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F1 Testing Begins for 2013

Posted by Rory

Testing for the 2013 Formula 1 season began earlier this morning at the Circuito de Jerez in Spain. This is a stable year in terms of regulations, not much has changed since 2012. This [should] mean a closer field and some desperate development avenues for the Big 5. Red Bull is [still] clearly the team to beat coming of of their 3rd straight Constructors Championship & WDC after a down-to-the-wire finish at Interlagos in Brazil.

The offseason proved to be the biggest driver shakeup in recent memory, the most sizable of which was Lewis Hamilton making a shock exit at McLaren and forcing Michael Schumacher at Mercedes into his 2nd [and hopefully final] retirement. This inevitably caused a ripple effect to many of the teams and drivers below scrambling to fill – and find – seats, and left one of my favorite drivers on the grid, Kamui Kobayashi, hung out to dry sadly. How all the big money in Japan let this happen, I don’t know. Hope to see him back next year, maybe with a Honda sticker on his helmet.

With some interesting packaging choices and a new Pirelli tire, I’m personally hugely anxious to see how everyone’s form fares over the next few weeks. All teams will be in attendance, the only caveat being that Williams will be running their 2012 spec car in order to finish preseason preperations in time for the next test in Barcelona. Missing from the grid this year is perennial backmarker HRT who folded at the conclusion of last season. Rumour has it that some idiots here stateside are looking to buy in, however, and if that’s truly the case I’ve got a bridge to sell them as well…

Check out all the 2013 challengers after the jump.

17 Comments Leave A Comment

1

Marc says:

February 5, 2013 at 5:39 am

Thanks Rory – that may be the first F1 meme I have ever seen.. hilarious! It also amazes me that half the teams stuck with those hideous stepped noses.

I will miss HRT.. they were so much easier to photograph than the faster cars.

2

Charlie says:

February 5, 2013 at 5:54 am

Big lifetime F1 fan here and I appreciate the roundup, but I think that Williams thing is in really poor taste. First thing I’ve ever seen on this blog that gives me pause.

4

Rory says:

February 5, 2013 at 9:37 am

What about it makes you uncomfortable, Charlie? Perhaps you’re seeing this out of context, it’s been floating around for the past week. When asked about the combination of not having a prepared car, Toto Wolf exiting, and such a green driver line-up, Frank responded jokingly that he’d drive the car himself if he had to. It’s not making fun of anything. We all know he’s disabled, himself included. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the guy as does anyone who’s follows the sport. Williams have yet to publish any photos of their 2013 car. I thought it was a funny and topical placeholder until they turn up to the track with something. My apologize if you disagree. Nevertheless, I have removed the image you have found offensive, as I’d hate for it to leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Best,

Rory

5

Rory says:

February 5, 2013 at 9:48 am

The stepped nose never bugged me! I think it makes it looks like an X-Wing :) although the Ferrari and McLaren do look incredible.

6

Matture Cheddar says:

February 5, 2013 at 10:02 am

Im sorry, I don’t mean to be negative but what with the F1 post?

It’s completely out of step with the rest of this blog…

“Driver shake ups” “Pirelli tires”. Whaaaat?…

I could understand at a stretch if we were looking at the aesthetics but we’re not

Surely there are F1 blogs for this sort of thing…

I don’t like people that write negative posts but I had to say something.

7

Rory says:

February 5, 2013 at 10:04 am

@C42D – We’re all here on the blog to post about things we’re passionate about. Formula 1 and sports car racing is one of those things for me. What’s the “point” of any sport? To run the fastest? Kick the ball? This is one of the only sports these days where the athletes aren’t brimming with performance enhancing drugs, and the technology they develop for their cars [in fuel effieciency, aerodynamics, and crash safety] ends up in your prius next year. So as I see it, it’s one of the only sports that have ANY point, whatsoever.

What are you passionate about?

8

Rory says:

February 5, 2013 at 10:10 am

@Cheddar – I was mindful of that, and added a click through [which shows, at length, the design of all the 2013 cars]. If you don’t like it, feel free to scroll on by.

9

Charlie says:

February 5, 2013 at 11:09 am

Hey Rory — I’m sure that the Williams image was/is all in good fun, and I certainly do understand the message. I would say, though, that it could be interpreted as poking fun at the wheelchair-bound. In any case, no harm/no foul, and I do respect your pulling the image down.

And, anybody who can’t see the functional/aesthetic art in use here needs to open their eyes a little wider. Isn’t that what iso50 is all about? I hope to see more of this in the future (love the Livery series as well!)

10

Rory says:

February 5, 2013 at 11:36 am

Thanks for the support, Charlie. I have always been fascinated with the design and evolution of motorsports, it amazes me how far things have come in only a few decades. But to people who don’t follow, perhaps an image gallery of random cars they have no connection to could be seen as out of place on a design/music blog. Therefore, I always try to provide a little bit of context/back story to help put it all in perspective, and to invite the uninitiated to join in on what I feel is truly an amazing sport. However, you can’t please everyone.

And to the rest of the confused folks stopping by [and I do sincerely appreciate the dialogue that occurs in the comments]- Scott himself started the trend of posting about well designed cars on the blog many years ago. The Mercedes C-111 is only one that comes to mind. Once I started playing drums for Tycho and we discovered our mutual interest, I was encouraged to make it a semi-weekly feature. My only incentive being that it is simply something I enjoy researching and writing about.

Cheers,

Rory

11

Swade says:

February 5, 2013 at 12:47 pm

Great post. Fantastic cars, and a lot of people who don’t understand F1. Most of the innovations in cars go through F1 first. Love F!.

12

Scott says:

February 5, 2013 at 2:02 pm

@C42D – First off let me say that I couldn’t care less about sports, particularly motorsports. But saying should racing should “go away” because it’s wasteful is being a bit shortsighted. The space program is extremely wasteful but yields technologies and data that benefit us every day. F1 is no different; top engineers working toward ever increasing levels of efficiency and safety. Technologies derived from F1 no doubt effect you on a daily basis. Fuel injection, for one, is a technology developed for F1 which then found its way into consumer cars, making them more fuel efficient. Traction control is another, probably saves thousands of lives a year. I’m sure the list goes on but you get the idea. I guess my point is there are far more wasteful things in this world that have no benefit to us, focusing on motorsports is kind of not seeing the forest for the trees.

14

NedBinder says:

February 6, 2013 at 11:17 am

Hydraulic quick release single nut spinners are going to be huge this year, sub 2second stops all day!(decode that)
Love the F1 on iso50!
Scott, how close are you on the new portfolio?

Cheers!

15

thekidd says:

February 6, 2013 at 5:10 pm

Thank guys as always. I think this Formula 1 post is money . It definitely is an art-form and falls in line with the over feel and postings of the site as a whole .

See You in Austin

16

Rory (Another One!) says:

February 7, 2013 at 1:58 am

While I was a little shocked to see an F1 post on anything but an F1 blog or the BBC, I think it’s fantastic!

As a Canadian F1, it’s really nice to see “other” sports showing up outside of their normal context.

Perhaps a post highlighting the evolution of the various team’s liveries? I think it would help those non-F1 fans gain a bit of interest.

As an aside, I think Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen are going to surprise some people this year.

17

Alex says:

February 13, 2013 at 9:43 am

I like the livery evolution idea Rory (AO)! Always loved looking through the different ways designers flowed the liveries with their respective cars for the coming year.