Button and Perez “clear the air” over clash

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Jenson Button and Sergio Perez say they are seeing eye-to-eye again after their clash in Bahrain.

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Paul Di Resta: Give me a faster car and we’ll get a podium (The Sun)

Vijay Mallya: “If tomorrow I put another 100 million into this team, it’s not going to guarantee me any performance.”

Lewis Hamilton: “Even when I pushed I was massively slow…” (Adam Cooper’s F1 Blog)

“It’s horrible, I can’t express the feeling, you’re just a sitting duck. Nothing you can do, none of your skills, none of your talent, none of anything you might have can make a difference. Then the grip came back, and I was able to make a difference. I’m so happy I didn’t finish 11th.”

Pirelli urged to keep tyres as they are (Reuters)

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery: “We might – because we have to, and because we see things that as tyre supplier we might want to change – but essentially they are saying: ‘Don’t change even if you are getting this (negative) media coverage.’ So it is rather strange.”

Hamilton tyre blow to be investigated (Autosport)

Hembery: “The Hamilton tyre is something that we need to look at a lot more to understand as we are not really sure about how it happened.”

Franco Gozzi, a protagonist in Ferrari’s history (Ferrari)

Luca di Montezemolo: “We have lost a key figure in the history of Ferrari. My most abiding memory is of all the hours we spent together, talking about drivers and cars and I am grateful for the fact he was close to me when I was a young sporting director at the Scuderia.”

Hansard 22nd April 2013 (Parliament)

British foreign secretary Williams Hague: “The decision on whether to host a Grand Prix in a particular country rests with the Formula One authorities and the country concerned.”

The good old days of now (Darren Heath Photographer)

“When Pirelli leave and we go back to long-lasting, ever so predictable, expert-flattering tyres, perhaps the naysayers will pipe down. I’m guessing they won’t, quickly pining for the good old days of now.”

McLaren Scalextric Race (commentary by Murray Walker) (McLaren via YouTube)

Comment of the day

Antonio Nartea on Porsche choosing to build an LMP1 car instead of a Formula One racer:

The World Endurance Championship, as we see it right now, has a solid chance of becoming a great series, by all means.

Think about it. There’s road relevance as the cars (even the prototypes) are infinitely closer to road vehicles than F1 cars will ever be, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is a massive test for the cars and every single component fitted on those vehicles, the rules and regulations are not nearly as strict as they are in F1 and they allow manufacturers to be a bit more creative with the solutions they choose to implement on the cars (from hybrid technologies and breaks systems to small things such as headlights or windscreen wipers), the organisers and the ACO are not even at 1% of Bernie’s stuck-up-ness level, the budgets are smaller, the races are longer, the racing is closer, the paddock is more open, the drivers are more friendly, the crowds are more enthusiastic and larger in numbers when it comes to Le Mans at least, in my personal opinion the prototypes and the GTs look better… and that’s just off the top of my head. The list can go on forever.

To be honest, if you are closer to a touring, grand touring or simply road cars manufacturer you belong in the WEC. If you are a pure-breed sports car manufacturer, than F1 is maybe the competition you should be looking into. It’s as simple as that. But I still think Porsche made the right choice.
Antonio Nartea (@Tony031r)

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Mags and Tim!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Former F1 driver Rolf Stommelen lost his life in a crash during a sports car race at the Riverside circuit in California 30 years ago today.

Stommelen scored a podium finish in his first full season of F1 in 1970, taking third at the Osterreichring in a Brabham. But the following seasons failed to build on that promise.

In 1975 he was badly injured in a crash during the Spanish Grand Prix which claimed the lives of four spectators. He quit F1 following a poor season with Arrows in 1978 and went on to enjoy success in sports car racing, with victories in the Daytona 24 Hours and Nurburgring 1,000km.

Image © Force India

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81 comments on “Button and Perez “clear the air” over clash”

  1. What a trip! Now arriving to Grove UK, simulator day…

    Anyone have any idea what kind of trip Maldonado took?

    I hope he’ll be fresh and ready when he’s on track again, although with that Williams, and this FOM Director, it’s probably going to take some Maldonado madness for the Venezuelan to get any airtime.

