If all this moving does happen then this year will be a wash out. Lots of unreliability for certain manufacturers and presumably red Bull running away with another two titles.

no uncertanty at ferrari... I expect them to be a bigger challenge this year as they are not starting out from miles behind this time I wouldn't rule out button at mcclaren either ...

my hope is Mark Webber does it this time round if red bull have to win!

looking forward to next year with the big regs changes

I'd love Webber to do well but that moron Helmut Marko would put stop to that. Vet tel is the only one who is allowed to win titles in that team now. Nando was fantastic last year and if Ferrari get a good start they should be good. Same goes for Lotus now Kimi has got his eye in again and Grosjean is fast when not crashing.

There's rumours that Paddy Lowe whose currently at McLaren is off to Mercedes so could hurt McLaren. Who knows how they will take it plus there's still Checo to sort out. Him and Jensons styles are similar so should make car setup easier.

My main concern is Mercedes. They are throwing lots of money at this and I fear I might not work. Toyota did the same then pulled the plug when it didn't work. There's also talk of them getting rid of Ross Brawn. If they do this is madness. Wonder if Lauda has anything to do with this. All he did was **** stir when running Jaguar and we all know what happened there. What's left of that team is now Red Bull.

The whole situation is very interesting on a number of levels, most notably that Lauda's attempts at team management haven't exactly been brilliant have they!

WIll the Lowe deal actually go ahead? Has anything actually been signed? Do Merc actually need Lowe? They have been acquiring talent right, left and centre and at one point had 5 former technical directors on their books including Brawn, Bob Bell and Geoff Willis - me thinks there are more cooks than required.

Another good point is that last year Merc changed their team name from "Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team" to "Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team". As we all know AMG is the performance side of the Mercedes group, and was was acquired from its founder Hans-Werner Aufrecht in 1999. At that time it was agreed that AMG’s motor racing department would be transferred into a new company called HWA (Aufrecht’s initials). However, Aufrecht sold his remaining shares of AMG to Mercedes in 2005 and the following year he floated about 17% of HWA, while also bringing in outside investors, namely Qatar’s Nasser Bin Khaled (NBK) Holding, plus two private investment companies Dorflinger Privatstiftung (15 percent) and MarchSixteen Finance, the latter belonging to Toto Wolff (12 percent). Aufrecht kept 28 percent and so Wolff, Dorflinger and Aufrecht still controlled a majority of the business.

Around the same time as this, there was some interest at HWA to create an F1 team and they did consider buying Scuderia Toro Rosso, with the aim being to use customer McLarens. The feeling is that Mercedes is preparing the way for a possible departure as a team owner, if things do not improve. It is easier to slip the team into HWA ownership (seen as safe hands in Stuttgart) without it being seen as a retreat, as the company could probably justify this on the grounds of some convoluted form of compliance as a listed company. If the team is successful then Mercedes can take the glory.

Elsewhere in F1, Pirelli have promised a "revolution" in F1 during 2013 - read that as more pit stops. The softer compound gives around 0.5s per lap improvements whilst giving more thermal degradation meaning teams will probably have to pit twice as a minimum. The news is that the turn in will be sharper on the 2013 tyres and that mid corner stability will be better thereby meaning drivers can put the power down quicker.

Install randomly controlled water sprinklers around all tracks and leave everthing else the same. The season would be awsome and Button would win.

On a more serious note - are teams really going to spend that much on 2013's car seeing as most of the technology cant be transfered into 2014 due to the dramatic reg changes.

Certainly regarding engines this would apply but i dare say there will be massive chassis and aero restrictions and changes as well rather than just bolting a different engine in. Only me speculating as i dont know the full extent of development reg changes.

If so 2013 may end up being stangnent as teams put most of their eggs in the 2014 cars development basket.

What's your name - Bernie? That's something he suggested!

I would have thought the bigger teams wil continue to spend the vast majority of their huge budgets on the current season and review throughout the year depending upon success. There would be little point spending vast amounts if you are out of the title race.

Certainly most of the teams are already working on the 2014 cars - Merc especially considering that's way Lewis moved to them, to have a car built from scratch for him.

In terms of the new 2014 regs, there is little known aside from:

• 1.6L V6 engines with 8 speed gearboxes; limited to 15k rpm
  
• KERS must be incorporated into the engine design, and is to give 161hp power for 33 secs (as opposed to 80 bhp for 6 seconds as present)
  
• Cars will carry no more than 100kg of fuel, 30% less than this year
  
• Exhaust outlet position will change - will angle upwards towards rear wing as opposed to downwards towards the rear diffuser
  

I would have thought the bigger teams wil continue to spend the vast majority of their huge budgets on the current season and review throughout the year depending upon success. There would be little point spending vast amounts if you are out of the title race.

As they've always done so should be fine. We don't how and if Lowe will move but I don't think we'll have any problems having a good season

I like the "of unlimted size" bit lol.....

I like the "of unlimted size" bit lol.....

