.:: 2013 British Grand Prix - 28/29/30 June ::.

DID YOU KNOW?: This is Williams' 600th Grand Prix weekend.

POINTS OF DISCUSSION

1. Despite recent struggles over the past decade, Williams remain the third most successful F1 team in history. What is your best memory of the team?
2. Claire Williams recently wrote an article on how rude it was about people asking her when she was going to get pregnant - with the general assumption of women shouldn't be in F1. With both her and Monisha Kaltenborn taking up senior roles within their teams, will there be more female influence within the sport - more team principals, more racers, perhaps?
3. Mark Webber is to leave Red Bull at the end of this season - have incidents within the team influenced his decision, or was it the right time for him to go anyway?
4. The last British winner of the British GP, Lewis Hamilton, fears that time is running out for him to become a multiple-time World Champion. Once described as the next Michael Schumacher, he has since been trumped by Sebastian Vettel who has gone on to become a three-time champion already. Can Hamilton build on his "legacy", or is the German going to prevent that in the upcoming years?
5. It was revealed last year that ticket prices for the British Grand Prix was the third highest of all circuits (it's cheaper to watch the race at Monaco!) - with only Abu Dhabi and Brazil costing more. Do you think this is fair, or should prices be lowered?

I hope we have a great race, since I'll be there :D

I'm hoping for a Vettel win, who's slowly becoming my prefered driver.

1. Silverstone 1991, the emotions! :'D Big fan of Mansell here.

2. We'll see a bigger female influence in everything, but motorsport (and engineering) will always be mostly male territory. 

3. Both. Of course the team situation affected his decision. He never fitted in after the team started working mostly around Vettel. Which is perfectly understandable considering Vettel is one if not the best driver at the moment. And evenif you feel like arguing that, he's still a world champion (a triple world champion, actually), of course the team would favor him over a relatively unsuccessful Webber. That's something that Webber never really got along with (which is his right) so it was time to leave.

4. It will be very difficult for Hamilton to build  a career comparable to any of the greats. He's a great driver, but the competiton is too fierce. Though, considering the advances of Mercedes this year (they have a ridiculously fast car), nothing can be ruled out.

5. No comments here.

1. Maldonado's win last year. I started seriously watching F1 in 2007 so not a lot of fond memories of that team. I do appreciate their history though.

2. More team principals, maybe. Although I think we're at least 10 years away from seeing women RACE drivers.

3. With the way things have been going at Red Bull I don't believe for a second that his situation there didn't play a factor. Was it the right time for him to go? I don't think so but a man can put up with all that BS for so long.

4. It's like comparing Lebron and Jordan; the similarities are there but at then end of the day they competed in two different eras of their sports. Mercedes have a fast car to be sure but until they can solve their tire woes (seriously it's been how many years already) I don't see Hamilton achieving the level of success many expected.

5. You can cut the price by 90% and I still wouldn't be able to afford a ticket to Silverstone, let alone a flight and a hotel. I'm better off watching the Asian races. 

I wouldn't classify what Webber lived in Red Bull as BS. Granted, he had to see how the team favored his team mate, but that's the nature of the sport. You can very rarely see two number ones, much less when one is widely considered to be much better than you

No one enjoys being the number two, but he still got a chance in the one of the best teams, with one of the best cars and an excellent paycheck. As much as he protested, he got a chance reserved for the very best, and his results were never on par.

I can understand him not being happy with what he got (as I said previously, that's each person's right), but believing the situation is as simple and two dimensional as he being a common man hero while Red Bull (again, the team that gave him one of the fastest cars on the grid and paid him millions to drive it) the evil empire who would do everything to stop him is buying into a caricature of the reality. It is very easy to buy into the media circus, but the world is not simply divided in just heroes and villains.

 I'll be there, so fingers crossed a Vettel win, the way the crowd booed him where I was sitting last year was pretty disgusting, so it'll rub it in their face :P Another Webber win would be nice too, and a good showing from Di Resta would be appreciated.

1. Started watching F1 in 2002, so for me it was their solid 2003 campaign. And dumping Ralf Schumacher :P

2. That is really sexist, I hope she reports whoever asked this if it was in a professional environment. I can see Williams/Kaltenborn being around for a while, but other than that I don't see anymore coming through. It's traditionally male dominated for the simple fact that more men want to work I'm F1 than women as far as I can see.

