Clemente Biondetti Pablo Birger Art Bisch Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen
Garage Fire subdues Team Willy?s victory party…
- May 17th, 2012
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Fernando Alonso’s face as he stood on the top step of the podium said it all – a mixture of extreme satisfaction, delight and disbelief.
“Incredible, incredible,” he said in Spanish in his television interviews immediately afterwards, and that seemed as good a summing up as any of one of the most remarkable and thrilling grands prix for some time.
Alonso’s victory was the 28th of his career and it moved him ahead of Sir Jackie Stewart in the all-time list of winners – he is now behind only Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell, whose 31 wins are his next target.
The Ferrari team leader’s presence in such celebrated company is a reminder, as if one was needed, of what a great grand prix driver Alonso is and it was appropriate that his drive on Sunday was one that befitted such a landmark.
Alonso moved up to fifth on the all-time victories list with his win in Malaysia. Photo: Getty
Arguably not the greatest qualifier, Alonso has produced some stunning races in his career, and the one in Malaysia on Sunday ranks up there with the very best.
The Ferrari in its current form has no business whatsoever being able to win a race. In normal, dry conditions, it is way off the pace of the McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Lotus, and almost certainly slower also than the Williams and the Sauber.
And yet there was Alonso, up in fifth place from eighth on the grid by the end of lap one, challenging world champion Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull, which he moved ahead of thanks to stopping one lap earlier for wet tyres in the downpour that led to the race being stopped on lap six.
What won him the race, though, were the laps after the re-start.
He emerged in the lead on lap 16, helped by McLaren having to hold Lewis Hamilton in the pits as Felipe Massa came past.
After everyone had stopped for intermediate tyres, Alonso was 2.4 seconds ahead of Sauber’s Sergio Perez – of whose stunning performance more later – and 6.2secs ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren.
At that point, most would have expected Hamilton – one of the greatest wet-weather drivers in history – to close in on the two cars ahead of him. Instead, Alonso pulled away from Perez, who himself pulled away from Hamilton.
This was, as BBC F1 co-commentator David Coulthard said, “Alonso at his brilliant best”, as he built an eight-second lead over Perez in 12 laps.
Alonso is such a benchmark, so peerless, so utterly relentless and unforgiving when he senses a sniff of a win, that it seemed impossible at that stage that he would not win the race.
But then Perez began to come back at him – showing the differing characteristics of the two cars that have been apparent since the start of pre-season testing. The Ferrari is hard on its tyres and the Sauber is the opposite.
Closer and closer Perez got, first by fractions, then by full seconds until by lap 40 he appeared to have Alonso at his mercy.
Stopping a lap earlier than Perez for ‘slick’ dry-weather tyres put his lead back up to seven seconds, but on these the Sauber was even more superior.
Perez was within a second of Alonso by lap 48 – with eight to go – and what would have been a fully deserved victory by a man who from the beginning of his career last year has looked destined for great things seemed inevitable.
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F1 being what it is, a lot may well be made of the radio call that Perez received at about this point. “Checo, be careful, we need this position,” he was told by his team, who use Ferrari engines. Was this simply a team that is known to be struggling for finance sensibly warning an excited young driver to make sure he didn’t bin it when a valuable podium place was up for grabs? Or was it, as some will surmise, team orders in disguise, an order not to try to deprive the company on whose largesse they have depended in many more seasons than this one of a much-needed win? If it was a team order, Perez didn’t seem to pay any attention – he continued to push hard until he made that fateful error. And team principal Monisha Kaltenborn dismissed any thoughts of a conspiracy.
“What we meant was get the car home,” she said. “It was important to us to get the result – there was nothing else to it. There was no instruction.”
Either of them would have been a deserving winner after two superlative drives – and there were other noteworthy performances down the field, too.
Bruno Senna showed something of his famous uncle’s wet-weather skills with his climb up from last place at the restart to finish an impressive sixth.
And Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne, who narrowly missed out on a point on his debut last weekend in Australia, delivered in spades with a sure-footed drive in the treacherous conditions at Sepang.
The Frenchman was the only driver to stick with intermediate tyres in the early downpour, and he continued to perform impressively on his way to eighth place, just behind last year’s rookie of the year Paul di Resta, who also looked good.
Senna, Vergne and most of all Perez clearly have bright futures ahead of them.
But ahead of them all was the man whose consistent excellence over a 10-year career not only they but everyone else in F1 has to aspire to.
“Great race for Alonso, top job, and also Perez,” Jenson Button said on Sunday evening in Malaysia. You can say that again.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/alonso_sets_the_standard.html
Tony Brise Chris Bristow Peter Broeker Tony Brooks Alan Brown
Bernie Ecclestone has stated his belief that Mark Webber could be Sebastian Vettel’s biggest rival for the title this year. Check out our review of Red Bull in 2011! Webber failed to win a race last year of course, but Ecclestone is convinced that the Australian will improve, threatening his Red Bull team-mate along the [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/WvCtgq-iUMQ/webber-will-threaten-vettel-in-2012
Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella Mário de Araújo Cabral Frank Armi
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/O_Z1ZqGZQ3c/formula-1-rewind.html
Giovanna Amati George Amick Red Amick Chris Amon Bob Anderson
 Scarecrows adorn the entrance to a barren Korean International Circuit |
Two leading Formula One journalists have expressed their surprise at Korea being named the best grand prix promoter of the season at the FIA?s annual prize gala in Monaco last Friday. The Korean Grand Prix received the Race Promoters’ Trophy despite the event taking place at an incomplete facility with few race fans in attendance and team members and media staying at disparagingly dubbed ‘love hotels’. “Korea. Korea? KOREA??!! I must have been somewhere else,” said Times correspondent Kevin Eason on Twitter. Daily Mirror journalist Byron Young added, “The Korean GP, complete with event and flight chaos, shoddy hotels and things I won’t mention, won the race promotors? trophy. Why?”
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/12/journalists_shocked_at_korea_a.php
Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/05/vettel—and-others—get-lucky-in-monaco.html
Jo Bonnier Roberto Bonomi Juan Manuel Bordeu Slim Borgudd Luki Botha
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Two days before the green flag drops on the Cactus League schedule, NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip brought his racing team into the Chicago White Sox clubhouse.The former Daytona 500 winner, in town this weekend for Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup races, found there was plenty of NASCAR love emanating from the room. ESPNChicago.com White Sox blog The latest news and notes on the White Sox. Related posts:
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Source: http://doxcar.com/spring-training-2011-michael-waltrip-nascar-team-visit-chicago-white-sox/
Tony Brooks Alan Brown Walt Brown Warwick Brown Adolf Brudes
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/y3DVn8W9Hk8/f1-south-american-squabble.html
Mark Blundell Raul Boesel Menato Boffa Bob Bondurant Felice Bonetto
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/15/2066008/food-network-host-to-drive-indy.html
Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/05/sutil-scandal-i-suppose-im-witness-x.html
Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen Johnny Boyd
World Champion Sebastian Vettel was in philosophical mood after a difficult Spanish GP, taking heart from the fact that despite his own problems he had outscored two key title rivals in both McLaren drivers, as well as team mate Mark … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/16/sebastian-vettel-it-was-pretty-crazy-what-was-going-on/
JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen Johnny Boyd David Brabham
We may have enjoyed the most unpredictable start to the season in F1 history, but after five races there’s no escaping the fact that Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull sit atop both championship tables. After various dramas in Spain Vettel … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/14/christian-horner-we-must-have-been-the-most-consistent/
Mário de Araújo Cabral Frank Armi Chuck Arnold Rene Arnoux Peter Arundell
Journalists in Formula 1 (both the real ones and those who like to imagine such status) love to think that racing drivers are “under pressure” when things do not go right. When you actually talk to drivers you find, more often than not, that they are pretty unfazed by pressure. They either do not read [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/brazilians-under-the-spotlight/
Chris Amon Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti
If Ferrari fans thought that their team had perhaps not lived up its name last season then they should talk to fans of Williams. The team that dominated in the early 90?s winning multiple World Championships managed to score only five points last season. Five. It?s a sad fall from grace and one, that at [...]
Marco Apicella Mário de Araújo Cabral Frank Armi Chuck Arnold Rene Arnoux
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh probably summed up the new Formula 1 season best in the wake of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
“Who’s going to predict who’s going to win the next race?” Whitmarsh pondered after Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel had become the fourth different driver, for the fourth different team, to win in the first four races. “It could be Red Bull, Lotus, Mercedes, Ferrari, us.”
A Formula 1 season has not started in such an unpredictable fashion for 29 years.
Back in 1983, Brabham’s Nelson Piquet, McLaren’s John Watson, Renault’s Alain Prost and Ferrari’s Patrick Tambay were the men in question. Only Watson did not go on to be a major contender for the rest of the season, which featured a four-way title fight between Piquet, Prost, Tambay and the second Ferrari driver Rene Arnoux.
Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari may not be the best car, but he is making it a contender. Photo: AFP
This year, the winners have been McLaren’s Jenson Button, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg and Vettel.
Paradoxically, though, on the balance of form over the four races, you would probably say that of those four only Button and Vettel will definitely be championship contenders.
Rosberg’s Mercedes car is clearly quick, at least in qualifying, but its race pace has been inconsistent. Alonso has been driving brilliantly in the Ferrari – but on current form the car is nowhere near good enough to mount a title challenge.
THE SEASON SO FAR
For all the unpredictability of the results, and the thrilling spectacle of the races themselves, the same drivers and teams who have dominated F1 in recent years fill the top five positions in the championship.
Victory in Bahrain vaulted Vettel into the lead, ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull’s second driver Mark Webber, Button and Alonso.
Of those, Alonso’s position is the most remarkable.
At best, the Ferrari is the fifth fastest car behind the Red Bull, McLaren, Lotus and Mercedes. And there have been times when it was probably the seventh fastest – behind also the Williams and Sauber.
Yet the Spaniard has won a race and conceded only 10 points to the world championship leader after four grands prix.
This stunning demonstration of consistency and skill is why it would be hard to look past Alonso if there was an award for driver of the year so far.
If he is to be a title contender this year, though, much depends on the major car upgrades Ferrari are planning to introduce for the next race in Spain – and which will be tried out for the first time at the official F1 test in Mugello next week.
If these do not give Ferrari a significant boost in performance, even Alonso will drift out of contention and, presumably, be overtaken soon by the drivers immediately behind him in the championship – Rosberg and Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen
MOST IMPROVED TEAMS – AND OTHERWISE
Just as Alonso is artificially high in the championship – at least in terms of the quality of the car he is driving – so Raikkonen and, arguably, Rosberg are artificially low.
It has been clear from the beginning of the season that the Lotus is one of the very fastest cars on the grid – but scrappy weekends at the first three races prevented the team from scoring strong results.
In Bahrain they finally got it together, and Raikkonen and team-mate Romain Grosjean finished second and third behind Vettel. As BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson explained in his race review, the Finn might well have won.
According to figures compiled by Anderson, Lotus are second only to Caterham in a table that compares their performance last year to this.
Mercedes are some way down the list – but have definitely made more progress than any of the other traditional top teams. Ferrari are at the bottom.
The difficulty in assessing Mercedes’ potential, though, is that for all their impressive performance in taking pole and victory in China, their form in the other races has been poor.
The Mercedes is quick in qualifying – thanks in part, no doubt, to its controversial ‘double DRS’ system – but they are the team whose performance deteriorates the most from practice and qualifying to race.
You can be sure a lot of their work at the Mugello test next week will be focused on this phenomenon.
The next-worst team on this criterion, incidentally, are McLaren.
