has turned towards the DTM driving for old F1 outfit BMW (ESPN). For those who are unaware, the DTM is the German version of touring cars and has had a number of former F1 stars such as David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher.

I will personally miss him but since I have access to the DTM I am still excited to see him race and I'd like to wish him the best of luck!