    1. Anyone have any idea what kind of trip Maldonado took?

      An acid one

    2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      24th April 2013, 1:32

      Regarding Maldo, I was surprised to see that the prediction championship has an entry of somebody who has put him as the next Spanish GP winner. The differences in performance between last year car and this one are enormous. The Williams shone in many races, not only Barcelona (he was battling Hamilton in Valencia when both collided), but this year’s car is a real pain in the… grid

      1. such a shame, they should of made more of a fuss to keep their exhausts like red bull or ferrari would of.

        They must of had a some belief it was legal or why bother?

      2. Well, someone is taking a big punt on the Williams upgrades being top notch. I still dont think he will win it.. but he might have a shot at getting into Q3 if all goes well.

  2. Funnily enough, what Mallya said makes perfect sense. If he simply invests an extra 100million into the design of the car, it wont make a difference. He would first have to get a better technical team together to compliment the money that could be invested. But, then again FI doesn’t really have the kind of money that it would take to steal some of the big guns from the major teams. Hope their upgrades for Spain puts them in contention for their long overdue podium.

    1. @rojov123 Money will start to flow once the team starts finishing higher up. But nobody will invest in a team that is not earning profits. To earn profits, a team must perform better. So, for Force India its a steady climb. U don’t want them to be another Toyota. Hundreds of millions but without a win!

    2. Sure money is not the problem at Woking…

      It would make a huge difference in small teams, but I don’t think it’s the case of Force India. Plus, Malya would go to jail if he injected 100 million dollars into the team :)

  3. Paul Di Resta seams to be very vocal this year. I like it! That ‘deer caught in the lights’ look of yester year was not doing him any favours. I guess he realises if Sutil beats him that’s it for his F1 career, or certainly a top team seat. He has been on it all 4 races and if he stays on it there is no reason why he shouldn’t even beat both MacLaren drivers and come in top 10 in the Championship. The car has genuine pace.

    1. I think Paul di Resta’s comment that only a better car is needed for a podium is a bit over the top.

      Looking at Sutil’s race pace on an identical strategy (practically), the German was even better than Paul in Bahrain, which I can’t help but feel would have been enough for holding off Grosjean, had he not suffered a puncture on the first lap. Or it would have certainly been closer than the di Resta v Grosjean battle.

  4. Should the MacLaren drivers be airing their dirty laundry on twitter? It seems strange to me, unless Jenson is politicking again and realises he came across badly to fans and wants to do some PR and damage limitation.

    1. Yeah .. I dont see why Jenson made such a big deal about Sergio’s on track battles with him after the race anyways. Lewis and him have had equally tough battles from time to time and there was no need to ‘clear the air’ after all those races.

      Jenson thinks he can throw a little weight around with a lower rated driver as a teammate, as proven in his radio message to Mclaren to ‘calm Sergio down’ . I would love to hear Jenson say that if he still had Lewis as a teammate. For a guy who was always against team orders… he seems awfully keen to make Sergio a driver who will quietly follow him around

      1. I don’t know what’s not to get here because it’s very simple. The reason why he made such a fuss is because there we’re 2 collisions in the matter of 2 laps racing his teammate and the first collision could’ve ended Buttons race very easily if he had gotten a puncture. I’m actually very surprised he didn’t.

        As far as him trying to throw a little weight around, we’ve heard him use the same tone when he asked “what is he doing?” in the 2011 Canadian GP about Hamilton so I hardly think that’s the case. I know he seems like a nice guy but I don’t think he’s intimidated that easily.

        1. But I still think that both of them could’ve handled things a lot better. We need an edit button. :(

        2. +1, Finally someone with an opinion that I can agree with!
          As I said before, any other driver on that grid would have said something to the team after being hit and certainly when the one who hits you is your own team mate… (that includes Kimi, Sebastian, Fernando and Lewis,… ;-) )

        3. “What is he doing”and “Calm him down” are two completely different statements

          1. That is correct.

    2. @blackmamba : Who is @TheFifthDriver ??

      1. @noob McLaren’s oddly-named official Twitter account.

  5. good lesson for other Teams ;)

    dear god

    1. @mnm101 I think he deleted the tweet, is no longer in his timeline.

      Still I don´t like his comment…

      1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        24th April 2013, 1:33

        @celeste this time I may disagree with you. It’s good to see racers so focused in the battle, no matter if it’s against the teammate,

        1. actually i understood it as a jab at other teams (Red Bull, Mercedes), i think @celeste too

          1. @omarr-pepper I think I understood the message the same way that @mnm101 did, and that´s the reason Checo deleted his tweet.

            I don´t care if Checo and Button fight. Have at it. But for him, after just one good race, to think he can call other teams in what they are doing wrong, pretty pretentious on his part IMO

          2. @celeste

            So….. When did performance start validating opinions on sportsmanship?

        2. Well I kind of agree with @celeste point of view, it’s great that they fighting against each other, but Pérez is bragging like McLaren has never given or will never give team orders, next thing he knows he will have to let Button past when the car is finally competitive and there’s more to lose than 6th place

          1. next thing he knows he will have to let Button past when the car is finally competitive and there’s more to lose than 6th place

            But surely that makes it even more logical to thank the team for NOT calling them off now @mantresx?

            I mean, when he knows fully well that team orders are regularly used by all teams, isn’t that in itself reason to thank your team when they DO let you race for a change?

      2. @celeste It’s not deleted – if it was, you wouldn’t be able to see it here. It’s in his timeline if you click All instead of No replies. (https://twitter.com/SChecoPerez/with_replies)

        1. @enigma Thank you, my mistake.

          It worst, I thoght he at least have some sense to know he was doing the wrong

          1. What is wrong with it? Isn’t it true that other teams did not want to let their drivers fight on track? Do fans like it? Do drivers like that? So why object to Checo being grateful they could?

            With all the jabs drivers take at each other and at other teams all the time, I see really nothing bad at all in this tweet @celeste

          2. @celeste What was “wrong” with that tweet, exactly?

          3. Nothing. Nothing is wrong with it. he’s just being honest, which is far better than coded multi-21 messages and pulling the wool over eyes.

            Good on him.

          4. @bascb If you don´t think he is the wrong is your right, I don´t like it and is my right too…

            @maroonjack I think @mantresx explained better that I could have

            @mike you are right, even if e has won a world championship I wouldn´t have like what he said…

          5. @celeste, I would prefer if you actually tried to explain what is wrong with it. Also see my answer to Mantresx above isn’t thanking your team for it more logical when you know fully well that its an exception?
            And it does compare favorably to other teams who did not let their drivers race so far. No doubt Perez would like to urge his team to continue that behavior because (as both of you rightly point out) he is likely to become the suffering party in TO sooner rather than later anyway.

          6. @celeste
            “hope next time we can fight for 1 – 2” – nothing controversial here.

            “thanks again to TheFifthDriver for letting us fight” – looks fine to me.

            “good lesson for other Teams ;)” – a cheeky stab at Merc and Red Bull, and he is right, it is a good lesson for them! They should learn to let their drivers fight, especially this early in the season. So again: what’s wrong with it? In my opinion: absolutely nothing.

    2. I get it was rather pretentious of Sergio to say such a thing, but actually I kind of agree with the meaning behind it. I was very greatful that McLaren didn’t interfere with the battle as it was very entertaining and although at some points it bordered on silly in general it was a very fair fight. Red Bull & Mercedes, take note.

  6. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    24th April 2013, 1:16

    Di Resta, once and for all, watch your mouth!
    PDR is performing well and that’s ok. But He isn’t still Lewis Hamilton to start saying such demands. And Sutil had a problem with the car. Otherwise I think he would have given Paul a blast of reality.

    1. Bonecra3her
      24th April 2013, 6:55

      Give Paul a break, this is a tough sport. When you are at FI and are trying to beat at least 10 faster cars to the podium on any given weekend I would say you we’re entitled to make a few demands. Look what happened to Algesuari and Buemi. I bet they wish they had made their feelings known when they had the chance.

      1. Car or no car, those two weren’t good enough. At least Paul on the other hand has shone occasionally. Hence I don’t believe it is so wrong for Di Resta to want a faster car, as he may be able to do good things with it.

    2. The worst part of that article (from an interview originally on JA on F1 I believe), was when he told the team to “work harder in the design office”. While I don’t know the inner workings of said office, being an F1 team I would have thought it was filled with people working their backsides off trying to improve the car. It certainly seems a pretty disrespectful comment to make, and yet again it’s shifting the reasons they’re not finishing higher more consistently entirely off DIR himself.

      Try making do with what you’ve got, there’s definitely a high level of entitlement there.

      1. I find it very hard to warm to Paul. There is no matter what the result always a complaint.

        reminds me of the sketch Fry and Laurie did of a grand prix interview

        1. It’s a classic. If I remember correctly the journalist runs out of patience and hits out at the driver. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen for Di Resta’s sake!