THE TITLE BATTLE
Ferrari are the most consistent top team (and behind only Sauber) in terms of form from practice to race – a measure of how close a team gets to extracting the maximum from their car.
Red Bull are pretty close behind, even though it took the world champions until the fourth race of the season to record their first win.
One of the reasons teams have been struggling with consistency – both from race to race and within a weekend – is that they are finding it difficult to get the best out of the Pirelli tyres this year.
As Button has said: “Last year, we knew the tyres had high degradation but we understood them. This year, I don’t really know what to make of the tyres.”
Teams are struggling to keep the tyres in the right window of operating temperature, and different cars work them better in different ambient temperatures. Circuit characteristics also play a role.
Mercedes, for example, have been suffering problems with rear-tyre usage. So China was perfect for them. It was run in cool conditions on a circuit that is ‘front-limited’ – the front tyres tend to go off first.
Red Bull, by contrast, were struggling to get their car to work properly in China, and the result was their worst qualifying performance of the year. The race was less problematic, but Red Bull’s race pace has been strong all year.
In the hotter conditions of Bahrain, on a ‘rear-limited’ track, Mercedes struggled and Red Bull shone.
Until Bahrain, McLaren had coped pretty well with the varying conditions from race to race, but their struggles with rear tyre wear in Bahrain will have set alarm bells ringing.
PICKING A FAVOURITE
Vettel predicted in Bahrain that, because the teams are all so close in terms of competitiveness, changing conditions will continue to have an effect on form throughout the season.
His team principal Christian Horner added that the season would “ebb and flow”.
“It is a matter,” Horner said, “of trying to be consistent at the races you can’t win and take the maximum out of them. And at the races you can, you need to deliver.”
So who is the favourite?
Before Bahrain, you would probably have said one of the McLaren drivers. Now, you might be tempted to say Vettel.
But what about Webber, who has had the edge on Vettel in three of the four races? Or Raikkonen? Or even Alonso, if Ferrari can effect a turnaround with the car.
One thing is clear – it’s all very different from last year, when by this stage it was already blindingly obvious that Vettel was going to be champion.
As to who it will be this time, as Hamilton has said: “It’s anyone’s at the moment.”
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/four_different_winners_-_now_p.html
Erwin Bauer Zsolt Baumgartner Elie Bayol Don Beauman Karl Gunther Bechem
Ferrari “expect change of gear right away” from Massa is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
In the round-up: Ferrari say Felipe Massa needs to up his game in the next race at Monaco.
Ferrari “expect change of gear right away” from Massa is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/Ab-BJffj7zc/
Trevor Blokdyk Mark Blundell Raul Boesel Menato Boffa Bob Bondurant
Carroll Shelby has died at the age of 89. The Texan was a Grand Prix driver who went on to found Shelby American Inc, the producer of high-performance road cars based on AC Motors and later Ford machinery. His father Warren was a postman, who delivered mail in one of John Willys’s Whippets, and Shelby [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/carroll-shelby-1923-2012/
Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/07/what-ralph-lauren-can-teach-mr-e.html
Chris Bristow Peter Broeker Tony Brooks Alan Brown Walt Brown
 The wreckage of Jochen Rindt’s car at Barcelona |
An excellent insight into the world of F1 as it used to be can be found on the regularly-interesting Letters of Note website. It publishes a hitherto unseen letter from Jochen Rindt to Lotus boss Colin Chapman written shortly after Rindt?s crash at Barcelona which was a result of the wing system on Lotus 49 collapsing at speed.
?Colin. I have been racing F1 for 5 years and I have made one mistake (I rammed Chris Amon in Clermont Ferrand) and I had one accident in Zandvoort due to gear selection failure otherwise I managed to stay out of trouble. This situation changed rapidly since I joined your team. ?Honestly your cars are so quick that we would still be competitive with a few extra pounds used to make the weakest parts stronger, on top of that I think you ought to spend some time checking what your different employes are doing, I sure the wishbones on the F2 car would have looked different. Please give my suggestions some thought, I can only drive a car in which I have some confidence, and I feel the point of no confidence is quite near.?
A little more than a year later Rindt’s Lotus suffered mechanical breakdown just before braking into one of the corners. He swerved violently to the left and crashed into a poorly-installed barrier, killing him instantly.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/the_point_of_no_confidence_is.php
Vittorio Brambilla Toni Branca Gianfranco Brancatelli Eric Brandon Don Branson
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/OQDOWPndIz0/power-dominates-while-sato-drives.html
Peter Arundell Alberto Ascari Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/eZ2JNSOHhUc/rossi-running-friday-practice-for.html
Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi
2012 Spanish Grand Prix fastest laps is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Williams used an aggressive strategy to get Maldonado ahead of Alonso, while Lotus saved their best until last.
2012 Spanish Grand Prix fastest laps is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/7Vc-h3RiFhc/
Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen Johnny Boyd David Brabham Gary Brabham
Ferrari have become the first team to launch their 2011 Formula One car – named the F150. Thw F150 name comes from the fact it is 150 years since Italian unification, the flag bearer for the nation decided it was important to increase exposure of the major event in the country’s long history. The cars [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/ferrari-launch-their-2011-car-the-f150/
Gerry Ashmore Bill Aston Richard Attwood Manny Ayulo Luca Badoer
Raikkonen rues lost chance of victory is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
In the round-up: Kimi Raikkonen says Lotus could have won the Spanish Grand Prix.
Raikkonen rues lost chance of victory is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/a-oETl1CoJM/
Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/05/vettel—and-others—get-lucky-in-monaco.html
Tony Brooks Alan Brown Walt Brown Warwick Brown Adolf Brudes
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/12/2060869/harvick-busch-still-cold-a-year.html
Marcel Balsa Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza John Barber
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/09/145-euros-india-had-better-be-worth-it.html
Eric Brandon Don Branson Tom Bridger Tony Brise Chris Bristow
 Will Christian Horner regret not utilising team orders in Brazil? |
Michael Spearman of The Sun, says that the £65,000 fine Ferrari received for breaching the team orders ban in Germany will seem like loose change if Fernando Alonso wins the drivers? title in Abu Dhabi.
?The extra seven points Alonso collected when Ferrari ordered Felipe Massa to move over for him in Germany earlier in the season are now looking even more crucial. ?And the £65,000 fine they picked up for ruthlessly breaking the rules will seem loose change if Alonso clinches the title in his first year with the Maranello team. ?Red Bull could have switched the result yesterday given their crushing dominance and still celebrated their first constructors’ championship just five years after coming into the sport. ?That would also have given Webber an extra seven points, leaving him just one behind Alonso.?The Guardian?s Paul Weaver says that if Fernando Alonso does take the drivers? title in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari owes a debt of gratitude to Red Bull for their decision not to employ team orders in Brazil.
?If Alonso does take the title next week it would not be inappropriate were he and Ferrari to send a few gallons of champagne to Red Bull’s headquarters in Milton Keynes. ?While Red Bull should be heartily applauded for the championship they did win today their apparent acceptance that Ferrari might carry off the more glamorous prize continues to baffle Formula One and its globetrotting supporters. ?Their refusal to make life easy for Webber, who has led for much of the season and is still seven points ahead of Vettel, means that whatever happens in the desert next week Alonso, the only driver who was capable of taking the championship in the race today, only has to secure second place to guarantee his third world title.?The Independent?s David Tremayne is also of the opinion that Red Bull may regret not using team orders in Brazil.
?Had Red Bull elected to adopt team orders and let Webber win ? something that the governing body allows when championships are at stake ? Webber would have left Brazil with 245 points ? just one point off the lead. For some that was confirmation of his suggestion that Vettel is the team’s favoured driver ? which generated an angry call from team owner Dietrich Mateschitz in Austria and was much denied by team principal, Christian Horner. ?And it sets up a situation where, if the result is repeated next weekend, as is likely, Vettel and Webber will tie on 256, five behind Alonso.?The Mirror?s Byron Young has put Lewis Hamilton?s fading title chances down to an inferior McLaren machine and he admits the 2008 World Champion now needs a miracle.
?Sebastian Vettel’s victory sends the world title fight to a four-way showdown for the first time in the sport’s history. ?Hamilton goes there as part of that story with a 24-point deficit to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, but with just 25 on offer in the final round in six days’ time it would take more than a miracle. ?Driving an outclassed McLaren he slugged it out against superior machinery and stiff odds to finish fourth.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/team_orders_in_spotlight_again_1.php
Manny Ayulo Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti Julian Bailey Mauro Baldi
Oh to be a fly on the wall at the drivers’ briefing ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix next month.
The controversial decision not to penalise either Nico Rosberg for his aggressive defence against Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at the Bahrain Grand Prix or Hamilton for overtaking by going off the track has led to considerable debate within Formula 1.
So much so, that Alonso, a man who weighs his words carefully, has decided to speak out about it. After learning of the ruling, the Ferrari driver said to his 400,000-plus Twitter followers: “I think you are going to have fun in future races! You can defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track! Enjoy!”
Nico Rosberg (left) and Lewis Hamilton may have differing views at the drivers’ meeting. Photo: Getty
Alonso had earlier said of Rosberg’s driving: “If instead of such a wide run-off area there had been a wall, I’m not sure I’d be here to talk about it.”
On the face of it, and at first glance, the stewards’ decision does appear difficult to understand.
With both Hamilton on lap 10 and Alonso on lap 24, Rosberg veered dramatically to the inside – and, unusually, right across to the white line that demarcates the edge of the circuit.
Both Hamilton and Alonso went off the track in avoidance, to varying degrees. Whereas Hamilton kept going and succeeded in passing the Mercedes, Alonso backed off and tried for the outside line, but had lost too much momentum to pull a move off.
Article 20.4 of the sporting regulations says: “Manoeuvres liable to hinder other drivers, such as deliberate crowding of a car beyond the edge of the track or any other abnormal change of direction, are not permitted.”
So why was Rosberg not penalised?
The stewards said his defence was legitimate because although it was Rosberg who started to deviate from his line first, he did so in a “constant and continuous straight-line manner” and neither Hamilton nor Alonso had “a significant portion of their car… alongside” Rosberg’s.
In other words, because Rosberg moved first, he was always clearly in front and it was therefore effectively the other driver’s decision to keep moving to the inside to the point that he was off the track.
In Hamilton’s case, if you watch the TV footage back, you can clearly see this is the case.
It is less obviously so with Alonso – and the stewards had to use the footage from the Ferrari’s onboard camera before they came to a conclusion.
I have not seen the footage, but I’m told it showed again that a) Rosberg moved first; and b) at no point was “a significant portion” of Alonso’s car alongside the Mercedes.
During the race, viewers heard Alonso say over his team radio: “He pushed me off the track. You have to leave a space. All the time you have to leave a space.”
This, though, is not actually what the regulations say.
A new rule, article 20.3, was introduced this year to formally enshrine that “any driver moving back towards the racing line, having earlier defended his position off line, should leave at least one car width between his own car and the edge of the track on the approach to a corner”.
But this only applies when he is making a second move – there is nothing in the rules to stop drivers going right to the edge of the track in their first defensive move.
In other words, you might think – as Alonso did – that Rosberg’s driving was unfair, overly aggressive, even dangerous, but the rules contain nothing the stewards could use to penalise him.
There is no obligation, I’m told by a senior figure, to leave room for a rival, unless he is partially alongside. The question then becomes, how far alongside does a driver have to be before the man he is overtaking has to leave him room with his first move?
That’s where it starts to get awkward.
