Formula 1

The ferrari is butt ugly, but at least they are trying to be innovative, really hope it's competitive

It looks like it's made of lego. (The Ferrari)

The step nose is fugly. even RBR cant make it look good

Chris Chan wrote:The step nose is fugly. even RBR cant make it look good

Lotus' is the best of a bad bunch.

So, first testing sessions have been happening over the last two days. Raikkonen was fastest yesterday. I assume the teams are running different setups, fuel-loads etc..., and are testing different aspects of the cars performance. So, can we really extrapolate anything from these at all?

The Ferrari looks slow again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17042953

Trulli out, Petrov in for Caterham. There had been rumours for the last few weeks that this was going to happen.

Mercedes new car had a shakedown at Silverstone yesterday.

I don't want to be "that guy" who goes on about the noses all the time, but that's nearly as bad as the Ferrari's.

durrell is probably a million times more informed about this, but are ferrari hiding something or just mega slow. i cant help but think that if they had any pace, they would have at least put one long stint in. newey has+ don it again

So, first qualifying of the year and the first indication of how the cars might line up:

McLaren 1-2, very impressive performance from Button and Hamilton.
Red Bull a little disappointing, but I'm sure they'll be competitive.
Grosjean very impressive, as were the Mercedes.
Ferrari's car looks hopeless atm.
HRT outside the 107% rule, may not even qualify.

Aside from that, some interesting personal performances (Riccardio good, Kimi a bit unlucky). Quite a few surprises, but I expect it'll settle down as the season goes on.

Who would have thought it, the Ferrari performs worse than it looks! McLaren's look like they will dominate for a few races while the rest of the pack play catch up, could be an very interesting season. Of course this could all change when it comes to race pace so let's see what happens

I have not watched a race in ages...but everybody I have spoke to is telling me to start watching this season...

What time is the race tomorrow?

6 am i think

How did Force India fare? Things were looking very positive for them during the testing phase.

Hulkenberg crashed on the first lap, Di Resta finished 10th for a point

1 Spain F Alonso Ferrari
2 Mexico S Perez Sauber
3 Great Britain L Hamilton McLaren
4 Australia M Webber Red Bull
5 Finland K Raikkonen Lotus
6 Brazil B Senna Williams
7 Great Britain P Di Resta Force India
8 France J Vergne Toro Rosso
9 Germany N Hulkenberg Force India
10 Germany M Schumacher Mercedes

with Button and Vettel finishing, CRAZY race, Sauber should have won it

Don't want to open anew thread:

Massive crash at 24h of Le Mans
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/video/16062012/58/davidson-suffers-huge-le-mans-crash.html

Title race is ever so tight now, just four points between Alonso and Vettel.
Meanwhile, Loeb has announced that he will retire at the end of the season. 9 times World Rally champion in a row.

Nice work by Alonso so far if you take into account the car he has. Can't do anything for the crashes at Belguim and Japan (happens if your in the midle of all cars when you are starting from e.g. position 5). He still manged to finish the best as possible.

Vettel has a stronger car but a lot more technical problems this season.

Raikkonen with a strong comeback - currently 3rd in the driver's championship.

Schumacher to retired again at the end of this season and Hamilton will join Mercedes.

Vettel with 4 wins in a row now leading the table

Vettel 240
Alonso 227
Kimi 173
Webber 167
Hamilton 165
Button 141

Sergio Perez to replace Hamilton at McLaren; Hulkenberg to Sauber

3 races left
Abu Dhabi GP today
Austin GP 18th November
Sao Paulo GP 25th November

Raikkonen wins