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[bud]

My big worry is Lauda's finger in the mix. I'm not confident in him. But Whooo what interesting things Ar happening. Feels like a mega shift .just can't wait for this season to start!!!

Whatever they are doing, they better sort it out soon. The season effectively starts in 2 weeks... I'm a bit dissapointed with these changes actually, especially if Brawn is forced to leave. Niki Lauda just comes across as a big mouth to me, why he has so much power in the Merc camp is beyond me.

It seems to me they are trying to get a reshuffle together for the 2014 season, changes this close to car launches aren't good for the upcoming season.

[racechick]

I think there's a lot going on behind the scenes we don't know about. If it ends up with a fast car for Lewis I'll be happy . But I don't trust Lauda to make selfless decisions for the best of the team. He's a me me me man.

[Jabberwocky]

maybe Mercedes ordered the wrong size shirts and have now been up and down the paddock trying to find someone to fit in them.

[racechick]

or maybe their plan is recruit all the best drivers and engineers so the other teams don't have any.
Lowe was a big fan of Hamilton....maybe something there.

[LewEngBridewell]

maybe Mercedes ordered the wrong size shirts and have now been up and down the paddock trying to find someone to fit in them.

Imagine Lauda trying to fit into Norbert Haug's old shirt...

[Jabberwocky]

or maybe their plan is recruit all the best drivers and engineers so the other teams don't have any.
Lowe was a big fan of Hamilton....maybe something there.

that is one way to buy success, hire all the best people, pay them to sit around and do nothing. All the other teams have cars designed by totally talentless and pointless pair of nonces

[Nin-Chin]

Felipe Massa says he will "try everything" to get in front of Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso this year, after three seasons trailing the Spaniard in the standings.Massa scored less than half the points of Alonso in 2012 and faced criticism in the early part of the season as he struggled to get close to the pace of his team-mate. But the Brazilian insists the gap to Alonso is not as big as some people like to believe and he is determined to tip the scales in his favour this year."I think you are always comparing with strong drivers, you are in the top level in the world," he said in a Ferrari web chat. "Many people sometimes think maybe he's behind his team-mate by two tenths and sometimes people think it's negative, but you are in the top of the top in the world. Sometimes we forget that."I think when you are behind you need to work to be in front and that's what I'm doing. I will try everything to be in front of my team-mate, but also everybody is racing with me."He added that he would not be 100% happy until he is back at the front of the grid fighting for championships."Always when you are not in front of your team-mate, or whoever is racing with you, you are not 100% happy. You are only 100% happy when you are in front and winning the race, winning the championship or whatever. When you are in front is what makes you the most happy guy in the world."But I think having a strong team-mate makes you better as well. I think you learn a lot more and I think definitely when you are in a top team, for sure, you're going to have a strong team-mate; when you drive for Ferrari you're going to have a strong team-mate. This is what happened in all these years I have been racing for Ferrari, so I had Michael Schumacher, I had Kimi Raikkonen and I had Fernando Alonso."

[LewEngBridewell]

I think it's pretty certain that Alonso will remain ahead...

[What's Burning?]

It's not nice to say he'll remain ahead, I mean it is a disproportionately large head but I wouldn't say it's more than 1/6th of his body.

[LewEngBridewell]

It's not nice to say he'll remain ahead, I mean it is a disproportionately large head but I wouldn't say it's more than 1/6th of this body.

[Hammer278]

I think it's pretty certain that Alonso will remain ahead...

You never know. The Massa in the 2nd half of the season (despite getting almost no attention) was keeping ALonso on his toes...going back to level again, it will be his best chance to cause trouble for the Ferrari camp by troubling to their undisputed no.1 on track. I think he has the talent to do it. Alonso is overrated. A top driver no doubt, but overrated.

[andrew]

I think it's pretty certain that Alonso will remain ahead...

You mean Massa won't be allowed to get near.

[scotty]

Formula 1 - Analysis: F1's tech boss silly season
The attention of Formula 1 fans and media may have been focused pretty much entirely on developments at Mercedes this week, but behind the scenes the ramifications of its shake-up are only just starting to reverberate around the grid.

The F1 business is a fairly small community, with only a finite number of top-class technical talents available to be shared among the top teams.

It means that if a technical director from Team A is poached by Team B, then Team A has to react swiftly and either promote from within or go off and poach Team C's top man. Team C then needs to go on and lure the star from Team D...

Just like the driver market has its annual 'silly season' over the summer, now a potential reshuffling of senior technical staff is opening up the possibility of the car designers becoming the main talking point over the next few weeks.

But if you thought the way the driver situation shook up was often complicated, it will be nothing compared to the difficulties of sorting out who goes where and who accepts what on the technical front.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn confirmed on Thursday what everyone had been talking about for days: that the Brackley-based outfit has been in talks with McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe about a senior role.

Aware that losing someone of the talent of Lowe would be far from ideal at this stage of a season, and keen to ensure there is a Plan B in case it loses it man, McLaren has duly created its own short list of replacements and it no surprise to discover that top candidate is Lotus technical director James Allison.

Now that Lotus is aware that Allison is being courted by McLaren (and most probably other teams including Mercedes as well), it too will now be pondering its recruitment options, and duly open the possibility of a team elsewhere losing its top man.

But while teams sounding out rival engineers is commonplace in F1, this year's situation is further complicated by the looming overhaul of F1's regulations.

Teams are already hard at work on their 2014 cars and know that time is of the essence if they are to ensure that they get things right from the very first race of next year.

In F1, engineers are normally locked down to contracts which either tie them in to their employers for a set time, or prevent them going to work elsewhere for a few months. We all hear of people going off for a bit of 'gardening leave.'

But while taking 12 months off to attend the geraniums may be an attractive proposition for many people, if men like Lowe and Allison are taken out of the equation for that period now, then their input for the crucial 2014 rules will be completely lost.

These next few months are the very time when men like Adrian Newey, Pat Fry, Lowe and Allison really show their mettle; dig deep into regulations to find those grey areas that deliver competitive advantage.

From what team insiders are saying, neither Lowe nor Allison have yet been won over by what's been offered to them, and it could well be that both men ultimately decide to stay put and keep producing their brilliance where they are right now.

But you can be sure that their bosses are keeping a very close eye on exactly what is happening after the shake-up at Mercedes. Because once that first move is made, no one knows where the music is going to stop.

[vaptin]

Some teams have launched their cars, who the hell is driving for Force India, are they still deciding their engine?

Caterham?

Marussia?

[myownalias]

Some teams have launched their cars, who the hell is driving for Force India, are they still deciding their engine?

Caterham?

Marussia?

I was thinking this the other days while updating the F1 Pool races, drivers and teams for 2013; FI, Caterham and Marussia seem to be leaving it very late to announce drivers as pre-season testing is about to start!