“It’s no different,” a senior insider says, “to a conventional overtaking manoeuvre when one driver dives down the inside, gets halfway alongside and they collide. One guy says: ‘You should have given me room.’ The other says: ‘You weren’t far enough alongside.’ Often drivers’ perception of a situation differs from the reality.”
The stewards have to use their judgement, including factors such as speed differential between the cars, when a driver moved, how many moves he made, and so on.
Back, though, to what the rules do say. Article 20.2 says drivers “must use the track at all times”. This is why Rosberg said over his team radio: “Hamilton passed me off the track.”
Which Hamilton clearly did. So why was he not penalised?
The stewards, I’m told, asked: “What advantage did Hamilton gain by going off the track?” And they concluded that if he had gone to the outside, he was carrying so much momentum he would have passed anyway.
The most obvious of several counter-points to that is: “Yes, but Hamilton did go off the track when you have established he didn’t need to, and he did pass him by doing so, so he should be penalised.”
At least two leading drivers share this view, I’m told. But you have to bear in mind that Hamilton is not the most popular driver on the grid and his rivals are “always looking for ways to nail him”, as one source put it on Monday.
The problem arose in the first place because concrete run-offs surround the circuit in Bahrain. Drivers can use these with impunity, safe in the knowledge that if they are forced off the track they are not going to spin on wet grass or hit a wall.
Had there been grass there, Hamilton would not have been able to pull off the same move (another argument for a penalty being applied) and Alonso might have backed off sooner.
Equally, had there been grass there – or even a wall – Rosberg might well have given them both a bit more room.
The stewards weighed it all up and felt that, in this instance, penalising Hamilton would have been overly harsh.
The result is some drivers believe Hamilton should have been penalised, some believe Rosberg should have been, and Alonso is saying the stewards’ ruling gives drivers carte blanche to overtake off the track or crowd their rivals as much as they like.
Which is why that drivers’ meeting in Barcelona promises to be so interesting.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/unanswered_questions_for_rosbe.html
Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
Williams has issued a statement about today’s garage fire in Spain, confirming that four team members were hurt. The team also thanked other paddock personnel for their help in fighting the fire, which started when a fuel rig appeared to … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/13/williams-thanks-rivals-and-fia-after-garage-fire/
Pablo Birger Art Bisch Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut
Sebastian Vettel gave this already fascinating Formula 1 world championship another huge twist at the Bahrain Grand Prix with his first victory of the season.
What looked for a while like it might turn into a carbon-copy of so many of the Red Bull driver’s wins on his way to the title last year – pole, blitz the start, consolidate lead – turned into a fascinating battle with the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen.
The Finn showed all his old skill and consistency as he climbed from 11th place on the grid to take second place. In so doing, Raikkonen finally delivered on the potential of a car that has looked capable of this sort of result since the start of the season and proved he has lost nothing in his two years away in rallying.
The result, and a nightmare race for McLaren, leaves the championship finely poised going into a three-week break before the Spanish Grand Prix, with Vettel leapfrogging from fifth overall to first and only a handful of points covering all the top five.
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All of this, though, has been completely overshadowed by the situation outside the track, and the controversy over F1′s decision to return to Bahrain despite ongoing civil unrest in the Gulf state.
The race has dominated the news agenda over the weekend and, for those involved in the sport, it has not been pretty.
Most people could see the situation F1 has found itself in this weekend coming from miles away, but if the sport’s bosses did, they are doing a good job of hiding it.
Last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled following the violent suppression of protests which were part of the Arab Spring that swept across much of the Middle East.
Troubles have continued, despite promises by the ruling royal family to instigate reform following a critical independent report last November, which detailed human rights abuses, including wrongful arrests and torture. Amnesty International says the situation in Bahrain is “not much different” from a year ago.
Yet F1 chose to return, FIA president Jean Todt and commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone believing the claims of the authorities that the situation was much improved and that they could guarantee security.
It did not take long for that last claim to be exposed. Returning from the track on Wednesday evening, down the main highway into the capital Manama, four Force India mechanics were caught between protestors on one side of the road and riot police on the other.
The protestors were throwing petrol bombs at the police, who were responding with tear gas. Petrol bombs flew over the car, and one landed worryingly close.
The whole incident lasted no more than two or three minutes, but it clearly spooked those involved – and the rest of their team, who subsequently chose to skip second practice on Friday so they could return to their hotels before dark. A decision made despite an intervention by Ecclestone.
Most F1 personnel encountered no trouble. But the unrest continued throughout the weekend, and on Friday night a protestor was killed.
Vettel, who had described the controversy over the race as “hype” when he arrived on Thursday, was forced to think again. “It’s always dreadful when someone dies,” he said after qualifying on pole position.
For all the protestations from Todt and Ecclestone about sport staying apart from politics, the grand prix has become part of the argument in Bahrain.
The protests are not specifically directed at the race, but it is seen as a legitimate target because it is so closely identified with the ruling Sunni royal family, who set it up as a global promotional tool for the country and by extension their regime.
The race organisers – effectively the royal family themselves – have overtly politicised the event by promoting it with posters using the F1 logo in the middle of the slogan “UniF1ed”, in a country that is clearly anything but.
Protests have targeted Formula 1 both inside Bahrain and across the world. Photo: Getty
Ecclestone’s and Todt’s responses to this – that they cannot control how people promote their races (Ecclestone) or that the slogan can be interpreted in lots of ways (Todt) – are debatable at best. Some have called it sophistry.
If F1′s bosses thought they could go to Bahrain, pick up the huge pay cheque for the race, and get out without any damage to their or the sport’s reputation, they have been disabused of that notion in the starkest terms.
On Saturday, Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn – who, behind the scenes, has been one of the senior figures most opposed to holding the Bahrain race – said F1 “with proper judgement of what happened and what we saw needed to come to a conclusion”.
I am told by senior insiders that the many of the sport’s bosses have been staggered by the extent to which the sport’s name has been dragged through the mud this weekend, as well as the focus on it by major global news organisations.
Quite apart from the obvious moral and personal safety issues involved, this is clearly a commercial concern. F1 is selling a dream and an aspiration. But the dream has this weekend become a nightmare – and there has been nothing aspirational about the image the sport has presented to the world.
F1 being what it is, if anything will make them wake up to the potential consequences of racing in Bahrain, that will be it.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/the_right_race_in_the_wrong_pl.html
Slim Borgudd Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/12/2061216/johnson-ends-suspense-gives-hendrick.html
Gino Bianco Hans Binder Clemente Biondetti Pablo Birger Art Bisch
American Medical News reports hospitals in at least a dozen countries are learning how to translate the split-second timing and near-perfect synchronisation of Formula One pit crews to the high-risk handoffs of patients from surgery to recovery and intensive care.
“In Formula One, they have checklists, databases, and they have well-defined processes for doing things, and we don’t really have any of those things in health care.”
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/doctors_use_formula_one_pit_cr.php
Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer
Sebastian Vettel’s behaviour during and after the Malaysian Grand Prix has been causing a bit of a fuss in Germany over the past few days.
The media have lapped up his response to his collision with backmarker Narain Karthikeyan, in much the same way as their British counterparts would have done with a similar incident involving Lewis Hamilton, and Vettel has come in for a fair bit of criticism.
On the BBC after the race, Vettel called Karthikeyan an “idiot” for his role in the collision that cost the world champion fourth place.
Speaking in German, the word he chose was “cucumber” – a common insult in that country for bad drivers on the road.
Vettel faces increased competition from outside and inside his Red Bull Team. Photo: Getty/AFP
It has also been pointed out that shots from Vettel’s onboard camera appear to show the 24-year-old Red Bull driver giving Karthikeyan a middle-finger salute as he drives past. This has led some to call for him to be punished by governing body the FIA, which so far is keeping a low profile on the matter.
Comparisons have been drawn with McLaren’s Jenson Button – who also failed to score any points in Malaysia, but who reacted with his usual calm.
Vettel, some in Germany have said, doesn’t know how to lose.
They point out that last year he won 11 races on his way to one of the most dominant championship victories in Formula 1 history. Failing to win four races in a row in that context, the critics say, should not elicit this kind of reaction.
Vettel has not spoken in public since leaving Malaysia, and Red Bull are shrugging it off.
After the race on Sunday, team principal Christian Horner defended Vettel’s driving in the collision with Karthikeyan, saying that it was the Indian’s “responsibility to get out of the way of the leaders as he is a lapped car”.
Although the stewards penalised Karthikeyan for the incident, others are not sure it’s quite so clear-cut.
One leading F1 figure told me: “It was completely Vettel’s fault – he needed to give Karthikeyan more space. He only had to clear the last inch and he cut across the front of him. He was showing a bit of frustration and it bit him.”
Certainly Vettel has found himself at the start of 2012 in a situation with which he is not familiar.
Vettel has had the fastest car in F1 since at least the middle of 2009, and he has used it to good effect.
But now things are different. Red Bull’s new car is not a match for the McLaren, and it has also been behind one Mercedes and one Lotus on the grid in each of the first two races.
For a man who is as driven to win – to dominate even – as Vettel is, that will not be a comfortable situation.
Nor will it have escaped his attention that team-mate Mark Webber has so far out-qualified him in both races this year – again, quite a turnaround from 2011, when the Australian managed it only three times in 19 grands prix.
It is early days, but so far the comparison between the two Red Bull drivers looks much more like it was in the first part of 2010 – before the team started fully exploiting the exhaust-blown diffusers that dominated the last 18 months and which have been banned for this season.
Webber was never that comfortable in last season’s Red Bull – and while he came to match Vettel on race pace in the second half of last season, he never really got on terms with him in qualifying.
Much of that was to do with the behaviour of the car on corner entry, where the exhaust-blown diffusers were so powerful in increasing performance.
Red Bull’s decline has also coincided with the stiffening of the front-wing load test, an attempt to stop teams allowing the ends of the wing to droop towards the track at speed to increase downforce. Red Bull were noticeably better at doing this than the other teams.
It may be an unrelated coincidence, but this year’s Red Bull suffers from understeer, a lack of front-end grip – a handling characteristic Webber is comfortable with, while Vettel prefers oversteer.
This is not the first time Vettel has been criticised for letting his emotion get the better of him when things are not going his way.
There was the infamous ‘nutter’ sign he directed at Webber following their collision in the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix.
There were also mistakes in Britain, Belgium and Singapore that year as he very nearly gifted the world title to Ferrari and Fernando Alonso, who lost it only after a strategic error in the final race.
Such was Vettel’s domination in 2011 that it never arose- leading some to say he had reached a new level of maturity both in and out of the car.
The truth of that claim looks set to be tested this year, as Red Bull and Vettel struggle to regain a position that the driver at least seems to consider is rightfully his.
Meanwhile, his rivals will have been watching with interest.
Webber, Alonso, Button and Hamilton remember Vettel’s behaviour in 2010 all too well.
Betraying his emotions in such an obvious way will be seen by them as a weakness – they will look at it and think he is rattled.
So it is true to say on the one hand that Vettel’s reaction proves he is a winner.
But it is also the case that learning how to lose gracefully – as Button and Alonso, particularly, have learnt in recent years – has its benefits as well.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/vettel_collision_a_champion_un.html
Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder
Hamilton and Maldonado share the front row in Spain is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Lewis Hamilton beat Pastor Maldonado to pole position in Spain as Fernando Alonso took third at home.
Hamilton and Maldonado share the front row in Spain is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/RZVf7pRIsrU/
Carlo Abate George Abecassis Kenny Acheson Andrea de Adamich Philippe Adams
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh probably summed up the new Formula 1 season best in the wake of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
“Who’s going to predict who’s going to win the next race?” Whitmarsh pondered after Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel had become the fourth different driver, for the fourth different team, to win in the first four races. “It could be Red Bull, Lotus, Mercedes, Ferrari, us.”
