Celebrating Five Glorious Years of Heikki Kovalainen: Formula 1 in 2012

I thought Massa was going to cause a helluva mess there.

He was attempting Pastorality

If you like Lewis Hamilton's Twitter, then good news for you in 2013: he'll be tweeting a lot more from back in the midfield.

Also: Sergio Perez is set to become a) the Mexican Senna or b) the Mexican Kovalainen.

And here's an exclusive sneak preview of Michael Schumacher's car for next season:

http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2008/12/Schumacher_450x300.jpg

I keep singing "pastor maldonado left-hand side" to the tune of "pass the dutchie" every time his name is mentioned, I'm really starting to annoy myself.

Schumacher will land at Sauber and have one final glorious season. Mark my words.

"Hello, may I speak to Herr Marussia about a business proposal for 2013..."

Can we get Schumacher in the Ferrari for one year? Someone needs to bump Massa.

Yeah no word from Ferrari, they *have* to announce *something* soon here, don't they?

I think next year is going to suck mightily for Lewis, but 2014 could be good for him when they introduce the 1.6L turbo ters/kers V6. Happy for Perez who absolutely deserves this, and for Jenson and Whitmarsh who will no longer have to deal with tantrums and endless bitching. I think LH is a little batty, anyway, his reactions on camera to winning are so weird and guarded. It's as if his successes aren't as real to him as his disappointments, like blaming others engages him more.

Schumi should really get a gig testing cars, I can see him making sure roll cages work on track, for instance ...

Yeah no word from Ferrari, they *have* to announce *something* soon here, don't they?

di resta is on dis ting no hype

I endorse that message

If I were anywhere near Schumi on track I would be sweating since you know he's going to be a monster trying to get one last win before he vanishes and becomes a commentator and triathlete or something

Meaning that he would likely shove me into a wall

lol Hamilton btw. just generally.

Mr E's timing here is ... interesting

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has revealed that controversial environmentally-friendly new engines which are due to be introduced to the sport in 2014 are likely to be scrapped. He says the move will save the teams as much as 30% of their projected budgets, which will help them stay in business during the economic downturn.

HUGE MASSIVE NEWS:

While Psy was in the US, it was announced that he, as ambassador of the Formula One Korean Grand Prix, will perform "Gangnam Style" at the event during the 2012 edition.

And, er, in lesser news, Schumacher has announced that he's retiring again.

it's a minor miracle that a 43 year old can get into a modern F1 car and be solid. any other driver who wasn't schuey would've been at the back. doesn't make the comeback a success - some of the mistakes have been pretty dumb - but he always over-drove a shit car, you know? which points to the real issue. it does make me think ross brawn is an absolute genius for selling out to merc at percisely the right time.

to play devil avocado, you can look at the car being bad and ask why he couldn't galvanise everybody around him in the same way he did during the ferrari years to improve things, but it's a different time. if merc thought he'd be able to do that again they were kidding themselves.

Devil avocado? I'll have to remember that one.

Classic 30 Rock.

So is the Mercedes car going to be competitive next year?

I can imagine it'll be like when alonso went back to renault - for the first half of next season they can probably rely on hamilton's raw pace to get them up in threatening positions, from which point he'll either get podiums or blow the car up trying. we'll know by then if they've got the car properly together.

at least they have someone to focus development around now - you can develop a car around hamilton's taste because he's a world champion and has years left in his career, unlike schumacher (they took an each-way bet between schuey and rosberg without getting behind either and it's why the car is no good, imo).

rosberg will be finished at merc by this time next year.

Ah, okay. I had read somewhere that they weren't expecting the Mercedes to be competitive until 2014, and even then it was based on some supposed new regulations that I think might have been scrapped. Can't recall where I read that.

that's probably right as far as a real title challenge goes.

rosberg will be finished at merc by this time next year.

Rosberg has the potential to fit the role of dependable second banana quite well so if he doesn't mind being LewHaw's lackey (and they are solid bros, remember dat), I reckon he will be kept around if he doesn't suddenly start driving off the road every second race.

xp Gukbe: Merc is one of the manufacturers of the 2014 PURE engine, so people imagine that would give them more of an advantage over the teams that just purchase engines. (Historically the manufacturer-teams are actually less successful aside from Ferrari, afaik)

Liked this piece positing a Coca-Cola/Monster/Mercedes/Hamilton brand promotion synergy

THANKS FOR COMING TO JAPAN, FERNANDO

Ahahaha, Grosjean is totally a law unto himself.

No, Sergio, you're not going to be allowed to do that in Uncle Ron's car.

lol who is this massa guy on the podium

/!\ Arrest warrant issued for Force India boss Vijay Mallya. /!\

Indian GP is in two weeks btw, we could see our first arrest in the F1 paddock since Andrea Moda's Andrea Sassetti got arrested for arson at the 1992 Belgian GP.

that'd be cool. But damn unlikely.

/!\ GROSJEAN DOESN'T HIT ANYONE AT THE FIRST CORNER /!\

He did manage to go off-track, through.

ASTROTURF

Psy waves the chequered flag and Lewis carries an astroturf scarf across the line. Well done, Korea.

http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/571/2012koreagangham.jpg

Aside from epic LH/Kimi battle this was very zzzzzz ...

Good on Massa, it must have been great for him to know he could have taken Alonso if need be.

Too late; didn't watch.

Heads up to all the US F1 fans here (only me!?), but NBC has picked up the broadcasting rights for the next four years.

me too! I hope they do a good job.

As long as they hire the Ghost of Chris Ekonomaki, all will be well.

Teams that won't win the 2013 Constructors' Championship: Ferrari

haha, kimi interviewed on the podium by coulthard affecting the classic nonchalant form; so laidback he's practically horizontal.

that really was some drive by vettel.

Was prepared for a really tedious race but it turned out to be the best of the year. I was screaming at the screen to PIT KIMI NOW before Alonso took him down. What a race. Kimi is Snake Plissken.

Agreed on Vettel's drive, that was amazing ... even if as LH said, he was the luckiest man alive. Even the things that went wrong for him eventually ended up helping him.

Happy to see: a serene Hamilton after he'd been eliminated, saying howdy to the pit; Rosberg and Karthikeyan both walking away from that crash, and being able to laugh about it.

I never watch F1 but happened to watch some last night. Man, that Abu Dhabi track is really cool looking!

Kimi's "Leave me alone" radio message was A+ Iceman.

Bob Hauk: Remember, once you're inside you're on your own.
Snake Plissken: Oh, you mean I can't count on you?
Bob Hauk: No.
Snake Plissken: Good!

The cherry on top of the weird podium scene was DC looking like he was this close to decking Vettel

So cool to finally see the cars driving around the Austin track.

I was all set to go to this then the price shock hit. Bascially my price estimates doubled and it became too much to bear.

;_: