To be fair (to those responsible for last years car), I suppose they were always on a hiding to nothing as long as they were relying on Ferrari's dodgy wind tunnel.

I was pretty amazed by how quickly Ferrari seemed to come good last year, within a couple of months of moving development to the Toyota (?) wind tunnel.
Massa, particularly, must've been getting to the point where he was starting to think he'd actually forgotten how to drive a racing car and it'll be nice to see him back on form this year in a decent car.

I doubt we'll ever know but it'd be interesting to see some data that shows just how far out of whack the Ferrari wind-tunnel was; that if the wind-tunnel predicted a front wing would give 600kg of downforce and it actually only gave 350kg in reality, or whatever.

Also, related to Massa, I wonder if there'd be anything to be learned from looking at last years results and considering what might have been different if Massa was more comfortable in the car?

I mean, if you look at Vettel's results, he does seem to have a habit of either finishing in the top 4 or finishing nowhere but there were 4 races last year where, realistically, Massa might have finished ahead of him and taken points off him.

If Ferrari can start more strongly this year and Massa can finish ahead of Vettel once in a while, Alonso could be in with a shout this year.

While I'm at it, there's also a likelihood that the reverse will be true at McLaren.
Maybe I'm wrong but I doubt Perez will be taking many points off the big players so if Button wants to be WDC he's going to have to do it all himself.

You do have a valid point about the wind tunnel. It certainly hindered Ferrari a hell of a lot. Certainly more than the three points Alonso lost the title by.

Massa certainly drove well for the later part of the season. Considering the extra pressure he was under he did do a great job. His experience certainly shone through. As other drivers that were fighting for a race seat this year, they simply couldnt lift their game.

I think with very little change in the rules this year, that RB will come out with a very good car and Vettlel will be hard to beat. I certainly hope not. However not changing the rules much from last year is giving Newey (and thus RB) a huge advantage IMO. I have a feeling that Vettel may well win this championship fairly easily, not as easily as 2011 mind you. I would much rather a closer battle like last year but I cant see it.

As for Perez I will be interesting to see how he does. I would agree that he wont take too many points of the big players. I think he may manage a podium though.

My predictions for the 2013 championship Vettel, Alonso, JB, Kimi

Sutil has had a seat fitting at Force India, FI saying he may take part in testing and I imagine that would be with a view to him returning. I'd personally have preferred if they went for a younger driver but at least it isn't Karthikeyan...

At the risk of flogging a dead horse, have his "problems" in China been sorted out now?

I thought his "problems" were in Shanghai. If you are on about his altercation with a team boss (or a high ranking team official), then yes they have been sorted out. So he will be able to race with no problems.

Shanghai is in China.

I thought he was wanted by the Shanghai police for assault after the malarkey in a nightclub?

Of course it is...silly me, had a blonde moment. I remember reading that had been sorted out. I believe he was in Shanghai during the race last year.

Ah, goodo.

I'm not really a big fan of Sutil (for some reason he strikes me as a bit arrogant although I admit I'm not sure why ) but he's clearly more worthy of an F1 seat than some of the other candidates.

I had the same impression of him after the disgraceful behaviour at Interlagos in 2009.

Lewis Hamilton is appearing on Top Gear tomorrow Sunday trying to beat Vettel's time in a reasonably priced car. Should be good - Sunday 17 February BBC2 8pm.

Be interesting to see how that turns out.

He did okay last time but, IIRC, the track was wet and oily.

When this season of TG kicked off, the first thing I noticed was the clip of LH driving the Lianna on what looked like a dry track.

I'd put money on Hamilton to beat Vettel's time.

There are rumours all over the internet about it on Twitter, but I won't do a spoiler here.

Ah, if only F1 used Suzuki Liana's, eh?

Just seen this on SS, very sad for DC and his family.

http://news.sky.com/story/1049964/f1...ter-found-dead

Was last week. Funeral was last Saturday; attended by DC and the rest of the BBC F1 team.

Not the best start for Williams and Caterham...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21508634

Maybe a little harsh but I think Williams are displaying a rather old-fashioned attitude towards rule-bending there.

The rules say they're not allowed to "enclose" the exhaust exit so they think "Aha! If we enclose it but then cut a slot in the enclosed section it's not actually 'enclosed' is it?!"
Come on, that's a level of slipperiness that might have worked in the 1970s but did you really think you'd get away with that today?

Can't really agree. It's only last year that the tyre squirt slots were made legal by the addition of a hair thin slit joining them to the floor edge, thus making the slot not an enclosed hole. Williams may have been justified in thinking that they were following the same principle.

Blimey!

Where'd THIS come from?

At the launch we had Gary Anderson being very complimentary about the car and Button, himself, seemed rather smug about the "new direction" this years car was going in and, after the first test, it seemed to be amongst the best.

I kind of got the impression, reading between the lines, that Button was saying "For the last couple of years I've had to drive a car designed to suit Lewis and now I'm finally getting to drive something designed to suit me" and yet now he seems to be saying it's a bit of a mess and he's not sure if their design philosophy was correct.

Bit of a change of heart in the last 3 weeks.
Unless he's just "managing expectations" as the spin-doctors would put it.

I have a sneaking suspicion, its a bit of bluff. Let it out that you are weak, and then put the car on the front row in Australia. You cant really read too much into comments by drivers and the performance of the cars. You dont know what loads the teams are testing, or if they are trying different things. I would be surprised if Mclaren isnt up their come Australia.

Isn't that what Ferrari did last year. They complained about the car and hey presto!

Yeah,

Hey Presto, it sucked just as big donkey balls as they predicted... until they figured out that their wind tunnel was dodgy.

Looks more and more like Sutil will be confirmed any day now with Bianchi's manager confirming Bianchi has missed out.

Marussia is now the most bizarre, the dispute with Razia is ongoing and Chilton has stepped into the car today (again). Apparently, there are reports (starting in Sweden) that Kovalainen may end up testing. Most likely rubbish (what was the point of getting rid of Glock?)

Or as it turns out, even sooner than that: http://www.forceindiaf1.com/news/det...s-2013-line-up

And Marussia have replaced Razia with Bianchi so we should now have the drivers who will start the season...