A Formula 1 season has not started in such an unpredictable fashion for 29 years.
Back in 1983, Brabham’s Nelson Piquet, McLaren’s John Watson, Renault’s Alain Prost and Ferrari’s Patrick Tambay were the men in question. Only Watson did not go on to be a major contender for the rest of the season, which featured a four-way title fight between Piquet, Prost, Tambay and the second Ferrari driver Rene Arnoux.
Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari may not be the best car, but he is making it a contender. Photo: AFP
This year, the winners have been McLaren’s Jenson Button, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg and Vettel.
Paradoxically, though, on the balance of form over the four races, you would probably say that of those four only Button and Vettel will definitely be championship contenders.
Rosberg’s Mercedes car is clearly quick, at least in qualifying, but its race pace has been inconsistent. Alonso has been driving brilliantly in the Ferrari – but on current form the car is nowhere near good enough to mount a title challenge.
THE SEASON SO FAR
For all the unpredictability of the results, and the thrilling spectacle of the races themselves, the same drivers and teams who have dominated F1 in recent years fill the top five positions in the championship.
Victory in Bahrain vaulted Vettel into the lead, ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull’s second driver Mark Webber, Button and Alonso.
Of those, Alonso’s position is the most remarkable.
At best, the Ferrari is the fifth fastest car behind the Red Bull, McLaren, Lotus and Mercedes. And there have been times when it was probably the seventh fastest – behind also the Williams and Sauber.
Yet the Spaniard has won a race and conceded only 10 points to the world championship leader after four grands prix.
This stunning demonstration of consistency and skill is why it would be hard to look past Alonso if there was an award for driver of the year so far.
If he is to be a title contender this year, though, much depends on the major car upgrades Ferrari are planning to introduce for the next race in Spain – and which will be tried out for the first time at the official F1 test in Mugello next week.
If these do not give Ferrari a significant boost in performance, even Alonso will drift out of contention and, presumably, be overtaken soon by the drivers immediately behind him in the championship – Rosberg and Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen
MOST IMPROVED TEAMS – AND OTHERWISE
Just as Alonso is artificially high in the championship – at least in terms of the quality of the car he is driving – so Raikkonen and, arguably, Rosberg are artificially low.
It has been clear from the beginning of the season that the Lotus is one of the very fastest cars on the grid – but scrappy weekends at the first three races prevented the team from scoring strong results.
In Bahrain they finally got it together, and Raikkonen and team-mate Romain Grosjean finished second and third behind Vettel. As BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson explained in his race review, the Finn might well have won.
According to figures compiled by Anderson, Lotus are second only to Caterham in a table that compares their performance last year to this.
Mercedes are some way down the list – but have definitely made more progress than any of the other traditional top teams. Ferrari are at the bottom.
The difficulty in assessing Mercedes’ potential, though, is that for all their impressive performance in taking pole and victory in China, their form in the other races has been poor.
The Mercedes is quick in qualifying – thanks in part, no doubt, to its controversial ‘double DRS’ system – but they are the team whose performance deteriorates the most from practice and qualifying to race.
You can be sure a lot of their work at the Mugello test next week will be focused on this phenomenon.
The next-worst team on this criterion, incidentally, are McLaren.
THE TITLE BATTLE
Ferrari are the most consistent top team (and behind only Sauber) in terms of form from practice to race – a measure of how close a team gets to extracting the maximum from their car.
Red Bull are pretty close behind, even though it took the world champions until the fourth race of the season to record their first win.
One of the reasons teams have been struggling with consistency – both from race to race and within a weekend – is that they are finding it difficult to get the best out of the Pirelli tyres this year.
As Button has said: “Last year, we knew the tyres had high degradation but we understood them. This year, I don’t really know what to make of the tyres.”
Teams are struggling to keep the tyres in the right window of operating temperature, and different cars work them better in different ambient temperatures. Circuit characteristics also play a role.
Mercedes, for example, have been suffering problems with rear-tyre usage. So China was perfect for them. It was run in cool conditions on a circuit that is ‘front-limited’ – the front tyres tend to go off first.
Red Bull, by contrast, were struggling to get their car to work properly in China, and the result was their worst qualifying performance of the year. The race was less problematic, but Red Bull’s race pace has been strong all year.
In the hotter conditions of Bahrain, on a ‘rear-limited’ track, Mercedes struggled and Red Bull shone.
Until Bahrain, McLaren had coped pretty well with the varying conditions from race to race, but their struggles with rear tyre wear in Bahrain will have set alarm bells ringing.
PICKING A FAVOURITE
Vettel predicted in Bahrain that, because the teams are all so close in terms of competitiveness, changing conditions will continue to have an effect on form throughout the season.
His team principal Christian Horner added that the season would “ebb and flow”.
“It is a matter,” Horner said, “of trying to be consistent at the races you can’t win and take the maximum out of them. And at the races you can, you need to deliver.”
So who is the favourite?
Before Bahrain, you would probably have said one of the McLaren drivers. Now, you might be tempted to say Vettel.
But what about Webber, who has had the edge on Vettel in three of the four races? Or Raikkonen? Or even Alonso, if Ferrari can effect a turnaround with the car.
One thing is clear – it’s all very different from last year, when by this stage it was already blindingly obvious that Vettel was going to be champion.
As to who it will be this time, as Hamilton has said: “It’s anyone’s at the moment.”
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/four_different_winners_-_now_p.html
Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati George Amick
Ferrari make progress and Lotus look quick in Spain is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Ferrari appear to have made a step forward with their F2012 and Lotus look set to be quick again this weekend.
Ferrari make progress and Lotus look quick in Spain is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/7sb5_biwl40/
Trevor Blokdyk Mark Blundell Raul Boesel Menato Boffa Bob Bondurant
If Ferrari fans thought that their team had perhaps not lived up its name last season then they should talk to fans of Williams. The team that dominated in the early 90?s winning multiple World Championships managed to score only five points last season. Five. It?s a sad fall from grace and one, that at [...]
Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto
Fernando Alonso set the fastest time of the first free practice session in Barcelona, a result which seemed rather unlikely given the pace of the Ferrari thus far this year. The cynics in F1 suggested that this might be something to do with the sale of tickets on Sunday, or perhaps the lack of them. [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/nearly-local-boy-comes-good/
Slim Borgudd Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen
We are not too far away from the 2012 Australian Grand Prix and everyone is rightly excited. You can check out the drivers that need to deliver in 2012 right here. However, we are going to be building up to Melbourne with a series of videos from races gone by. To begin with, do you [...]
Georges Berger Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia
American Medical News reports hospitals in at least a dozen countries are learning how to translate the split-second timing and near-perfect synchronisation of Formula One pit crews to the high-risk handoffs of patients from surgery to recovery and intensive care.
“In Formula One, they have checklists, databases, and they have well-defined processes for doing things, and we don’t really have any of those things in health care.”
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/doctors_use_formula_one_pit_cr.php
Pablo Birger Art Bisch Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/11/2058486/legendary-racer-car-designer-carroll.html
Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo Tom Belso JeanPierre Beltoise Olivier Beretta
There are, it turns out, two Kimi Raikkonens.
The public face of the 2007 world champion, who has returned to Formula 1 this season after two years in rallying, is of a monosyllabic, monotone, unsmiling figure, energised only the moment he steps into a racing car.
The one who emerges in private is very different – a talkative, jocular man, who can happily sit and shoot the breeze like anyone else.
As Lotus trackside operations director, Alan Permane has worked closely with Raikkonen since he joined the team last November.
Kimi Raikkonen has been perceived as cold and uncommunicative. Photo: Getty
The 32-year-old Finn, Permane says, “is happy to sit and talk, not only about technical stuff, but laughing and joking and talking rubbish with his engineers about all sorts of stuff”.
He is just not interested in any of his dealings with the media and, unlike his rivals, doesn’t bother to hide it.
Permane worked with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso through the title-winning years with the team formerly known as both Benetton and Renault. He has been impressed with Raikkonen from the start.
Raikkonen first drove one of the team’s cars at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia in late January. Straightaway the team knew they had something special.
He had not driven an F1 car since the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and had no experience of the Pirelli tyres he was using. Yet, after a single installation lap to check the car’s systems were working, his first flying lap was within a few 10ths of a second of the fastest lap he would do over the next two days.
The good impressions did not go away.
Permane said, “He has never driven a car with a full load of fuel in it.
“We went from 30-160kg [of fuel load in Valencia] to show him that’s the sort of difference you can expect – certainly from qualifying to race it’s even bigger than that.
“We calculate the lap time difference the fuel load will make and his first lap was absolutely spot on that difference. That is impressive.”
After that, Raikkonen did another 20 laps, each one exactly 0.1secs slower than the last – the lap time lost by tyre degradation.
There is a widespread belief that Raikkonen is as unforthcoming in his technical debriefs as he is in public, but that, too, appears to be a fallacy.
Lotus have found his comments in debriefs to be not only lengthy but very perceptive, too.
He was slightly quicker than new team-mate Romain Grosjean throughout pre-season testing, so it was a surprise that he was about 0.2secs slower than the Franco-Swiss semi-novice in the practice sessions in Melbourne.
Equally, the errors Raikkonen made on his qualifying laps that left him down in 18th on the grid betrayed a certain ring-rustiness, as well as perhaps the pressure he was feeling from Grosjean’s pace.
In the race, though, something of the old Raikkonen returned as he fought back up from his low starting position to take seventh place by the end.
Clearly, though, there is more to come.
Raikkonen is not entirely happy with the feel he is getting from the Lotus’s steering, but Permane plays down the significance of the problem.
“He’s very particular,” Permane says. “He knows what he wants and it’s not quite to his liking. It’s not a million miles away, but we’ll get it there.”
Raikkonen can drive perfectly well with the steering as it is, but the problem probably does mean that he is driving a little below his maximum.
The question now is, at what level is his maximum?
The reason Raikkonen left F1 in the first place was because he performed for Ferrari for much of 2008 and 2009 way below the level expected of him.
Ferrari, in fact, terminated Raikkonen’s contract a year early and paid him not to drive in 2010 so they could bring in Alonso.
The Spaniard has since out-performed Felipe Massa, the man who generally had the better of Raikkonen from the start of 2008 until fracturing his skull in an accident in Hungary in July 2009.
Does this mean Alonso is that much better than Raikkonen? Or that Raikkonen in 2008-9 was a long way below his best? Or that Massa is not the driver he was?
No one knows for sure, but for Raikkonen’s comeback to be considered an unqualified success he will have to be able to match his new team-mate’s pace.
The fact Lotus have regrouped over the winter and produced one of the year’s fastest cars only increases the pressure – it’s not so bad to be beaten by a team-mate when you’re battling to get into the top 10; but a very different matter when you’re fighting for the podium.
That, it appears, is what Lotus are in a position to do.
“We screwed up with the car last year,” Permane says, “and we know we’ve done a lovely car this year, not only aerodynamically, but we’ve done a nice package mechanically.”
So pleased are Lotus with the new E20 that Permane says he “dared to compare it with 2005″, when Alonso won the first of his two titles.
That is not so much a measure of Lotus’s realistic hopes as a reflection of how much the drivers like the car, and how well it responds to changes.
Nevertheless, the team are confident they can keep up with the break-neck development pace of the likes of McLaren and Red Bull and hold on to their position.