3. Maybe, maybe not. The fact that he's maintaining close links to Red Bull after he leaves implies that they haven't. I think after 11 long years he knows he had his chance in 2010 and he himself blew it, it's unlikely such an opportunity would arise again.

4. Well, the championship he did win would have been won by Massa if it wasn't for Glock, so to be honest I never saw him as much of a champion, his attitude back in 2007-9, with Scherzinger and his dad around him 24/7, he seemed very primadonna to me. He doesn't have much of a legacy really, and as long as Vettel/Alonso are as competitive as they are I don't see Hamilton winning another championship for a long time.

 5. Most people at Monaco sit in the hotels/yachts though, and I don't think they are FIA sanctioned seating areas, and I know for a fact that these are more expensive than Silverstone. It's been packed the past 2 years with tickets selling out in a flash, and there is a lot of seating, so I think for demand's sake they have to be high, or they'd sell out too quickly. That said, there is a grandstand or two that are only available to guests from Vodafone or whatever, and they're usually empty until Sunday.

1. I missed out on Williams F1 at its prime since I started watching Formula One in 1998, so Maldonado'swin is my best memory. This is the only race I've ever seen Williams win without a BMW powered car.

2. It's only a matter of time.

3. A bit of both, his relationship with the team was showing no real signs of improving and Formula One is becoming more of a young man's sport.

4. Not really a fair comparsion. Schummacher/Vettel were in the right car at the right time for most, if not all, of their championships. Not factoring in variable, the most Hamilton could have hope for in his career to this point were two titles.

5. More expensive than Monaco tickets?

4. Well, the championship he did win would have been won by Massa if it wasn't for Glock, so to be honest I never saw him as much of a champion

sambob530

Of course it would have never come to that if the FIA haven't stripped Hamilton of his rightful win at Belgium. 

I wouldn't classify what Webber lived in Red Bull as BS. Granted, he had to see how the team favored his team mate, but that's the nature of the sport. You can very rarely see two number ones, much less when one is widely considered to be much better than you

No one enjoys being the number two, but he still got a chance in the one of the best teams, with one of the best cars and an excellent paycheck. As much as he protested, he got a chance reserved for the very best, and his results were never on par.

I can understand him not being happy with what he got (as I said previously, that's each person's right), but believing the situation is as simple and two dimensional as he being a common man hero while Red Bull (again, the team that gave him one of the fastest cars on the grid and paid him millions to drive it) the evil empire who would do everything to stop him is buying into a caricature of the reality. It is very easy to buy into the media circus, but the world is not simply divided in just heroes and villains.

Alberto1978

He had parts from his car removed and given to Vettel. I would say that counts as BS. I wasn't refering to his number 2 status either. 

Sure he may not have been as succesful as Vettel but he was hardly a bad driver. 

Besides, the results of that championship (and the two next to follow) ended up proving that RB were far more right than wrong in favoring Vettel. He had the chance to prove them wrong, in fact, he did it in that very GP, but then he just let it go.

Don't get me wrong, I do agree it was a BSish move, but Webber had all the chances afterwards to stand tall and prove with his results that he deserved far better, but he simply didn't.

Reminds me a bit of Massa (we don't need to name examples here do we), another pretty cool dude I have a soft spot for, but this is a sport that rewards talent and results over being a nice guy, and has always been that way.

FP3 - RED FLAG (Duration: 6 Minutes)

Sergio Perez (MEX, McLaren) suffers tyre failure out of Copse - debris left on track. 

PAUL DI RESTA'S CAR FOUND TO BE UNDERWEIGHT IN QUALIFYING

Paul Di Resta is likely to be disqualified from qualifying at the British Grand Prix after his car was found to be underweight.

The Scot's Force India was 1.5kg under the minimum weight limit after checks were completed and the matter has been referred to the stewards.

A penalty would deprive the 27-year-old of a career-best qualifying position.

Before the problem came to light, Di Resta said he was "shocked" he had been able to qualify so highly.

He said he had driven the lap as well as he could have.