        2. If you’ve never seen it, classic:

  7. The decision on whether to host a Grand Prix in a particular country rests with the Formula One authorities and the country concerned.

    I can’t believe someone out there genuinely believes that the British parliament has the power to cancel a sporting event in another country.

    1. Although of course they don’t, technically there’s probably plenty they could do in terms of restricting teams from actually going to Bahrain, after all, most of the teams are based in the UK. I’m sure the government could implement some kind of embargo or trade restrictions if they genuinely wished to do so.

      1. Most teams are based in the UK, but only three – McLaren, Lotus and Williams – compete under British licences. And even then, only Williams have British owners; McLaren is owned by Bahraini investors, and Lotus by Luxembourgers. Any embargo or trade restrictions would effectively be useless. And would probably open up a legal can of worms, since they would be denying Williams the right to compete for political reasons when no other team is subject to the embargo.

    2. @prisoner-monkeys
      Well English is not my native language, but I would expect that “the country concerned” actually refers to “a particular country” mentioned in the same sentence before, which would definitely not make it the UK, but rather Bahrain.

  8. VJ’s comments speak to a bit of maybe why his businesses are doing so poorly: Of course throwing $100 million at a problem would get you better results. Anyone who argues otherwise is a fool.

    The companies which have always stood above the rest are those willing to risk “wasting” money in the name of doing something great. Just like Thomas Edison once “invented” 1,000 non-functional light bulbs before he got to the one that worked, great F1 teams spend tens of millions of dollars a year on prototype peices and experiments that don’t pan out. For $100 million, you can put more parts in a larger scale wind tunnel instead of relying on CFD software. For $100 you can run or build a better simulator. Hell, for $10 million, Caterham partied like a Champion after the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.

    You’ll have to forgive VJ, what he meant to say was “I don’t have $100 million to spend, sorry Paul.”

    1. Its not what you spend its how you spend it.

      Renault won 2 world titles on probably 4/5th highest budget at the time.

    2. VJ’s comments speak to a bit of maybe why his businesses are doing so poorly: Of course throwing $100 million at a problem would get you better results. Anyone who argues otherwise is a fool.

      @hwkii

      Well .. call me a fool then.

      Just to give you a little info on why Mallya’s Kingfisher airlines failed – He spent money unwisely while managing the airline. While the entire airline industry has spiraled into price wars and cost cutting, Mallya decided to differentiate his airline by putting a lot of money which should have been employed towards operational efficiency, towards less important areas. Good looking air hostesses, great meals and in flight entertainment drove up his costs, and in a price sensitive market such as India, it affected his demand. Similarly, they lacked the operational efficiency of a couple of other competitors and that reduced the demand as well. He wasn’t running at his expected capacity and thats when he needed to fund his operations with loans and extended credit terms. Now he finds himself in a pile of you know what

      I think if there is one thing Mallya has learnt from his time in the airline industry, that spending a lot of money without the absolute need for it, could end in disaster

    3. I think we are here the last people who are qualified to give any advise to VJ, for the same reason Bernie keeps to him self. Close to no one offers them anything of substance or have an insight of things they are talking about compare to people like VJ, Bernie, Branson or whatever….

      It was very amusing watching journalist’s at the press conference (who are not the brightest lot, it must be said) asking VJ financial questions and then getting grounded by the answers).

      1. What press conference was this?

  9. Oh, I forgot founf this article, Ron Howard has started promoting Rush in US entetainment magazines . The poster looks kind of nice ;);)… sould have liked to be the cars… but the tag line is cool “Everyone´s driven by something”

    “Folks from the era are fond of saying of the 1970s F1 racing that’s it time when when sex was safe and driving was dangerous. That’s the way they lived. These folks aren’t forthcoming with a lot of details but there are a lot of winks and nods. I really did sort of fall in love with the sport. I love teams but yet the draivers are really unique talents and fascinating personalities, which is why I was involved in the story that [Frost/Nixon screenwriter] Peter Morgan wrote these characters brilliantly and there’s great acting opportunities blended with this cool, visceral action. I also loved the blend of teamwork and the state-of-the-art technology and, throughout, the wall-to-wall aggressive action.”

  10. Paul is correct in saying that a little more push could get them podiums this year. Force India have a car that’s working well with this years tyres, only Lotus & FI can think of doing one pit stop less than their rivals. Vijay knows that he can’t justify burning more cash on FI at the moment, but despite that their car has been steadily improving over the years. Over the years they also have had key technical staff leave to other teams like Caterham, Williams, Saubers… but that too have not dented their progress.
    I feel the would be podium contender at Canadian GP & Brazil GP.