For Raikkonen, the requirement now is prove that he can go with them. So far, the signs are positive.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/the_two_kimi_raikkonens.html
Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati George Amick Red Amick Chris Amon
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/11/2058486/legendary-racer-car-designer-carroll.html
Julian Bailey Mauro Baldi Bobby Ball Marcel Balsa Lorenzo Bandini
Fernando Alonso believes that Ferrari has made progress with the revisions to its F2012, although he says it will impossible to judge where the car stands relative to the opposition until qualifying. Alonso was fastest in FP1 but didn?t get … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/11/fernando-alonso-the-first-numbers-are-positive/
Don Branson Tom Bridger Tony Brise Chris Bristow Peter Broeker
There are a bunch of stories knocking around this morning which are designed to be noticed. One is the suggestion that there could be a Bahraini on the board of the Formula One group, another that Mercedes-Benz could pull out of F1. Neither are to be taken too seriously. If one looks at the ownership [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/silly-stories/
Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/10/2056887/franchitti-to-use-no-50-at-indy.html
Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison
Mercedes-Benz has been involved in Formula 1 non-stop since 1993, although it must be said that the decision to get more involved in the sport was taken 25 years ago. At the time Peter Sauber had been working with Mercedes engines in sports car racing for several years. He had made his breakthrough in 1986 [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/mercedes-and-f1/
Fabrizio Barbazza John Barber Skip Barber Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/OQDOWPndIz0/power-dominates-while-sato-drives.html
Bobby Ball Marcel Balsa Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/07/money-talks-live-with-it.html
Derek Bell Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo Tom Belso JeanPierre Beltoise
 Emerson Fittipaldi in his heyday |
In an interview in the Times, former world champion Emerson Fittipaldi?s outlined his five-point plan to enhance Formula One. Cut costs ?They spend a fortune in wind-tunnel testing alone. Reduce costs and the slowest teams would catch up and make it more even.? Limit downforce ?They need to reduce enormously the downforce in the cars, the only way to bring back overtaking. We need more mechanical grip so that you have longer braking areas, can set up the car coming out of a corner, get in the slipstream and then overtake.? Close the pitlane ?When the safety car goes out they should close the pitlane. Now it?s just a lottery.? Lift ban on team orders ?It is a very stupid rule. It?s why they are called teams, it?s why they have two cars. If a driver is leading in the championship, everything has to go in his favour. What is wrong with that? It?s so easy for teams to camouflage their orders anyway. All they need to do is tell one guy on the radio he has a problem with his brakes. They can bend the rules very easily. In the old days they would even swap cars, so why do we have this ban now?? Retain traditional grands prix ?These places are the soul of racing. The Americas are under-represented. We have Canada back, but there is no USA, no Argentina, no Mexico. We need to stay in the heartlands.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/five_ways_to_improve_f1.php
Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder Clemente Biondetti Pablo Birger
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/09/2054718/stenhouse-content-to-bide-his.html
Olivier Beretta Allen Berg Georges Berger Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/09/2053993/danica-patrick-prepares-for-1st.html
Art Bisch Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut Trevor Blokdyk
 Is it now a three-way battle for the title? |
Fernando Alonso is still the driver in the best position to win the drivers? title according to the Daily Telegraph?s Tom Cary.
?Focus and concentration will be of paramount importance and there is none stronger in this regard than Ferrari?s Fernando Alonso.?
The Guardian?s Oliver Owen thinks that it is Mark Webber?s title to lose now, and that this may be the Australian?s last realistic chance of winning the title.
?He has driven beautifully. Monaco and Silverstone spring to mind. He has been an uncompromising racer, not giving Vettel or Lewis Hamilton an inch in Turkey and Singapore respectively. Most importantly, he has largely avoided the bouts of brain fade that can wreck a season ? his on-track hooning in Melbourne when racing Hamilton being the only exception. But there is a feeling that for Webber it is now or never, that a chance of a tilt at the title may never come again. He is certainly driving as if that is the case and that has been his strength.?
According to The Mirror?s Byron Young, both McLaren drivers are now out of the title hunt after their fourth and fifth place finishes in Suzuka.
?McLaren’s title hopes died yesterday in a weekend from Hell at Suzuka. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and fifth in a Japanese Grand Prix they had to win to have the remotest chance of keeping their title bid alive.”
The Sun?s Michael Spearman was of the same opinion, saying ?Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button’s title hopes were in tatters after a shocker in Japan.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/mclaren_drivers_out_of_title_r_1.php
John Barber Skip Barber Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/07/what-ralph-lauren-can-teach-mr-e.html
Allen Berg Georges Berger Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi
Fernando Alonso raced home to clinch first place in the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday, but you might argue that for all his joy at winning, there might have been someone just slightly happier at Sepang that day. Step forward Sergio Perez. The Mexican might not be a household name just yet but, aged 22, [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/-_7itVK0ToQ/perez-revels-in-success
Nico Rosberg looks every inch the archetypal image of a grand prix driver – blonde, good looking, perfect smile, the lot. And in Shanghai on Sunday, at the 111th attempt, he finally delivered the most important part of the package – the perfect win.
It has been a long time coming.
This is the 26-year-old German’s seventh season of F1 and while Lewis Hamilton, who was his team-mate when they were teenage karters 12 years ago, was a winner almost from the start of his Formula 1 career, Rosberg’s route to the top step of the podium has been somewhat more torturous.
So torturous, in fact, that there have been times when some wondered whether he would ever follow his father Keke in becoming a race winner.
Nico Rosberg’s dominant victory in China ensured he has become the first son of a living grand prix winner to follow in his father’s footsteps – and only the third ever. The fathers of Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve were killed when their son were children.
Keke Rosberg also had to wait a long time to stand on the top step of the podium – his first victory came in his fifth season.
Like Nico, that was Keke’s first year in a competitive car, and he ended it as world champion. It seems unlikely at this stage that Nico will follow his father in that sense, too, but after such a dominant win it certainly cannot be completely ruled out.
Nico Rosberg led from pole position to score Mercedes’ first victory since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. Photo: Getty
Watching Rosberg’s assured driving as he drove away from team-mate Michael Schumacher in the early laps, and then proceeded to control the race, it seems strange to think that there have long been questions about his ultimate standing as a true world-class grand prix driver. But there have, and to some extent they remain still.
There is no doubt about the calibre of Rosberg’s win on Sunday, but it remains difficult to be absolutely sure of his ultimate potential.
He is clearly very fast – but just how fast is not completely clear. Likewise, it remains to be seen whether he possesses all the other qualities that make up a great grand prix driver.
So far, for example, he has appeared to be the sort of driver who will deliver to the potential of his car – but not one who is able to transcend it occasionally, in the manner of Hamilton or Fernando Alonso.
In his debut year, he was generally marginally out-paced by Mark Webber, his team-mate at Williams at the time. And for the rest of Rosberg’s career there before joining Mercedes in 2010 he was partnered with journeymen drivers and in uncompetitive cars.
Rosberg has dominated his Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher in qualifying since then, but it is clear to most that the seven-time champion is not the same driver he was before he retired in 2006 and spent three years on the sidelines. And until Sunday, Schumacher had generally matched Rosberg for race pace since last season.
The improved performance of Mercedes this year will finally give Rosberg the chance to go wheel-to-wheel with the top drivers on a consistent basis for the first time, so a clearer picture may well emerge.
A first win, especially one so impressive, will do wonders for his confidence, although he has never lacked for that.
Rosberg is a highly intelligent man, who was planning on a degree in engineering had he not become a Formula 1 driver. He is an individual character, and can be a prickly interviewee.
It may be that will change now he will no longer be faced with endless questions about whether he believes he can be a winner.
He could not have answered them in more emphatic style.
If Schumacher had thought Rosberg’s 0.5 seconds a lap advantage in qualifying was a one-off based on a unique set of circumstances, he was soon disabused of that belief in the race as the younger German sprinted off into the distance, building a five-second lead in the first 10 laps.
That margin was the foundation for his win, but it was not as if Rosberg then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging on in front of faster cars.
After the first pit stops, Jenson Button was up into a de facto second place and in clear air, but Rosberg continued to pull away, although he was on the faster tyre. Button came back at him before the McLaren driver made his second stop, but only marginally.
Had the mechanic fitting Button’s left rear tyre not suffered a problem with a cross-threaded wheel nut at his final stop, the Englishman would have rejoined about 14 seconds behind Rosberg with 19 laps to go.
Button’s pace on the slower tyre suggests that he would have closed on Rosberg at that stage, but whether it would have been quickly enough is a moot point.
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh admitted: “I think it would have been very difficult to beat him.”
Where have a team who have gone backwards in the first two races found that pace from? Both Rosberg and Mercedes sports boss Norbert Haug had a simple explanation – set-up changes allowing better use of the tyres.
They had used them too much in the first race in Australia and not worked them enough in the second in Malaysia. Here in Shanghai they found a middle way.
Behind Rosberg was a fantastic scrap for second place, what Haug described as “one of the best races I have ever seen”.
Recounting the story of Red Bull’s race from ninth and 14th places on the first lap to fourth and fifth at the flag, team boss Christian Horner said he sounded “like a horse racing commentator”.
The championship is clearly going to be very close and it is setting up what look set to be a superb season.
“We’ve had three very different races,” Whitmarsh said, “and I think this is going to be a season where potentially we have 20 very different races.
“It’s fascinating, really. I enjoy it and I’m sure people watching it enjoy it. Who’s going to predict who’s going to win in Bahrain?”
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/rosberg_answers_critics_in_emp.html
Nico Rosberg looks every inch the archetypal image of a grand prix driver – blonde, good looking, perfect smile, the lot. And in Shanghai on Sunday, at the 111th attempt, he finally delivered the most important part of the package – the perfect win.
It has been a long time coming.
This is the 26-year-old German’s seventh season of F1 and while Lewis Hamilton, who was his team-mate when they were teenage karters 12 years ago, was a winner almost from the start of his Formula 1 career, Rosberg’s route to the top step of the podium has been somewhat more torturous.
So torturous, in fact, that there have been times when some wondered whether he would ever follow his father Keke in becoming a race winner.
Nico Rosberg’s dominant victory in China ensured he has become the first son of a living grand prix winner to follow in his father’s footsteps – and only the third ever. The fathers of Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve were killed when their son were children.
Keke Rosberg also had to wait a long time to stand on the top step of the podium – his first victory came in his fifth season.
Like Nico, that was Keke’s first year in a competitive car, and he ended it as world champion. It seems unlikely at this stage that Nico will follow his father in that sense, too, but after such a dominant win it certainly cannot be completely ruled out.
Nico Rosberg led from pole position to score Mercedes’ first victory since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. Photo: Getty
Watching Rosberg’s assured driving as he drove away from team-mate Michael Schumacher in the early laps, and then proceeded to control the race, it seems strange to think that there have long been questions about his ultimate standing as a true world-class grand prix driver. But there have, and to some extent they remain still.
There is no doubt about the calibre of Rosberg’s win on Sunday, but it remains difficult to be absolutely sure of his ultimate potential.
He is clearly very fast – but just how fast is not completely clear. Likewise, it remains to be seen whether he possesses all the other qualities that make up a great grand prix driver.
So far, for example, he has appeared to be the sort of driver who will deliver to the potential of his car – but not one who is able to transcend it occasionally, in the manner of Hamilton or Fernando Alonso.
In his debut year, he was generally marginally out-paced by Mark Webber, his team-mate at Williams at the time. And for the rest of Rosberg’s career there before joining Mercedes in 2010 he was partnered with journeymen drivers and in uncompetitive cars.
