F1 – Suzuka: The race didn’t matter

Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix was preceded by the threat of typhoon Phanfone, which wound up being a part of the action on Sunday. Then Alonso drops his bombshell that he’ll leave Ferrari after this season. Not to be outdone, Sebastian Vettel announces that he’s leaving Infiniti Red Bull Racing. While not an official proclamation, Christian Horner let an F-bomb slip: Seb is headed to Ferrari. Phanfone didn’t show up until Sunday, with the race starting on wet tires behind the Safety Car. Rain came in and a red flag was…

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The Missed Shift – Weekend At Bernie’s

Over at Bernie’s House There’s a post on Opposite Lock by a user discussing a potential replacement or Bernie Eccelstone should he retire, die or go to prison (the latter appearing to be the most likely).  The user suggests that Christian Horner would be a suitable replacement for Bernie, and I can’t disagree.  Although I think there are a handful of others who could fill the role equally as well.  But who would want to? Let me preface by saying that in order to understand Bernie’s rise to power and…

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The Missed Shift – A Nose By Any Other Name

Philosophical Ponderings of Proboscises Now that Formula 1 has done their dog and pony show at Jerez and the teams’ 2014 cars are revealed, we have a new talking point: the noses.  My favorite is the Definitive F1 Nose Chart over at Jalopnik.  Although, personally, I think the Williams nose looks more like the the antagonist from The Ant and The Aardvark: Yeah, it’s the best I got.  There’s a reason I never attempted the comedic arts. I’ve seen comparisons to Max Rebo, Binky from Life in Hell, and genitalia…

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Formula 1 – Team Orders; Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

Following Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix, the world watched as Red Bull Racing suffered yet another implosion in inter team relations. Sebastian Vettel had done the unthinkable; he had passed Mark Webber after being told to hold position on the circuit. Mark Webber was clearly upset as he thought the race was over and had no idea why he was being challenged by Vettel. Almost immediately, fans took to the Twitter stream and the Facebook with comments regarding how dirty a move it had been on the part of Vettel. Mark…

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Formula 1 – Preseason Team Power Rankings

Welcome to the 2013 Formula 1 season! Well…sorta I suppose. Cars are not on the grid in Australia, but we are through launches and only a few weeks from the opening round of the 2013 campaign. We have had two testing sessions occur with one left in Barcelona. Testing is never a really good way to tell anything, so we will launch the first power rankings of the season anyway. I will break them up into team and driver’s rankings separately as a driver performance does not always match the…

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F1 – Red Bull’s RB7 Plays The Exhaust Game Too

Apparently, trick exhausts are going to be the hip thing in this season’s FIA Formula 1 World Championship. After Renault’s bold reconfiguration to route the exhaust forward of the floor, McLaren and Mercedes have already stated that they’re working on similar exhaust systems. Red Bull Racing, on the other hand, is utilizing what they believe is a loophole that will allow them to run the exhaust directly into the diffuser through the floor inspite of the FIA’s attempt for prohibit this. Frankly, I’m not sure about the loophole, so I…

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