"That was it. There wasn't any more. It takes a lot of commitment and it's a ballsy lap, and it's satisfying when you get it done.

"I've never driven the car around here properly in the dry and built upon that."It's rewarding in qualifying when you do a good job, it's frustrating when you don't, and I'm on the one side today and that's satisfying."

The amount the car is under the weight limit would account for less than 0.1secs of lap time but the car will be thrown out unless there are extenuating circumstances, which is unlikely.

The team are likely to have to add ballast to the car to bring it up to the weight limit for the race, which as it is a change of set-up that would break parc ferme regulations would mean he would have to start from the pit lane.

Despite the technical problem, it was the latest in a series of strong performances from Di Resta, who was beaten only by the Mercedes and Red Bulls.

However, Red Bull say he is not in the frame for the seat that will be made vacant next year alongside world champion Sebastian Vettel following Mark Webber's decision to leave Formula 1.

Asked if that was frustrating, he said: "There's nothing I can do. It is what it is. I'm only trying to do what I can do.

"I've built my reputation in Formula 1. I want to be in a winning seat, but it's people's board's decisions.

"I've still got a lot of races with Force India this year, and when it's exciting like it is today, I'll keep concentrating on that and let other people do the work in the background."

There may also be an opportunity at Ferrari, where Felipe Massa has been struggling in recent races, and Di Resta said he would love to have the opportunity to drive for the Italian team, whose lead driver Fernando Alonso he out-qualified by five places at Silverstone.

"You would jump at it definitely," Di Resta said. "Obviously it is every boy's dream as they grow up to get in a Ferrari at some point in their life, and is a nice thing having the Italian blood.

"But I will concentrate on my job and let other people do their job. Where I am next year I don't know, but there are many points up for grabs. That is the important bit, keeping your reputation high."

SOURCE: BBC Sport 

Paul is showing he is capable of top performances, but so far the team seem to let him down which is a shame, Force India are clearly Best of the rest at present, but they are making silly mistakes. If a top drives come beckoning he shouldn't be ruled out.

On the other hand, Ricciardo is putting in his performances and setting his stall out for that vacant Red Bull seat. 

Di Resta Disqualified

Paul Di Resta has been excluded from British GP qualifying after his Force India was judged to have been underweight.

The Scot had qualified in a career-best fifth place on Saturday for his home race but will now either start from the back of the pack, or the pit lane, for Sunday's race after earlier scrutineering checks had found his car to be 1.5kg below the minimium weight limit of 642kg.

The decision means Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo inherits Di Resta's place at the head of the third row, with the Scot's Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil also moving up a place to sixth.

Di Resta's demotion also serves to move title contenders Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso up an additional position respectively after both struggled in qualifying and propped up the top ten.

Source: Sky Sports 

An extract from the BBC article on the story which sprung out at me

"Force India blamed a discrepancy in Di Resta's weight after qualifying - driver and car count together.

Governing body the FIA said Di Resta would move to the back of the grid, but he may well be forced to start from the pits.

If the team need to add ballast to the car to make up its weight, that would be a change of set-up, which is not allowed under F1's parc ferme regulations.

The team are considering whether to appeal against the decision.

Di Resta weighed less than expected on the FIA scales after qualifying but team boss Bob Fernley said that when he was weighed again later he was back to his normal weight.

The weight of the car and driver combined must be at least 642kg to comply with the regulations."

Source: BBC Sport 

Di Resta really hasn't had much luck with qualifying recently - he seems to show he has the pace in practice, but then technical or team decisions seem to screw up in qualifying - going out at the wrong time, wrong tyres, technical faults. In the pre-quali coverage he was being asked about his prospects for the weekend and I was thinking - so long as the team doesn't screw up his quali again he should be fine.

and here we are - underweight - back of the grid :roll:

I wonder what went wrong if his weight in the garage was fine, but at the weigh station it was underweight?

On the plus side he has shown good pace around Silverstone, and with it being a fairly high speed circuit with 2 DRS on long straights he should have plenty of opportunity to work through the field.

It's bad luck Paul!

Apart from Di Resta's Qualifying DQ, it's has been a good day for British race fans. Pole Position for Hamilton, GP2 win for Sam Bird, and GP3 win for Jack Harvey.