Rosberg has dominated his Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher in qualifying since then, but it is clear to most that the seven-time champion is not the same driver he was before he retired in 2006 and spent three years on the sidelines. And until Sunday, Schumacher had generally matched Rosberg for race pace since last season.
The improved performance of Mercedes this year will finally give Rosberg the chance to go wheel-to-wheel with the top drivers on a consistent basis for the first time, so a clearer picture may well emerge.
A first win, especially one so impressive, will do wonders for his confidence, although he has never lacked for that.
Rosberg is a highly intelligent man, who was planning on a degree in engineering had he not become a Formula 1 driver. He is an individual character, and can be a prickly interviewee.
It may be that will change now he will no longer be faced with endless questions about whether he believes he can be a winner.
He could not have answered them in more emphatic style.
If Schumacher had thought Rosberg’s 0.5 seconds a lap advantage in qualifying was a one-off based on a unique set of circumstances, he was soon disabused of that belief in the race as the younger German sprinted off into the distance, building a five-second lead in the first 10 laps.
That margin was the foundation for his win, but it was not as if Rosberg then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging on in front of faster cars.
After the first pit stops, Jenson Button was up into a de facto second place and in clear air, but Rosberg continued to pull away, although he was on the faster tyre. Button came back at him before the McLaren driver made his second stop, but only marginally.
Had the mechanic fitting Button’s left rear tyre not suffered a problem with a cross-threaded wheel nut at his final stop, the Englishman would have rejoined about 14 seconds behind Rosberg with 19 laps to go.
Button’s pace on the slower tyre suggests that he would have closed on Rosberg at that stage, but whether it would have been quickly enough is a moot point.
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh admitted: “I think it would have been very difficult to beat him.”
Where have a team who have gone backwards in the first two races found that pace from? Both Rosberg and Mercedes sports boss Norbert Haug had a simple explanation – set-up changes allowing better use of the tyres.
They had used them too much in the first race in Australia and not worked them enough in the second in Malaysia. Here in Shanghai they found a middle way.
Behind Rosberg was a fantastic scrap for second place, what Haug described as “one of the best races I have ever seen”.
Recounting the story of Red Bull’s race from ninth and 14th places on the first lap to fourth and fifth at the flag, team boss Christian Horner said he sounded “like a horse racing commentator”.
The championship is clearly going to be very close and it is setting up what look set to be a superb season.
“We’ve had three very different races,” Whitmarsh said, “and I think this is going to be a season where potentially we have 20 very different races.
“It’s fascinating, really. I enjoy it and I’m sure people watching it enjoy it. Who’s going to predict who’s going to win in Bahrain?”
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/rosberg_answers_critics_in_emp.html
Giovanna Amati George Amick Red Amick Chris Amon Bob Anderson
Jeff Gordon Ends Drought Jeff Gordon snaps 66-race winless streak by taking the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at PhoenixJeff Gordon Ends Drought AVONDALE, Ariz. Related posts:
- Jeff Gordon wins at Phoenix to snap 66-race drought Jeff Gordon Ends Drought Jeff Gordon snaps 66-race winless…
- NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon gets new spotter starting at Pocono CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jeff Gordon will have a new spotter…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/jeff-gordon-wins-the-nascar-sprint-cup-race-at-phoenix-international-raceway/
Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi
On this day in 1982: Gilles Villeneuve killed at Zolder is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Formula One lost one of its most beloved heroes on this day 30 years ago. Gilles Villeneuve was killed in a crash at Zolder in Belgium.
On this day in 1982: Gilles Villeneuve killed at Zolder is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/rljndsEyRyI/
Bob Bondurant Felice Bonetto Jo Bonnier Roberto Bonomi Juan Manuel Bordeu
Fernando Alonso has bemoaned the lack of on-track respect between drivers of the current era after being part of the Gilles Villeneuve 30th anniversary event at Fiorano yesterday. Alonso said that fights like the one that Villeneuve enjoyed with Rene … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/09/alonso-bemoans-lack-of-respect-among-drivers/
Mauro Baldi Bobby Ball Marcel Balsa Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks
Alonso: 2011 tyres will hurt top teams By Matt Beer Monday, February 28th 2011, 19:07 GMT Fernando Alonso says he is not in favour of the move towards less durable tyres for 2011, as he fears this will end up penalising faster cars. Related posts:
- F1: Teams expect 2011 tyres test in summer Teams expect 2011 tyres test in summer By Jonathan Noble…
- F1: Cooper Avon enters race for 2011 tyres Cooper Avon enters race for 2011 tyres By Jonathan Noble…
- F1: Alonso: Passing just as hard in 2011 Alonso: Passing just as hard in 2011 By Jonathan Noble…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/f1-alonso-2011-tyres-will-hurt-top-teams/
Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Keith Andrews
There has been speculation about Mark Webber moving to Ferrari since at least June last year, when Ferrari was considering what to do about the problem of Felipe Massa. At the time the Brazilian still had a valid contract and Ferrari was keen to honour that commitment and give Felipe another chance. However, at the [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/webber-and-ferrari/
Art Bisch Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut Trevor Blokdyk
 Jean Todt arives for Wednesday’s hearing |
Formula One should look at abolishing the controversial ban on team orders after Ferrari escaped further punishment for their manipulation of the German Grand Prix result. That is the view of the Daily Telegraph?s Tom Cary, who is of the opinion that the team orders rule now needs to be seriously looked at because of its obvious shortcomings.
?Whether you are for or against team orders, if the FIA could not back up its own rules and nail a competitor in a blatant case such as this the rule really does need reviewing. Perhaps Ferrari?s thinly-veiled threat to take the matter to the civil courts if they were punished too harshly scared the governing body, who as much as admitted the flimsiness of its rule.”
Paul Weaver, reporting for the Guardian in Monza, was in favour of the ruling which keeps alive Ferrari?s slim chances in an enthralling championship.
?The World Motor Sport Council was right not to ruin a compelling Formula One season by taking away the 25 points Alonso collected in Germany. That would have put him out of the five-man title race. But the council was widely expected to increase the fine and possibly deduct points from the team, as opposed to the individual. In the end, it could be argued that common sense prevailed. But the decision will dismay those who were upset by the way Ferrari handled the situation as much as anything else.?
The Daily Mail’s Jonathan McEvoy expressed outrage at the FIA tearing up its own rule book by allowing Ferrari to escape unpunished.
“Although the race stewards fined them £65,000 for giving team orders in July, the FIA World Motor Sport Council, to whom the matter was referred, decided not to impose any further punishment. It leaves the sport’s rulers open to derision. It was, after all, their rule they undermined. In a statement, the WMSC said the regulation banning team orders ‘should be reviewed’.”
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/team_order_rule_needs_a_rethin_1.php
Eric Brandon Don Branson Tom Bridger Tony Brise Chris Bristow
| Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel celebrate with Red Bull boss Christian Horner on the podium |
Sections of the international media have questioned Red Bull’s strategic approach to the world championship. After Sebastian Vettel won the Brazilian Grand Prix from the team’s points leader Mark Webber at Interlagos, Der Spiegel noted: “Red Bull gives (Fernando) Alonso wings”. Not switching the places means that Spaniard Alonso can take his Ferrari to just second place this weekend in Abu Dhabi and be champion, whereas the alternative strategy would have set up Webber for a straight fight. “It is not easy for Webber to drive in a team that considers him a burden to be up against Vettel,” said La Gazzetta dello Sport. Tuttosport noted that it seems “the Austrian team would be happier to lose than to see Webber beat Vettel”. “No team orders at Red Bull. Another own goal,” headlined La Repubblica. Joan Villadelprat wrote in his El Pais column: “Had Red Bull opted for Webber a few races ago, the Australian would probably now be champion.” Red Bull, however, is unrepentant. Team owner Dietrich Mateschitz told Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper that “second under proper conditions can often be more valuable than a first”. But there is a feeling that the team is not simply giving up the fight for the drivers’ title. One columnist in Brazil’s Globo wondered if Vettel’s radio message in Abu Dhabi might sound something like ‘So … Mark is faster than you’. “I’m always in favour of leaving the fight on the track with equal chances for both sides,” said Rubens Barrichello. “But I wonder if they would do that if the situation was in reverse. ?Mark has done a great job this year and he has been told by his team what position he is in,” said Lewis Hamilton. “Against adversity he has kept at it. I want to see Mark win.” Webber believes that, if a strategy is deployed, it will only be on the “last lap” of the season this weekend. “Sebastian is part of a team,” said Niki Lauda, who believes Webber should be backed fully by Red Bull. “If he does anything it should be helping Webber and not just on the last lap.” Webber is quoted by Bild newspaper: “It makes sense. Otherwise it would mean that Ferrari’s team orders would have paid off for Fernando.” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner hints that sense will ultimately prevail. “We have already given too many presents to Fernando this year,” he is quoted by Autosprint.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/red_bull_under_the_spotlight.php
Toni Branca Gianfranco Brancatelli Eric Brandon Don Branson Tom Bridger
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/06/2048655/race-rewind-looking-back-at-the.html
Richard Attwood Manny Ayulo Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti Julian Bailey
This morning at Fiorano, Scuderia Ferrari remembered Gilles Villenueuve, who was killed in an accident at Zolder in Belgium, 30 years ago today. As part of the anniversary, Gilles’s son Jacques, who won the World Championship in 1997 drove his father’s Ferrari 312 T4, in which Gilles won three races in 1979. Also taking part [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/remembering-one-of-the-greats/
Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati George Amick Red Amick
It was another frustrating season at the back of the grid for F1?s relative new boys. Lotus, HRT and Virgin all in their sophomore seasons in Formula One all failed, again, to score points in 2011. So what went wrong last season and what does 2012 have in store. Lotus They?ve arguably been the best [...]
Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/07/what-ralph-lauren-can-teach-mr-e.html
Derek Bell Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo Tom Belso JeanPierre Beltoise
 Fernando Alonso is the new favourite for the title |
Fernando Alonso is the new favourite to win the Formula One drivers? title, said David Coulthard in his column for The Telegraph.
?He is the man with the momentum and, on the same basis that I backed Mark Webber to win the title before Korea, is now my favourite to claim the world title in Abu Dhabi on Nov 14. ?When the cars are so evenly-matched you have to back the man in possession. Especially when that man is a two-time world champion and arguably the finest driver of his generation.?
The Mirror?s Byron Young drew comparisons between Alonso and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher as the Spaniard bids to become the sport?s youngest ever triple world champion.
?Like Schumacher, Alonso accepts no opposition within his team. Ultimately he fell out with McLaren over their refusal in 2007 to bring Lewis Hamilton to heel. ?He returned to Renault on condition he was No.1, only to be at the centre of the Singapore cheat scandal – engineered to hand him victory. ?The Spaniard has always denied involvement but at the German GP in July he was brazen enough to radio Ferrari to rein in team-mate Felipe Massa so he could start the winning streak that has taken him to the brink of history.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/alonso_the_new_favourite_1.php
Tom Bridger Tony Brise Chris Bristow Peter Broeker Tony Brooks
| Fernando Alonso is the new favourite for the title |
Fernando Alonso is the new favourite to win the Formula One drivers? title, said David Coulthard in his column for The Telegraph.
?He is the man with the momentum and, on the same basis that I backed Mark Webber to win the title before Korea, is now my favourite to claim the world title in Abu Dhabi on Nov 14. ?When the cars are so evenly-matched you have to back the man in possession. Especially when that man is a two-time world champion and arguably the finest driver of his generation.?
The Mirror?s Byron Young drew comparisons between Alonso and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher as the Spaniard bids to become the sport?s youngest ever triple world champion.
?Like Schumacher, Alonso accepts no opposition within his team. Ultimately he fell out with McLaren over their refusal in 2007 to bring Lewis Hamilton to heel. ?He returned to Renault on condition he was No.1, only to be at the centre of the Singapore cheat scandal – engineered to hand him victory. ?The Spaniard has always denied involvement but at the German GP in July he was brazen enough to radio Ferrari to rein in team-mate Felipe Massa so he could start the winning streak that has taken him to the brink of history.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/alonso_the_new_favourite_1.php
Bobby Ball Marcel Balsa Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/mG3RAOusEBY/damon-does-re-think-upon-bahrain.html
Pablo Birger Art Bisch Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut
Fernando Alonso was in positive mood at the end of the Mugello test, despite his day being interrupted by a crash. Alonso damaged the front of the car in a low speed impact with the barrier, and lost some two … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/03/alonso-confident-in-ferrari-progress/
Bill Aston Richard Attwood Manny Ayulo Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti
Kimi Raikkonen was to the point, as ever.
As pre-season testing wound to a close at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, the man who returns to Formula 1 this season after two years in rallying was asked how he felt the teams compared.
“In two weeks we know,” the Lotus driver said. “There is no point to guess here. I don’t know who’s going to be fastest. Nobody knows.”
Up and down the pit lane, drivers from other teams were expressing more or less the same view.
“McLaren look very strong,” said Red Bull’s Mark Webber. “And some of the other times done by other teams were pretty handy, too.”
Jenson Button, meanwhile, managed to cover all bases in three sentences.
“There’s a lot of work needs to be done before we’re properly competitive,” the McLaren driver said. “I’m reasonably happy with what we have. I don’t know where we are but the feeling is good.”
That summed up the situation pretty well at the end of three pre-season tests.
The lap times have been particularly difficult to read this year but it seems some patterns have emerged.
Up and down the pit lane, the general view is that the field is a lot closer than in recent years. Red Bull are again very strong, McLaren look like running them close and Mercedes appear to have made a step forward. Lotus, Sauber and Force India have also looked pretty handy.
Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says he is “expecting the tightest start to a season we’ve seen for a number of years“.
People don’t just invent these views – they are formed by looking through the mountains of data that each day of testing throws up.
Kimi Raikonnen returns to Formula 1 after a three year absence.
Analysing the lap times also produces some interesting numbers.
While it is not possible to know the programmes each team is running at any time, it is a reasonable assumption that over the course of winter testing all the teams will get through pretty much the same sort of work.
So, logically, an average of every lap time a driver has done over the three tests should give some indication of where each team is.
On average, over the whole of winter testing, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was the fastest of the drivers from last year’s top two teams, by 0.3secs from Button, with Hamilton a similar margin further back and just in front of Webber.
The specific average times look like this:
Vettel one minute, 25.340 seconds
Button 1:25.664
Hamilton 1:25.937
Webber 1:25.951
It’s also worth pointing out that the pattern of the last two or three years has been for Red Bull’s true pace to be disguised in both winter testing and in free practice at the grands prix.
Whether they are running more fuel than their rivals, or a weaker engine map, Red Bull always seem to find more time when it matters than the others do.
Mercedes have clearly been doing a different programme from the other teams – with a far greater concentration of longer runs – so comparing their times is potentially less instructive.
But when you see that Nico Rosberg did a 1:22.932 at the start of a 13-lap run on the penultimate day of testing, you know they have a pretty decent car.
“It’s still going to be the teams from last year that we need to beat,” Rosberg said, sounding confident. “But I think we have a good chance to annoy them a few times early in the season.”
And then there is Ferrari. Unless there is some Oscar-worthy acting going on, they are in trouble.
Ferrari have been open about the fact that they are struggling to understand the behaviour of their radical new car. Insiders tell BBC Sport that sometimes it behaves well and predictably, and sometimes it does not, and the team have no idea why.
The sense of crisis was heightened by Ferrari’s decision to cancel their driver media briefings over the final weekend of testing, saying they wanted them to concentrate solely on their job.
But Fernando Alonso did speak on television at the Barcelona-Sporting football match on Saturday night, saying: “In the first races we will suffer because we are not 100%.”
Ferrari put up technical director Pat Fry instead of Alonso on Sunday, and he admitted that he thought it unlikely the team would be able to finish on the podium in Melbourne.
One can only imagine the pressure Fry must be feeling right now.
A diffident man who is uncomfortable with the media, Fry is in his first year in the job following the dismissal of predecessor Aldo Costa. And he has overseen a design office that was told to take risks this season in an attempt to close the gap to Red Bull after a poor 2011.
They’ve taken those risks – but it does not look for now as if they have made wise choices.
And yet, and yet. If you average out Alonso’s lap times over the whole of winter testing, guess what? He is the fastest of all – by 0.3secs. No wonder Webber says: “The mystery is the Ferrari.”
So what’s going on? The new F2012 looks like it can do a decent lap time, so it is conceivable that it will qualify pretty well in Melbourne the weekend after next.
But according to BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson, who spent some time watching trackside in Barcelona, it seems to quickly drop in performance, initially losing grip on turn-in, and later on corner exits too.
It seems to use its tyres particularly aggressively. Ferrari have been afflicted these last few years by a car that raced better than it qualified because it used its tyres too gently. In seeking to fix this trait, have they now gone too far the other way?
It’s not as if they can blame the drivers either. In Alonso, they have an all-time great, a gold standard who will push the car to its absolute limit on every single lap of every single race. Many consider his season in 2011 to have been better than his title-winning years with Renault in 2005-06, considering the equipment at his disposal.
This, team boss Stefano Domenicali has admitted to BBC Sport, was the point of signing the Spaniard on a lucrative contract that commits him to the team until the end of 2016. It puts pressure on the team to deliver.
Of course, all this may turn out to be an illusion. Perhaps Alonso will be a contender for victory in Melbourne, and throughout the year. But let’s assume for a moment he isn’t.
Back in 2007, when his relationship with McLaren was in tatters, Alonso had talks with Red Bull to discuss moving there.
Red Bull were keen but in the end Alonso opted for a move back to Renault, knowing a Ferrari seat was waiting for him a couple of years down the line.
At the time, with Ferrari contending for the title for the 10th time in 11 years and Red Bull still in the midfield, you could hardly fault the logic.
But now, in his quiet moments, or when he’s watching Vettel celebrate yet another win, or looking at the beautifully intricate detail at the back of the Red Bull, or when he’s wrestling his uncooperative mount into a corner, does Alonso wish he could turn back the clock?
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/kimi_raikkonen_was_to_the_poin.html
Walt Brown Warwick Brown Adolf Brudes Martin Brundle Gianmaria Bruni
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/OQDOWPndIz0/power-dominates-while-sato-drives.html
Chris Amon Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti
It was another frustrating season at the back of the grid for F1?s relative new boys. Lotus, HRT and Virgin all in their sophomore seasons in Formula One all failed, again, to score points in 2011. So what went wrong last season and what does 2012 have in store. Lotus They?ve arguably been the best [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/OQDOWPndIz0/power-dominates-while-sato-drives.html
Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder Clemente Biondetti Pablo Birger
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/05/2046627/logano-nips-busch-for-talladega.html
Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati George Amick
The second day of the F1 test at Mugello saw better weather and the unusual result of two drivers having exactly the same lap time with Romain Grosjean and Kamui Kobayashi sharing a best of 1m21.603s. This was two-tenths faster than Sebastian Vettel’s best for Red Bull, although both men did a lot more laps [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/a-better-day-at-mugello/
Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore Bill Aston Richard Attwood
Back in the 1970s some crazed marketing man thought that money could be made with the idea of having professional sports teams sing. It was a trend that began in Britain with the 1970 England World Cup squad singing “Back Home”, which hurtled to number one in the British charts, proving that the crazed marketing [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/how-they-used-to-do-it/
Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
Kimi Raikkonen silenced the sceptics with a superb drive to second place in Bahrain, and at one stage looked like he might actually win. The Lotus driver started 11th and had the benefit of having two new sets of options … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/04/22/kimi-raikkonen-in-the-end-we-were-not-fast-enough-to-win/
Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti Julian Bailey Mauro Baldi Bobby Ball
 |
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian as his 80th birthday approaches, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone speak out about a variety of subjects, from the future of the sport to Margaret Thatcher, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, democracy, football and what continues to drive him.
The way I feel at the moment, why stop? I do it because I enjoy it. And yesterday is gone. I don’t care what happened yesterday. What else would I do? People retire to die. I don’t get any individual pleasure because we don’t win races or titles in this job. I’m like most business people. You look back at the end of the year and you see what you’ve achieved by working out how much money the company has made. That’s it.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/bernie_ecclestone_no_plans_to.php
Pablo Birger Art Bisch Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut
Fernando Alonso may have finished only seventh in Bahrain on Sunday, but the Spaniard was pleased to have bagged some useful points ? and ended the run of the first four flyaway races just 10 points off the World Championship … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/04/24/fernando-alonso-we-limited-the-damage-again/
JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen Johnny Boyd David Brabham
The 2012 Formula 1 season gets underway this month and here are some videos to get you in the mood. While you are here, why not check out which drivers are under pressure in 2012? Enjoy these videos! More to come! [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog [...]
Art Bisch Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut Trevor Blokdyk
Jeff Gordon Ends Drought Jeff Gordon snaps 66-race winless streak by taking the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at PhoenixJeff Gordon Ends Drought AVONDALE, Ariz. Related posts:
- Jeff Gordon wins at Phoenix to snap 66-race drought Jeff Gordon Ends Drought Jeff Gordon snaps 66-race winless…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/jeff-gordon-wins-the-nascar-sprint-cup-race-at-phoenix-international-raceway/
Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto
Horner rubbishes latest Webber rumours is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
In the round-up: Christian Horner dismissed rumours Mark Webber will move to Ferrari.
Horner rubbishes latest Webber rumours is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/LYADzsOJKJ0/
Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Barring an unforeseen scheduling hiccup, two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart and 2008 Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton will swap race cars in an exhibition later this year, Stewart-Haas Racing spokesman Mike Arning confirmed Saturday. Hamilton Stewart The seat swap comes at the hands of Mobil 1, a mutual sponsor for the two drivers, and is expected to take place at Watkins Glen International sometime during the summer.The cars involved will not be show cars. Related posts:
- Tony Stewart: NASCAR’s clampdown on criticism OK SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Count two-time NASCAR Cup champion Tony Stewart…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/nascars-tony-stewart-f1s-lewis-hamilton-to-swap-cars/
Slim Borgudd Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/ewMLtI0sOlg/no-fenders-on-formula-1-tv-strike.html
Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore Bill Aston Richard Attwood Manny Ayulo
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/08/schumacher-time-to-call-it-quits.html
Walt Ader Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers
Fernando Alonso may have finished only seventh in Bahrain on Sunday, but the Spaniard was pleased to have bagged some useful points ? and ended the run of the first four flyaway races just 10 points off the World Championship … Continue reading
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/04/24/fernando-alonso-we-limited-the-damage-again/
Fabrizio Barbazza John Barber Skip Barber Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/s-q_ZYE1poA/houston-returns-to-indycar-fold.html
Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella Mário de Araújo Cabral Frank Armi
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/05/sutil-scandal-i-suppose-im-witness-x.html
Rene Arnoux Peter Arundell Alberto Ascari Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley
Sauber has now formally confirmed its new marketing partnership with Chelsea FC, which had been rumoured for some time after the car carried ?blue? teaser messages at the last two Grands Prix. The relationship is the first in F1 to … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/04/30/sauber-finally-confirms-chelsea-deal/
Carlo Abate George Abecassis Kenny Acheson Andrea de Adamich Philippe Adams
Amid the widespread astonishment at how Fernando Alonso has found himself leading the world championship after two races despite driving the worst car Ferrari have produced for nearly 20 years, it has been somewhat overlooked that McLaren are topping the constructors’ championship.