    1. It’s correct, but it’s still a dumb comment. Give Esteban Gutiérrez a fast enough car and he’d make the podium! Paul’s really grating on my nerves with his whining, excuses and defensiveness… it really seems like he’s lacking confidence and overcompensating. How about throwing Mallya a bone by thanking him after providing him a drive in a car capable of fourth?

      1. Look at https://www.racefans.net/2013/04/22/2013-bahrain-grand-prix-lap-times-fastest-laps/ and uncheck all boxes except Gutierrez and Di Resta. You will see Di Resta drove the last 19 laps all within 1 second – very stable lap times. Gutierrez isn’t near that level yet. Being a high performing driver You must also be able to put in steady fast lap times over a whole GP. Di Resta can do that, so even if we might dislike his whining excuses, give him a faster FI and he will get to the podium sooner or later. But in a sense You are right: On the race day he should thank the team for providing the car to produce a fourth place, but then he must motivate and push them to raise their game another notch.

  11. I find Paul di Resta’s comments to be hilarious. Of course he could be on the podium if he had a faster car. The same can be said of just about any driver. Looking down the grid, there are plenty of drivers who could do it – like Nico Hulkenberg and Jules Bianchi. But the mark of a truly great driver, the kind of driver that di Resta clearly wants to be, is their ability to be on the podium in a car that is slower than the front-runners. Like the Force India VJM06.

    1. @prisoner-monkeys

      But the mark of a truly great driver…is their ability to be on the podium in a car that is slower than the front-runners.

      I disagree: I think the mark of a truly great driver is their ability to maximise to the highest degree the opportunities that are given to them – that can consist of putting what may not be a front-running car on the podium which you are right in saying, but that is not the mark of a great driver. A backmarker scoring points, or a front runner dominating races are just as much of a mark.

  12. Interesting to see Hamilton and Rosberg talk about their races and express their bewilderment, and their disappointment.
    Nico clearly states that the hot weather on race day hurt them (it getting less hot towards the end would then have naturally helped Hamilton’s car work better in the later stages of the race), while Hamilton seems to be baffled why everything changed.

    1. That comment from Hamilron was made straight after the race. I’m sure he fully understands why the car behaved as it did now.

    2. Lewis obviously doesn’t share Nico’s explanations; and rightly so. If the cooler weather helped Hamiltons’s car, then why was Nico’s car going backwards as the race progressed? Lewis is bewildered because the change he felt in the car was too drastic to be attributed to the cooler temperatures alone. It is far more fundamental than that.

      1. “the change he felt in the car was too drastic to be attributed to the cooler temperatures ”

        Switching from used options to new primes could well explain the difference.
        I’m still puzzled by his running two stints on the option rather than three on the prime (as every other team did).

      2. its not the first time lewis has said ‘all of a sudden i was quick/slow’ didnt he say the same in Japan one year?

        Some drivers are just like that. Mansell could make a mountain out of a molehill on a daily basis.

      3. Ok, @kbdavies, you raise a valid issue about Rosbergs pace towards the end there. But for your explanation of what Hamilton felt or thought, I can only admire how good you seem to know him, that you know what he thought.
        If I am not mistaken, Rosberg mentioned the hot weather even BEFORE the race as a worry to his race @jleigh, and both his comment and what Hamilton said were made shortly after the race.

        1. I do not know him, but as he is not giving the same reason as Rosberg for the difference in his car’s performance, i can reasonably assume that he does not attribute the varying performance either to cooler temps, or to the change in tires. I can also assume that given his knowledge of F1 and experience as a driver, he would have considered both options and come to the conclusion that neither could be the reason – otherwise he would have mentioned it as Rosberg did. This is why he is still puzzled. It is ridiculous to asume an F1driver would be ignorant of how temperature or a different tyre compound would affect his performance.

  13. Loved the way Jenson came up during the Sky Interview with Martin Whitmarsh…

    The McLaren atmosphere is looking good, they seem more human… Now than Lewis is gone, McLaren has become likeable…

    1. Really?!

      I found it all a little nauseating tbh; the relationship between MW and JB is uncomfortable to watch IMO.