Sam Bird is really geeting himself in to position to fill the void as my new favourite driver when JB calls it a day.

Apparently the issue with di Resta was his own weight, not the weight of the car. Paul, I know the location of the local McDonald's if you need my help? 

Dear Redders, quick question, why is Button your favorite driver, and not Hamilton? Is it something about their personalities, or do you consider him simply more talented/a more complete driver?

Not that I think there's something wrong with that, it's just plain ol' curiosity :p

Dear Redders, quick question, why is Button your favorite driver, and not Hamilton?Alberto1978

EDIT: Personality-wise, I'd say Jenson's the more headstrong but that's only through age. Jenson at Lewis' age was probably similar to be fair. There's also the fact Jenson had to work his way (within F1) to a race-winning car; Lewis was in one from day 1 (Lewis has won at least two races in every season he's completed so far).

Sometimes, I REALLY hate the stewards' logic. This is a crash from GP3 on Saturday. The guy who flips is Patrick Kujala, who is lucky to escape injury.

He's been given a race ban from Sunday's event because of the crash.

Oh just bugger off, FIA.

EDIT (4:00 AM EST): Will Buxton just had another go at the FIA stewarding. Basically saying that it should be more preventive than reactionary.

EDIT (5:26 AM EST): More GP2 Antics: The Race Director forgot what the Blue Flag was for as Sergio Canamasas ruins Jolyon Palmer's race. Meanwhile, Jon Lancaster wins completing the British sweep in GP2 this weekend.

Pirelli *sigh* what is there to say? Well FIA, you get what you ask for.

EDIT (8:44 AM EST): Green Flag, fingers clossed. 

MAD respect for Webber, Hamilton, Massa, and Di Resta this race!

EDIT: Also fantastic job by Mercedes GP, took on the one of the hardest track on tires and won, and it would have been a 1-2 if it weren't for Pirelii's rubber bombs. 

Good race, shame about the tyres but having the field mixed up at the end worked really well from a spectators point of view.

DoTD: Hard to call on this one, Di Resta did a great job, so did Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, Massa, and Alonso (and others). Going to go with Rosberg for keeping Webber away at the end and doing a good job to win the race in challenging conditions (multiple safety cars, tyres deflating etc).

SoTD: Webber, got knocked back early on (not going to go on the Grosjean hate train that seems to be running again today as it seemed like a first corner incident to me). Having damage early on, he took the race on and challenged and even overtook Alonso!

FoTD (fools of the day): Mixed choice, between Lotus once again proving they do not know what a pit stop is and how to manage them (getting Raikonnen out ahead of Alonso after the first pit stop round or maybe second one was a good one, but what the heck at not pitting under the safety car condition when everybody around you is doing, nothing gained at all from that). The other choice would be the crowd cheering when Vettel retired, poor taste, good sportsmanship from him to wave to the crowd afterwards (same with how Button handled it last year in Italy when he retired from the lead). It is a shame when this occurs as this is not sporting from the crowd at all.

Coverage of the day: Listening to the early laps on my radio as I was out of the house and hearing "Grosjean is moving over for Raikkonen OH MY WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!! Vergne tyre burst". That awkward moment where you think has Grosjean just took out Raikonnen.

The other choice would be the crowd cheering when Vettel retired, poor taste

Garfield360UK

Nah, that was PSPAddict, he was just THAT loud.

DotD: Lewis Hamilton

SotD: Mark Webber

SftWRotD (Star for the Wrong Reason of the Day): Pirelli

 The other choice would be the crowd cheering when Vettel retired, poor taste, good sportsmanship from him to wave to the crowd afterwards (same with how Button handled it last year in Italy when he retired from the lead). It is a shame when this occurs as this is not sporting from the crowd at all.

Garfield360UK

The crowd in Singapore did the same thing last year when Hamilton retired. I was there. 

Ah that sucks, I get people want locals to win or people have a dislike of Vettel or whoever, but it is not sporting to me to cheer when people retire.Garfield360UK

Yeah it was uncomfortable (me being a McLaren fan and all). I'll admit I was more than a little pleased when Vettel retired though.

