Last season (2011), he had the best car on the grid by far. yet he wasnt able to make the most of it. He finished well over a 100 odd points behind Vettel. Last season, he was doing well for the first half. Very close to Vettel, and then Vettel just pulled away and Mark finished another 100 odd points behind Vettel.

He certainly doesnt put in a good performance for just one race. He seems to do well for only half a season. Just doesnt seem to be able to manage it for a full season.

It is a strange decision for Marko to air his views in public. Not something I would have done. I like Webber, seems one of the genuine nice guys on the grid.

I suppose I could say something about Alonso vs Massa but anyway......

Must say, despite obviously having the best car for the latter part of 2012, my opinion of Vettel increased last year.

When you looked at 2010 and then 2011 it was easy to think that Vettel was just good at pressing the "fast" pedal and relying on the scalextic-like grip of the blown diffusers to get him around the circuit and that, perhaps, Webber might do better (out of the two) if the car wasn't as good.

Obviously RBR are still doing clever things with diffusers which, perhaps, other teams aren't but, even so, 2012 seems to have shown that Vettel is capable of adapting to less than perfect conditions and coming out well ahead of Webber.

Webber has had some bad luck over the years but he can't go on blaming odd KERS failures for the overall trend.
Seems like he's a driver who has proper "favourite" tracks that he excels on and then just scrapes through the other races as best as he can.

Always thought Helmut Marko is a bit like Flavio Briattore though.
Seems like he's always up to something and everything he does is done with some ulterior motive or another so I guess, perhaps, his comments are designed to either give Webber a gee-up or, perhaps, remind Horner that Webber isn't the only option for next year.

2011 I'd put down to a bad year for Webber and a ridiculous year for Vettel. It is interesting that when the Red Bull isn't as dominant Webber is much closer to Vettel.

The most astonishing thing though is that Webber is now the oldest guy on the grid

And Jense is the most experienced

When I read these sorts of things coming from teams, I always ask myself, "what is the real message here?" With the level of media control and public relations employed by the average Formula One team, let alone an outfit such as Red Bull, they never do this without there being an underlying strategised agenda. So, I will look forward to the next installment and then we will get a flavour of the direction of this plan.

The difference is, of course, that, unlike Briatiorre, Marko is not a team principal. Christian Horner has overall control of what happens to the team, in terms of strategy etc. Marko, unless there is some sort of underhand dealings on the board, does not have that level of control.

Pedro de la Rosa has joined Ferrari to develop their new car. After all, he has experiance when it comes to Ferrari technology...

Some dates for car launches, winter testing and 2013 calendar.

Erm..........yes. Quite. Forgive and forget, apparently.

It's all just one big club, innit?

Two stories doing the rounds tonight (pending confirmation)

- Toto Wolff to effectively replace Norbert Haug at Mercedes.

- Timo Glock out at Marussia, possibly off to DTM.

Wolff has been confirmed.

Glock has also been confirmed as leaving for commercial reasons. Would have thought that if they were going with 1 pay driver and 1 non-pay driver, Chilton wouldn't have been given a contract but there you go.

One more seat just opened up, so that is one at Caterham, Force India and now at Marussia. I think Senna may just prolong his F1 career.

Eddie Jordan now suggesting that Ross Brawn (and Fry) are to be ousted from Merc. And that Paddy Lowe is going there from Mclaren.

Do we believe EJ? He gets a lot of stick for what some see as wild ideas, but I tend to trust him nowadays, after forecasting Schumies return, and, of course, Hamilton to Merc. In fact, when you think of it, he's rarely wrong about anything to do with Mercedes. I wonder who he knows, there. (Apart from everybody, of course!)

Yes. I often disagree with his opinions but he clearly has a lot of contacts in the pit lane.

I wonder how Lewis will feel about this as I imagine the chance to work for Ross was one incentive for him to join. Unless this was planned in advance.

If Brawn and Fry have left, then Lewis didnt know about it. In the many interviews he gave, he always said Brawn had a bi influence on him going to Mercedes. If he wasnt already regretting his move, he will be now (if the news is true).

Not sure yet if Brawn is leaving or moving upwards, but if he does leave, where too, Mclaren ?

Moving upwards would seem, to me, to be another step on the road to chaos. Takes Brawn away from his main area of expertise - at the sharp end - and adds him to the growing band of overseers. Wolff, Lauda, Lowe (according to EJ, more senior than tech direc), and now Brawn?

Actually, I think Brawn has not been especially effective recently, not the TD he was, and getting rid of him would not be a very terrible thing. Sure, he's been constrained by a board which is not entirely committed to F1, but I don't get the feeling that he has the energy to inspire them to greater interest. I suspect that there are other areas, away from motor racing, that he'd like to spend time on.

Don't know who else could do the job. I think Merc are in a mess, really, and there's doom and eventual closure written all over them.

He wont be made team principal at Mclaren, so cant see him going there. It would be a step down for him.

He may well walk away from the sport. Hes 58, I doubt hes short of money. So could have a very nice retirement.

Like you say, its not a done deal that he is leaving yet.

We've had the first car launch from Lotus, replay here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpeWS...ature=youtu.be

http://lotusf1team.com/-Chassis-E20-.html - some info and photos there

So, Caterham have announced Giedo van der Garde will be partnering Charle Pic. Think that is the end for both Heikki Kovalainen and Vitali Petrov.

MLcaren's lauch was yesterday and Ferrari and Force India unveiled their new cars. Very surprised that Force India haven't actually decided on the second/reserve drivers yet and might not until the second test at Barcelona. Seems odd to be taking so long...

The wing in the main picture looks huge!!

Anybody wee the Lotus steering wheel? Someone has a sense of humour at Lotus, probably Kimi!

Yes it is strange, only DiResta at the car launch. I think they are looking for a pay driver. Just having trouble finding one that can bring the amount of money they are looking for.

That's brilliant

The anti-mumble will probably need to be used a lot...

Sauber have unveiled their new car. Very interesting...

http://cdn.sauberf1.inm.ch/fileadmin..._banner_ls.jpg
http://cdn.sauberf1.inm.ch/fileadmin..._banner_ls.jpg

a) it's gorgeous, b) the nose is very different to the other teams.

I'm guessing that everyone has been so excited and glued to their screens , that nobody on here has mentioned that F1 2013 has kicked off today, with the first test in Jerez.

I, for one am very------->

Not a good start for Mercedes...

We also have the winner of the ugliest car award: Caterham. Their car looks awful. Not a fan of the Red Bull or the Lotus but the Caterham is terrible.

I love the Sauber and the McLaren (though I may be biased )