      Not sure that LH leaving has made them more human; you only have to look at LH in his interviews to see that he has in fact become far more ‘human’ and likeable since joining Merc.

      Still, everyone’s entitled to their opinion :)

      1. @bad_whippet What stopped Lewis from being more ‘human’ at McLaren… If he lost a race at McLaren, he would start tossing the team up and down.. why isn’t he doing that at Merc??

        the relationship between MW and JB is uncomfortable to watch IMO.

        What, are you kidding? They seem to have an excellent rapport. And MW, no matter what happens, that guy always keeps a smile on his face…

        1. If he lost a race at McLaren, he would start tossing the team up and down.. why isn’t he doing that at Merc??

          If you watch Lewis’s interviews, he has been using the term “we” and “us” a lot more with Merc. This can only mean one thing – from Lewis’s perspective, McLaren was not as inclusive a place compared to Mercedes. At Macca, it was a “them” and “me” culture, whilst at Merc, it is simply “we”, “us”, “the boys”, etc.
          This is not surprising giving the lack of support and tendency to be undermined that he felt in the team. Note i am saying thi is what he must have perceived. A lot of organisations have this culture without meaning to do so.

          Watching the last couple of years, personally, i had always felt Lewis was not given the proper support in races and left to depend on his race pace to get himself up the grid, whilst McLaren seems to rely more on inventive strategy to move Jenson up. This would have seemed like Jenson was getting more of a helping hand at times – though this may simply be a result of Lewis being able to perform better magic with the car when it’s inherent pace is not so good – either way, it wouldn’t have lookd good from where Lewis was standing. I also believe Turkey 2012 was the turning point for Lewis. Whatever the explanations given, he believes Whitmarsh was trying to sneak Jenson past him.
          Whatever the reason, it is clear he is a lot more happy at Merc and feels at one with the team.

        2. @noob

          What stopped Lewis from being more ‘human’ at McLaren

          What stopped him? I’d suggest McLaren’s obsession with their corporate image and the non-stop PR machine. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, you only need to look at the MTC or their two new road cars to see why they uphold such an image, but to highlight what I mean, just look at JB and SP’s tweets at the top of this page…

          Anyone who thinks those were written by the drivers and not heavily vetted by McLaren’s PR dept is deluding themselves IMO!

          I think LH obviously feels more relaxed at Merc and as a result, is coming across more himself, more ‘human’ if you will. As for McLaren, I get the impression they’re putting on a few airs and graces following LH’s departure, to show to the world that they’re fine without him.

          Just my opinion of course :)

          1. @kbdavies

            If you watch Lewis’s interviews, he has been using the term “we” and “us” a lot more with Merc.

            That is Merc PR at work, orchestrated by Toto-Brawn-Lauda….

            @bad_whippet

            Anyone who thinks those were written by the drivers and not heavily vetted by McLaren’s PR dept is deluding themselves IMO!

            And what, there was no PR prior to 2009.. When he won the WDC, were those tears of joy or glycerine smeared by the PR dept.. Lets face it, Macca was his team… But he could not keep with JBs popularity, quite simply lost the race at Macca, hence he had to flee…

  14. David not Coulthard (@)
    24th April 2013, 8:43

    Di Resta doesn’t need a faster car, he needs one that slows down tyre degradation, ask Rosberg.

    Or did I miss something?

    1. @davidnotcoulthard I feel bad for Rosberg..poor guy has been made the 2nd driver…

  15. I imagine Button and Perez’s conversation went along the lines of “I don’t mind racing, but PLEASE don’t smack me up the **** again.”

    1. I think its simply “I don’t mind racing, provided I am on the winning side of it” really @bendana!

  16. Interesting read from ex racing driver Tom Gaymor on female racing drivers – he was teammates with both Danica and Susie in their earlier careers

    1. Good article, but i find a lot of what he is saying quite misguided; and using Tim Henman as an example was a mistake.
      The point is neither Danica nor Susie are good enough for an F1 seat – not based on their record so far anyway. The only other fair way for them is to become a “PAY DRIVER” like so many of their male counterparts. Patronising would be getting them into F1 because they are female or because they would be an “asset”. This is not a complicated argument at all.

  17. Imagine LH with faultless car setting pole time in Bahrain?

    Man that clunky wheel messed up what could have been really far more entertaining race day.

    1. I doubt he’d have been higher than 4th, or finished significantly ahead of where he was.

    2. But you know if Lewis is in the mix it will be entertaining. Every time.

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