Certainly made for captivating viewing. I really was wondering whether the race would get red flagged on safety grounds after 3 tyre blowouts in such a short space of time. Massa's was pretty much on the corner, but Hamilton, and certainly Vergne were much farther down the straight, approaching top speed before the tyre gave way.

I was happy for Mark to make it onto the podium, something the crowd seemed to agree with, and despite the circumstances even happier that he wasn't sharing the podium with Seb. Considering how Mark's race started - the familiar collision with Grosjean he did very well to make a podium out of it. Hamilton also doing very well after his blowout to make it that far into the points.

Di Resta also had a strong afternoon after yet another disaster in quali - just think what he could do if he could actually start top 10 for once!!

I think the BBC did well to get Gary Anderson down to the corner he thought was causing the issues to present his thoughts about what might be causing the issue.

Much as I dislike that over-rated German I think it is in bad taste to cheer when a mechanical problem forces a retirement.

Was it an entertaining race? Yes.

Did the result keep the championship interesting? Yes

Was I happy with the result? Yes

Would I have preferred Hamilton to win? Of course

Do I think Pirelli need a kick in a*** for those tyres? Yes - I was horrified to see bits of tyre land on Kimi during the race.

DotD: Hamilton - did everything right only to be let down by the tyre

SotD: Webber - after a bad start recovered well and I was out of my chair screaming for him to catch Nico in the closing laps!

Dang. Avenger, SadPS3 & kingdre could be on for a big points haul today. di Resta at the back and all...Redders1989

di Resta proved to be the highest scoring driver for this round due to him gaining 12 places, but combining him with Alonso and Hamilton, instead of Vettel or Raikkonen was key.

Results now posted in the other thread.

Cause of Pirelli's tyre blowout issues revealed:

Another shoutout to Lewis Hamilton, who became the 5th driver to score 1,000 career points in the race today.

That said, Michael Schumacher is the only one to have done it before the 2010 points regulations. 

I don't quite get the Only Fools and Horses joke, Redders.

I felt that the crowd booing Vettel for taking the lead was even worse, what was he supposed to do? Stop and let everyone past? Anyway, those tyre incedents were shocking. Vergne's was pretty terrifying. Other than that though that was one exciting race.

DotD: Rosberg did no wrong, I think that even if Vettel was still in the race Rosberg would have won.

SotD: Probably Di Resta for another great race from the back, that said the safety cars did benefit him and Hamilton quite a lot. EDIT: scratch that, Massa had a sensational drive that I didn't notice until I re watched the race on iPlayer, I'd say he had it worse than Hamilton being in a less competitive car, fantastic drive from so far back.

Quote of the day: JB on stage after the race, when he was asked if his bad season so far was character building he replied "it's not character building. It's crap." 

Just learned that Alonso's first pit stop was due to a tyre deflation (how come he only gets a deflation, huh Pirelli?) - anyway, that means affected:

Puncture: Hamilton, Massa, Vergne, Gutierrez, Perez.
Deflation: Alonso.
Pitted before major damage: Vettel, Rosberg.

EIGHT different drivers were affected by the tyre problems in the race. 

Just back from Silverstone. What a race! And such a nice atmosphere. Shame I missed all the fun here :PAlberto1978

Nice atmosphere? Where did you sit? :P my bit (Luffield) booed Vettel for not having a tyre blowout and had a standing ovation upon his retirement, which for me in my Vettel cap and RBR shirt was a bit awkward (although that was to be expected I guess)... 

[QUOTE="Alberto1978"]Just back from Silverstone. What a race! And such a nice atmosphere. Shame I missed all the fun here :Psambob530

Nice atmosphere? Where did you sit? :P my bit (Luffield) booed Vettel for not having a tyre blowout and had a standing ovation upon his retirement, which for me in my Vettel cap and RBR shirt was a bit awkward (although that was to be expected I guess)...

I was in Village, and the people there were very civil, I assume mostly because that's the only damn place where threre isn't a decent screen nearby :P (though, I admit that added a certain spice to the whole thing).

About people booing Vettel, I'm more than used to people booing my favorite pilots, I lived that during the Schumi era, then more than once with Alonso, and now Vettel. When you realize they booed him because he's destroying their favorite pilots, I can't help but laugh :P