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25 Nov 2013, 07:49 (Ref:3336377) | #1 | |
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The biggest surprises of 2013
Things you wouldn't have predicted...
1. The Mercedes cars suddenly have good speed. Many poles. Three wins. Not too shabby. The improvement in form is obvious. 2. Nico Rosberg turned to be a better driver than what most people predicted. He has two wins to Hamilton's one, and he is not that far behind Lewis in points. 3. The unraveling of the British veteran super teams. The worst McLaren and Williams seasons in decades. 4. Marussia takes 10th place in constructor championship. 5. Grosjean matures. 6. The end of Lotus-Raikkonen love affair. 7. Vettel takes 9 consecutive wins. |
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25 Nov 2013, 09:23 (Ref:3336397) | #2 | ||
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Biggest surprise was just how bad the McLaren was this year (Williams not so much of a surprise given their recent form), not even on the podium.
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25 Nov 2013, 09:29 (Ref:3336400) | #3 | ||
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1 - The complete shambles at McLaren.
2 - The lack of anyone to consistently rival Vettel. 3 - Grosjean's stellar performances in the 2nd half of the season. 4 - The pathetic situation regarding tyres around the season mid-point. 5 - The boooooooooooing. 6 - Testgate |
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25 Nov 2013, 10:10 (Ref:3336417) | #4 | ||
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Biggest surprise was why I kept wanting to watch it.
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25 Nov 2013, 11:15 (Ref:3336441) | #5 | ||
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That I watched the entire Spa and Austin races without falling asleep. I mean, it did take multiple cups of tea, but I did it.
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25 Nov 2013, 12:15 (Ref:3336465) | #6 | |||
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Quote:
(*IMHO) |
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25 Nov 2013, 12:54 (Ref:3336481) | #7 | ||
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- Grosjean actually becoming quite good
- McLaren in meltdown - Ferrari failing to improve car Last edited by Sodemo; 25 Nov 2013 at 13:04. |
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25 Nov 2013, 14:49 (Ref:3336525) | #8 | |
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1. The Mercedes cars actually taking poles and winning. Yep - that was surprising. Especially, as even Hamilton said that he didn't expect to take any wins before the season had started.
2. Rosberg. Well, he did put up a good fight against Schumi, so he was able to turn in some good performances and keep Hamilton honest. 3. Tyres, tyres, tyres. The blowouts at Silverstone were ludicrous. 4. No wet weather races. 5. The whole "Multi 21" affair. Didn't think that would happen. 6. The whole booing of Vettel at some of the other races. That's quite bad for the sport when that happens. 7. McLaren being unable to improve their car. They have started with bad cars before(2009 being an example), but always seem to have the capacity to develop it over the season and at least come back with a couple of wins. This year, it was terrible. 8. Massa leaving Ferrari. Well, I suppose he sort of had to move on. Being Alonso's teaboy can be irritating. 9. RoGro turning into a good driver. Some decent drives from him - I think possibly Suzuka was his finest hour. 10. The Hungororing actually turning in a good and interesting race for once. 11. Kimi leaving Lotus and rejoining Ferrari. 12. Mercedes Tyre Testing Scandal. Strange situation - I think that it wasn't handled well at Mercedes. 13. Brawn leaving Mercedes. It was sort of his team, but now he is leaving. 14. Pérez leaving McLaren. 15. Marussia taking 10th in the WCC. |
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25 Nov 2013, 14:58 (Ref:3336529) | #9 | ||
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Some good ones up there^.
I think for me, the biggies were: 1. Vettel. He's very good, the team's very good, and the car was designed by (as somebody else said in another thread) a genius, but even so... the extent of the domination was way more than I'd expected. 2. Kimi to Ferrari - WTF? That has got to be the biggest surprise for me. 3. And of course, McLaren. 4. Webber retires to go sportscar racing as a Porsche factory driver. Retires - maybe not so surprising. Sportscars - ok, happens frequently enough. Porsche factory ride - that was a surprise to me, given all the other hot shoes they have available (RIP Sean Edwards however). I'm sure there are others. Testing controversy doesn't surprise me at all though, seems every season there's some minor scuffle over a team or two bending the rules. Whimsical #5 - Webber didn't punch anyone (not anyone in particular of course). |
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25 Nov 2013, 15:55 (Ref:3336554) | #10 | |
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No 'wet' races!
Grosjean's hugely improved speed and race craft. McLaren's failure to have either one of its drivers standing on the podium. |
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25 Nov 2013, 17:12 (Ref:3336586) | #11 | ||
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McLaren's poor performance, and their (related?) decision to sack Pérez.