Unlimited turbo = wow. Only 5 engines per season may well keep the turbos under control somewhat though plus the limit on available fuel per race. Will be interesting to see what route the teams go in relation to the turbos.

Any word on aero restrictions as this is where red bull basically won the championship last year and before? i.e Are they planning on making rear or front wings smaller to enable closer racing? I know DRS has helped eliminte the turbulence issue some what but its still there in mid to high speed corners. I would rather all wings were removed and they then relied on pure mechanical grip.

Edited 24 January, 201313 yr by Jockdooshbag

Unlimited turbo = wow. Only 5 engines per season may well keep the turbos under control somewhat though plus the limit on available fuel per race. Will be interesting to see what route the teams go in relation to the turbos.

Any word on aero restrictions as this is where red bull basically won the championship last year and before? i.e Are they planning on making rear or front wings smaller to enable closer racing? I know DRS has helped eliminte the turbulence issue some what but its still there in mid to high speed corners. I would rather all wings were removed and they then relied on pure mechanical grip.

They would probably flip upside down worse than the lemans cars do without any rear wing they would effectively become very bad glider.

You would also have to change all the other formula's as F2 would probably be quicker than an F1 car with no rear wing.

Any word on aero restrictions as this is where red bull basically won the championship last year and before? i.e Are they planning on making rear or front wings smaller to enable closer racing? I know DRS has helped eliminte the turbulence issue some what but its still there in mid to high speed corners. I would rather all wings were removed and they then relied on pure mechanical grip.

For 2013, the teams have to adhere to more stringent front wing deflection tests to prevent them from using flexible bodywork to enhance aerodynamic performance, I'm not aware that the wing sizes will be changed though. The stepped noses will disappear this year as the minimum height has been increased - it affects all teams except McLaren who have historically always ran with a very lower nose. The min car weight has been increased aswell to compensate for the increased weight of the 2013 tyres.

However, when 2014 arrives all the bodywork regulations, originally aimed at reducing downforce and drag for increased efficiency, reverted to the 2012 specification?

Lotus are the first team to unveil their 2013 car and it looks remarkably like last years.

In launching they have set themselves a minimum target of third in the constructors championship and the changes to the car add up to a significant amount of performance.

The design has some echoes of Red Bull/Sauber in it, with bigger turning vanes on the bottom of the brake ducts and front sidepods. Last year RB's exhaust gases were guided out and through a gap between the floor and the wheels to generate downforce, Lotus have taken a similar approach in this car but It's not possible to tell from the pictures whether they have also guided the air through a hole in the floor.

Although the teams have the option to do away with the stepped nose, Lotus have kept it on this car perhaps to assist to channelling the air round the front.

From the front the car looks very good with the red bits on the front wing. Lots moaning about about the colour scheme but these people need to get a grip. I couldn't care less about the colour as long as it's fast and Kimi can win in it. Other Lotus news includes a certain Nicolas Prost as a development driver.

The big thing in 2014 will be reliability. With only 5 engines (sorry power units) allowed it could end up being a nightmare. Sure the turbo can be as big as it wants but that's more heat and potentially more problems. Tyres are supposed to be 0.5s quicker per lap across the board but won't last as long forcing at least two stops

3rd in the championship may be an issue with Grosjean still in the second car. Far too inconsistent.

@ Martyn - Yeah heard the Prost rumour the other day, have they confirmed it now? Wonder if they are looking to replace Grosjean next season depending on how his demolition driving goes this year?

@ IMT - totally agree, he is a liability but no doubt has points on his superlicence which will be taken into account come his first incident. First corner Melbourne?

Ferrari are calling their 2013 car the F138 - 13 for the year and 8 because it's the last of the V8s.

McLaren car is launched today.

link for the launch here

link for the launch here

Why bother; it's going to look like someone took an Enstone and repainted it silver instead of black!

Edited 31 January, 201313 yr by KenONeill

Why bother; it's going to look like someone took an Enstone and repainted it silver instead of black!

Why bother posting if you've got nothing of value to add? Some are clearly interested in it

I'd be interested in the video if it didn't say "this video is private"

Yeah lots are kicking up a fuss about that. It was a live stream so I'm guessing it will get re uploaded at some point. Enjoyed the bit on Bruce McLaren and all the old racers. The half hour build up was pointless though

MP4-4 is best car in F1 history (but that's another thread entirely!!!)

Great launch, just watched the highlights. Nice reference to Lewis I thought.

Nice looking car, interesting that they've gone for push rod suspension ala Ferrari some years back.

EDIT: Presenter wasn't bad either!

i just hope it's fast and reliable. It will never be like the MP4-4 but anything near it would be good. I'm just getting sick of the Red Bull fan smugness. If either Kimi or a McLaren wins the WDC this year I'll be very happy

Bang on the money Martyn - time for someone to knock RB & Vettel off their collective perch!

One of them had the cheek to call me a casual fan because I thought Jenson's win in Canada was a great victory. Obviously there have been better but really? Bitter much?