Martin Brundle's Supercars

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2013 Korean Grand Prix Preview

Last year the Korean Grand Prix was the race where Sebastian Vettel took the driver's championship lead from Fernando Alonso. He led with a few points but still it seemed that he was going to take the championship home for the third time.

This year Sebastian Vettel leads with even more points than last year so it isn't very hard to guess who is going to be champion again this year.

Let's talk more about the race and not the final result of the season.

Sebastian Vettel has always been very good on this track. In fact Vettel has won every single Korean Grand Prix that he has finished. In 2010 he got pole position, but got an engine failure in the race and retired. Fernando Alonso got the victory on a plate.

The statistics says that Vettel will win, so my guess is obviously that Vettel takes pole and wins the race if the Red Bull lasts till the finish line.

Last year Mark Webber took pole position in Korea so he is probably going to be high up on the grid as well. My guess is that he will be 2nd right after Vettel in the race and the qualifying. The track is obviously perfect for the Red Bulls. It seems that almost every track is perfect for the Red Bulls nowadays.

Statistically Fernando Alonso has also been good in Korea. I would have to guess that he will be third in the race but not in the qualifying. The qualifying will be more difficult for him but he will catch up in the race. Alonso is very similar to Kimi Räikkönen who usually finishes higher up than where he started.

My guesses again:

Pole position: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - Mark Webber will be close.

Race:

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Mark Webber, Red Bull
3. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - Another Grand Slam for the German world champion.

Surprise: Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus - You never know what this guy is capable of. The last race showed us that not even a serious back pain, no KERS and a bad starting position can stop him. I'm going to keep an eye on this guy. He will be close to the podium and if somebody messes up, of those three guys I mentioned earlier, Kimi will be right there and attack them with full force.

The track is very new so there isn't very much history, but every time they race here, I have seen some nice moves from several different drivers. This is going to be a good race even though the Red Bulls are making it boring in the front.

Korea has also had the most beautiful pit girls of the season and many years in a row, so if the race is boring then maybe they can save the day for some.

Rosberg, Hamilton and Kovalainen can't keep a poker face when they see the pit girls

F1 Legends - Alain Prost

One of the greatest.

This is Your Life: Murray Walker

Funny little video. Check it!

Lotus vs. Räikkönen

When Lotus offered Kimi Räikkönen a seat in the end of 2011 I was very glad. Formula One really needs a character like Kimi and the whole Lotus team seamed very happy to work with him. Many said that Kimi and Lotus were a very good match right from the start.

At the end of the winter testing Kimi was the fastest driver with his Lotus even though he had been away for 2 years.
Kimi was happy with the team. They had promised him a good car that can win races and a nice salary.

But then it seemed that the car wasn't as good as it was in the winter tests. In the first qualifying Kimi didn't even make it to Q2. Was there a problem with the car or did the team take him to the pits too early? Some said that Kimi wasn't as good as he used to be but somehow managed to finish 7th after all the complications.

In the next qualifying Kimi got to Q3 but was only 10th. In the race he managed to get 5th place.

The 3rd race was in China. There Kimi was driving towards his first podium after his comeback but Lotus didn't take him in to the pits in time and he lost it all. Kimi did his best but his team let him down.

In the 4th qualifying he was again only 11th but almost won the race. Why couldn't Lotus get Kimi's car to work properly on Saturdays?

After this Kimi drove like a superstar in almost every race and broke Michael Schumacher's consistency record, meaning that no other driver had scored so much points in a row before.

At the same time Kimi and many others in the team didn't get their salaries. Kimi had to fly to every GP with his own money and what I have heard even pay for his own hotel rooms from time to time. How many other drivers would or could do this?

Kimi said to Lotus that it's OK and told the media that there isn't any money issues with them. He was very loyal, Kimi even signed a new contract with them before he got his money from them.

At the end of 2012 Kimi got his award for the 3rd place in the drivers championship and also his money from Lotus at last. It seemed for a while that Lotus couldn't pay him at all. There were rumors in the media that Bernie Ecclestone himself had helped Lotus with their finance issues after 2012.

In 2013 Kimi started by winning the first Grand Prix in Australia and Lotus were sure that they will be Red Bulls biggest contender this season.

Then the money issues came back to haunt them. Some of the staff left the team when they realized that they are not going to get their money again this year in time. Kimi continued to race without getting paid. Lotus still owes Kimi over 20 million dollars.

When Ferrari offered Kimi a contract he really wanted to stay with Lotus but he wanted to win and also know that the team has money to make the car better the whole season. Of course he and his managers wanted to get paid also so that was one very good reason as well.

When Kimi and many others announced that they are leaving the team, Gerard Lopez told the media that he is disappointed and thought that Kimi wasn't in it for the money.

This comment made me want to open my mouth about this situation!

Is Gerard Lopez taking advantage of Kimi when he doesn't ask for his salary or is Lopez really that stupid that he thinks that Kimi only drives to get money?

If they promised Kimi a winning car with a salary and they can't give him nothing they promised then what is the big surprise? Lotus has clearly been "good" for the past two years almost only because of Kimi. If they would put another driver in the same car they would see the difference. I mean look at Grosjean! He is fast but he doesn't get good results and when he does the car has problems.

Why did Lopez blame everything on Kimi? What about all the other workers that wanted to leave?

Eric Boullier wasn't as harsh as Lopez but even he told the media that he was unhappy that Kimi had talked about the money issues. How many really believed that they had everything under control?
I knew all of this much before Kimi said anything. Wasn't it obvious?

The Lotus management even said that they took Kimi back into the sport and they gave him a new chance. This is not true because Kimi was talking with other teams at the same time. For example he was interested of buying a big share of Williams and race for the team at the same time. He wanted to drive for Lotus because they promised him a better car. Kimi's own mother said this to a newspaper in an interview and I believe that her information source (her son) is probably pretty reliable.

Lotus should stop crying and do something about the situation. If I was in their position I would wanna show Räikkönen that he made a huge mistake that he left the team and make the best car of 2014. Of course you need money to do that and Lotus doesn't have it.. and that's why Kimi left I guess..

Ayrton Senna asked McLaren for 1 million dollars per race and even though he was my biggest hero I know that he wouldn't have driven for free for anybody. Why is Kimi a bad guy for leaving Lotus?

Alan Jones Documentary- Legends of Formula One

This will keep you guys busy for a while..

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Have you heard of this movie yet? Can't wait to see this one!

Top Gear - Lotus T125 lesson with Jean Alesi

Jeremy Clarkson gets a driving lesson from former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi.

Every time I see that car I fantasize of having one of my own.

2013 Singapore Grand Prix Review

I would have to say that the heros of Singapore were Räikkönen and Alonso. A super start from Alonso and a great consistent race from Räikkönen.

It seemed that Vettel was unbeatable with his Red Bull, Alonso was the best of the rest and Räikkönen got the best possible result with the Lotus.

I already said on the F1 4 LIFE Facebook page that I must give some respect to Räikkönen for finishing third even though he had back pains, no KERS, a car that can't win races, started from 13th place and gets no money from driving. I can't wait to see what kind of results he can get with a Ferrari.

Statistically Räikkönen was more successful than Alonso at Ferrari but let's see what happens next year.

The race was a big disappointment for Grosjean. I really hoped that he could get some good results finally. Lotus could be happy though when Räikkönen saved the situation with the podium.

The other disappointment was Mark Webber's retirement. He had driven well but what can you do if the car doesn't last till the end. Funny how it always happens to Webber and not Vettel. What is he doing wrong or is the reason something else? Who knows?

Let's take a look at my guesses and the actual results. Here are my guesses:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton

The Top 3 on Sunday

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
3. Felipe Massa, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus

Surprise: Felipe Massa, Ferrari

And then the actual results:

Pole position: Sebastian Vettel

The Top 3 on Sunday

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus

Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

The surprise was supposed to be Massa and he did surprise by being faster than Alonso in qualifying. The real surprise was probably Räikkönen. I know he is a superb driver but I had no clue that he would be on the podium.

The TOP3 was 2 right out of 3. I said that Kimi would do the fastest lap but instead he was third. I had too much fate in Hamilton and Massa so you could say that they let me down. I hope that Massa will drive in a good team next year because at this point it could be even possible that he doesn't get a F1 seat at all.

2013 driver standings/points after the Singapore GP

1	Sebastian Vettel	German	Red Bull Racing-Renault	247
2	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	187
3	Lewis Hamilton	British	Mercedes	151
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	149
5	Mark Webber	Australian	Red Bull Racing-Renault	130
6	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	116
7	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	87
8	Romain Grosjean	French	Lotus-Renault	57
9	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	54
10	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	36
11	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	26
12	Sergio Perez	Mexican	McLaren-Mercedes	22
13	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Sauber-Ferrari	19
14	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	STR-Ferrari	18
15	Jean-Eric Vergne	French	STR-Ferrari	13
16	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Renault	1
17	Esteban Gutierrez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	0
18	Valtteri Bottas	Finnish	Williams-Renault	0
19	Jules Bianchi	French	Marussia-Cosworth	0
20	Charles Pic	French	Caterham-Renault	0
21	Giedo van der Garde	Dutch	Caterham-Renault	0
22	Max Chilton	British	Marussia-Cosworth	0

2013 team standings/points after the Singapore GP

1	Red Bull Racing-Renault	377
2	Ferrari	274
3	Mercedes	267
4	Lotus-Renault	206
5	McLaren-Mercedes	76
6	Force India-Mercedes	62
7	STR-Ferrari	31
8	Sauber-Ferrari	19
9	Williams-Renault	1
10	Marussia-Cosworth	0
11	Caterham-Renault	0

Formula1 2013 Singapore F1 Drivers Press Conference

Found this a bit late but anyway..

The Singapore Grand Prix race results

1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	61	1:59:13.132	1	25
2	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	61	+32.6 secs	7	18
3	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	61	+43.9 secs	13	15
4	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	61	+51.1 secs	2	12
5	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	61	+53.1 secs	5	10
6	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	61	+63.8 secs	6	8
7	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	61	+83.3 secs	8	6
8	6	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	61	+83.8 secs	14	4
9	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	61	+84.2 secs	11	2
10	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	61	+84.6 secs	15	1
11	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	61	+88.4 secs	18
12	12	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	61	+97.8 secs	10
13	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	61	+105.1 secs	16
14	18	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	61	+113.5 secs	12
15	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	60	Engine	4
16	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	60	+1 Lap	20
17	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	60	+1 Lap	22
18	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	60	+1 Lap	21
19	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	60	+1 Lap	19
20	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	54	Accident	17
Ret	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	37	Engine	3
Ret	19	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	23	Accident	9