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25 Nov 2013, 20:36 (Ref:3336668) | #12 | |
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1. McLaren's poor performance considering their speed last year
2. Geido getting the better of Pic more often than I thought he would 3. Bottas out-qualifying Maldonado That's it really. Things like Multi 21 and the Silverstone tire fiasco are unexpected but these things would always be unexpected/rare events. If you're not predicting the opposite, I don't think it should be listed. |
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25 Nov 2013, 21:22 (Ref:3336692) | #13 | ||
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1. McLaren and Williams being utterly useless. Especially given I'd read the pre-season predictions and you had a number of well respected people saying they thought the McLaren and Williams looked like excellent concepts. I expected so much more from both, they just lost their way. Maldonado surprised me too, for both managing to largely stay out of trouble and finish races, but also for being slower than Bottas. Then bizarrely in demand at the end of the year. Odd.
2. Mercedes really improving hugely, and Rosberg for managing to stay with and t times beat Lewis Hamilton. 3. Ferrari for coming up shorter even than in 2012 when they supposedly had a diabolical car. Two early season wins for Alonso, but nowhere near the pace at most races and carried by Alonso's consistancy. Not good enough. 4. The rookies. Gutierrez being a bit **** until late in the season. Van Der Garde for not being **** at all. Bottas for having virtually no opportunity to show anything. The second year Toro Rosso's too.....I thought Vergne would really come on strong this season against Ricciardo and sure enough he did - until mid season then he virtually rolled over and died. 5. Kimi to Ferrari, never, ever saw either the souring of his relationship with Lotus or the return to Ferrari coming. |
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25 Nov 2013, 21:44 (Ref:3336701) | #14 | ||
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totally. Mclaren seemed to look good back in Winter testing and the driver pairing was exciting and screamed potential.
sadly there lack of results is the first and last item on this list for me. |
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25 Nov 2013, 23:14 (Ref:3336755) | #15 | |
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...in qualifying. Maldonado was faster, sometimes by a large amount, in races (where it counts), something that seems to get ignored a lot. I expected the opposite as I saw Maldonado as almost a qualifying specialist before this season.
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25 Nov 2013, 23:56 (Ref:3336778) | #16 | ||
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Quote:
Maldonado still has gotten himself into several troublesome situations in races this year: USGP: 1st lap incident with Sutil. Japan: he runs Bottas off the track while overtaking on the last lap. Belgium: he touches with both Force India cars as they overtake him, allegedly because he did not see them. The result is that he doesn't finish the race at least twice because of his own actions. Not to terrible, but he still remains the same aggressive, hard charging, red blooded South American we have seen before. I would like to see him in 2014 again. |
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26 Nov 2013, 20:14 (Ref:3337113) | #17 | ||
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McLaren giving Sergio Perez the boot after one year of a three contract. And after building the worst performing McLaren I can ever remember, and then brokering a new deal for him with Force India..
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28 Nov 2013, 19:37 (Ref:3337870) | #18 | |
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Hulkenburg's performance. 'nuff said.
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Erm... |
28 Nov 2013, 20:55 (Ref:3337910) | #19 | ||
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Chilton finishing every race
Perez being sacked No wet races |
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"Williams will find a replacement driver, Formula 1 won't" Richard B May 1994 |
29 Nov 2013, 20:27 (Ref:3338302) | #20 | |
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Join Date: Sep 2013
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Perez being sacked to be replaced with Magnussen, then McLaren arranging him a seat at Force India is definitely one of the odd surprises of the silly season.
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29 Nov 2013, 21:56 (Ref:3338342) | #21 | ||
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14 Dec 2013, 22:08 (Ref:3344122) | #22 | |
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Autosport have just puplished their top ten GP drivers of the season 1st, 2nd & probably 3rd are pretty obivious but after that it gets interesting. Although when one thinks about it they make sence.
http://plus.autosport.com/premium/fe...ivers-of-2013/ For those who don't have access hear are the top ten. 10 Bottas, 9 Button, 8 Webber, 7 Raikkonen, 6 Grosjean, 5 Rosberg, 4 Hulkenberg, 3 Hamilton, 2 Alonso, 1 Vettel. |
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14 Dec 2013, 23:41 (Ref:3344155) | #23 | ||
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I certainly wouldn't have put Hamilton 2 places ahead of Rosberg, and definitely not in 3rd either. Not sure that Button and Webber would have made my top 10 either.
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That's so frickin uncool man! |
15 Dec 2013, 00:16 (Ref:3344166) | #24 | |
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For me its Vettel 1 and Alonso 2 after that its very difficult to pick the order of the next 8 although I would agree pretty well with Autosports choices. The Force India pair are not there at half season it could have been very different.
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15 Dec 2013, 04:58 (Ref:3344208) | #25 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 107
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I think Grosjean's late season work has him dueling with Räikkönen for my number 3 spot, and I wouldn't have put Hamilton ahead of Rosberg.
As far as surprises go, McLaren's lack of performance really sticks out. |
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