Victory for Jenson Button in Australia, two third places for Lewis Hamilton and two front row lock-outs have demonstrated that the MP4-27 is not only the best-looking car on the grid, it is also the fastest.
This is quite a turnaround from the last three years, when McLaren have been off the pace at the start of the season, putting their title challenge on the back foot before it had started.
The man responsible for this turnaround is McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe, who is in charge of the team’s design and engineering.
A likeable, down-to-earth character, Lowe says “relief” is the first emotion he feels as a result of this impressive achievement after three years of struggling in vain to keep up with Red Bull.
He says: “There is a lot of pressure – people going around saying what you need to do is deliver a car that is quickest at the first race, as though we hadn’t thought of that, you know?
“You go and estimate what you think that involves with no certain knowledge and then you go and try to deliver it. It’s tough.”
McLaren driver Jenson Button tackles a rain-swept Malaysian Grand Prix. Photo: Getty
Ask Lowe how McLaren have ended up with the fastest car at the start of a season for the first time in four years, and he’ll tell you there is no “magic”.
In reality, there are several factors behind McLaren’s ability to leapfrog Red Bull this year and stay ahead of everyone else.
McLaren had a successful winter that was not affected by reliability problems with the car, as had been the case in 2011. That meant they could spend pre-season perfecting what they had rather than, as Lowe puts it, “fighting fires”.
Equally, Red Bull appear to have been more badly affected than most other teams by the banning of exhaust-blown diffusers, last year’s must-have technology, which the world champions are widely believed to have exploited more effectively than any other team.
For McLaren, starting 2012 with the fastest car is the culmination of a three-year battle to return to the top that began with the disaster of 2009, when they started the season more than two seconds off the pace.
That was the result of Hamilton’s intense title battle with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa in 2008 - which deflected resource away from both team’s new cars – as well as the introduction of the biggest regulation change for 25 years.
McLaren recovered well in 2009 to win a couple of races later in the season, once they had adopted the ‘double diffuser’ that caused controversy at the start of the year and led to Brawn’s championship win.
In 2010 they moved forward, but were still only third fastest behind Red Bull and Ferrari; and in 2011 they leapfrogged Ferrari but were still behind Red Bull.
At the same time, there was a re-organisation of the technical department undertaken in 2010-11, which has taken time to settle down.
“We came out (in 2011) pretty much in the same place we had been at the end of 2010,” Lowe says. “So Red Bull had made decent progress over the winter and so had we.
“You have got to do not only what your competitors have done over the winter but then a bit more and then some to generate a lead over them.
“But that is difficult when there aren’t fundamental changes in the rules for the car.
“You’d need Red Bull to go on holiday for a month, and then if you were working to the same general output you’d catch them up, but obviously they don’t do that so you’ve just got to push it.”
The same thoughts were going through the minds of the bosses at Ferrari. But whereas Maranello responded by undertaking a major change in design philosophy – which has backfired, notwithstanding Alonso’s win on Sunday – McLaren realised this would be a mistake.
“In general you are going to be reluctant to say: ‘I need to tear this up’,” Lowe says.
“Here and there we were quicker than a Red Bull and we were certainly close to them when we weren’t.
“The car performance at that point, given also there is not a big regulation change, is a consequence of a great deal of hard work. So it’s quite rash to throw that away in too many areas rather than just build on it and iterate further and further.
“That doesn’t mean you’re not constantly looking for new ideas and trying to make them work. (But) you have to make very sure that whatever change you make is going to be better.”
Lowe’s contention that there has been no miracle at McLaren, just good, solid development work, is backed up by the fact that other teams have clearly made even more progress compared to Red Bull than they have – such as Lotus and Williams.
In pointing this out, Lowe betrays the natural caution of the F1 engineer – an approach that is understandable when, as Malaysia proved, even having the outright fastest car is no guarantee you will win the race.
Hamilton stepped down from the bottom step of the podium on Sunday to tell the waiting media he needed to find more race pace to capitalise on his strong qualifying form.
Lowe’s “new challenge”, it seems, has already arrived.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/lowe_confident_of_mclaren_succ.html
Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso
Kimi Raikkonen silenced the sceptics with a superb drive to second place in Bahrain, and at one stage looked like he might actually win. The Lotus driver started 11th and had the benefit of having two new sets of options … Continue reading
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/04/22/kimi-raikkonen-in-the-end-we-were-not-fast-enough-to-win/
Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza John Barber Skip Barber
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/07/webber-on-the-verge-of-walking.html
Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer Zsolt Baumgartner Elie Bayol Don Beauman
Marussia Virgin Racing have launched their car to take on the 2011 world championship in a lavish London ceremony. The Marussia name now preceeds Virgin following a major tie up with the Russian sportscar manufacturer and the team at the end of 2010. It has led to the new car being designated as the MVR-02. [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/marussia-virgin-racing-launch-their-2011-car/
Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati George Amick
Amid the widespread astonishment at how Fernando Alonso has found himself leading the world championship after two races despite driving the worst car Ferrari have produced for nearly 20 years, it has been somewhat overlooked that McLaren are topping the constructors’ championship.
Victory for Jenson Button in Australia, two third places for Lewis Hamilton and two front row lock-outs have demonstrated that the MP4-27 is not only the best-looking car on the grid, it is also the fastest.
This is quite a turnaround from the last three years, when McLaren have been off the pace at the start of the season, putting their title challenge on the back foot before it had started.
The man responsible for this turnaround is McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe, who is in charge of the team’s design and engineering.
A likeable, down-to-earth character, Lowe says “relief” is the first emotion he feels as a result of this impressive achievement after three years of struggling in vain to keep up with Red Bull.
He says: “There is a lot of pressure – people going around saying what you need to do is deliver a car that is quickest at the first race, as though we hadn’t thought of that, you know?
“You go and estimate what you think that involves with no certain knowledge and then you go and try to deliver it. It’s tough.”
McLaren driver Jenson Button tackles a rain-swept Malaysian Grand Prix. Photo: Getty
Ask Lowe how McLaren have ended up with the fastest car at the start of a season for the first time in four years, and he’ll tell you there is no “magic”.
In reality, there are several factors behind McLaren’s ability to leapfrog Red Bull this year and stay ahead of everyone else.
McLaren had a successful winter that was not affected by reliability problems with the car, as had been the case in 2011. That meant they could spend pre-season perfecting what they had rather than, as Lowe puts it, “fighting fires”.
Equally, Red Bull appear to have been more badly affected than most other teams by the banning of exhaust-blown diffusers, last year’s must-have technology, which the world champions are widely believed to have exploited more effectively than any other team.
For McLaren, starting 2012 with the fastest car is the culmination of a three-year battle to return to the top that began with the disaster of 2009, when they started the season more than two seconds off the pace.
That was the result of Hamilton’s intense title battle with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa in 2008 - which deflected resource away from both team’s new cars – as well as the introduction of the biggest regulation change for 25 years.
McLaren recovered well in 2009 to win a couple of races later in the season, once they had adopted the ‘double diffuser’ that caused controversy at the start of the year and led to Brawn’s championship win.
In 2010 they moved forward, but were still only third fastest behind Red Bull and Ferrari; and in 2011 they leapfrogged Ferrari but were still behind Red Bull.
At the same time, there was a re-organisation of the technical department undertaken in 2010-11, which has taken time to settle down.
“We came out (in 2011) pretty much in the same place we had been at the end of 2010,” Lowe says. “So Red Bull had made decent progress over the winter and so had we.
“You have got to do not only what your competitors have done over the winter but then a bit more and then some to generate a lead over them.
“But that is difficult when there aren’t fundamental changes in the rules for the car.
“You’d need Red Bull to go on holiday for a month, and then if you were working to the same general output you’d catch them up, but obviously they don’t do that so you’ve just got to push it.”
The same thoughts were going through the minds of the bosses at Ferrari. But whereas Maranello responded by undertaking a major change in design philosophy – which has backfired, notwithstanding Alonso’s win on Sunday – McLaren realised this would be a mistake.
“In general you are going to be reluctant to say: ‘I need to tear this up’,” Lowe says.
“Here and there we were quicker than a Red Bull and we were certainly close to them when we weren’t.
“The car performance at that point, given also there is not a big regulation change, is a consequence of a great deal of hard work. So it’s quite rash to throw that away in too many areas rather than just build on it and iterate further and further.
“That doesn’t mean you’re not constantly looking for new ideas and trying to make them work. (But) you have to make very sure that whatever change you make is going to be better.”
Lowe’s contention that there has been no miracle at McLaren, just good, solid development work, is backed up by the fact that other teams have clearly made even more progress compared to Red Bull than they have – such as Lotus and Williams.
In pointing this out, Lowe betrays the natural caution of the F1 engineer – an approach that is understandable when, as Malaysia proved, even having the outright fastest car is no guarantee you will win the race.
Hamilton stepped down from the bottom step of the podium on Sunday to tell the waiting media he needed to find more race pace to capitalise on his strong qualifying form.
Lowe’s “new challenge”, it seems, has already arrived.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/lowe_confident_of_mclaren_succ.html
George Abecassis Kenny Acheson Andrea de Adamich Philippe Adams Walt Ader
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/y3DVn8W9Hk8/f1-south-american-squabble.html
Warwick Brown Adolf Brudes Martin Brundle Gianmaria Bruni Jimmy Bryan
| Is it now a three-way battle for the title? |
Fernando Alonso is still the driver in the best position to win the drivers? title according to the Daily Telegraph?s Tom Cary.
?Focus and concentration will be of paramount importance and there is none stronger in this regard than Ferrari?s Fernando Alonso.?
The Guardian?s Oliver Owen thinks that it is Mark Webber?s title to lose now, and that this may be the Australian?s last realistic chance of winning the title.
?He has driven beautifully. Monaco and Silverstone spring to mind. He has been an uncompromising racer, not giving Vettel or Lewis Hamilton an inch in Turkey and Singapore respectively. Most importantly, he has largely avoided the bouts of brain fade that can wreck a season ? his on-track hooning in Melbourne when racing Hamilton being the only exception. But there is a feeling that for Webber it is now or never, that a chance of a tilt at the title may never come again. He is certainly driving as if that is the case and that has been his strength.?
According to The Mirror?s Byron Young, both McLaren drivers are now out of the title hunt after their fourth and fifth place finishes in Suzuka.
?McLaren’s title hopes died yesterday in a weekend from Hell at Suzuka. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and fifth in a Japanese Grand Prix they had to win to have the remotest chance of keeping their title bid alive.”
The Sun?s Michael Spearman was of the same opinion, saying ?Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button’s title hopes were in tatters after a shocker in Japan.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/mclaren_drivers_out_of_title_r_1.php
Adolf Brudes Martin Brundle Gianmaria Bruni Jimmy Bryan Carlo Abate
If Ferrari fans thought that their team had perhaps not lived up its name last season then they should talk to fans of Williams. The team that dominated in the early 90?s winning multiple World Championships managed to score only five points last season. Five. It?s a sad fall from grace and one, that at [...]
Slim Borgudd Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/ewMLtI0sOlg/no-fenders-on-formula-1-tv-strike.html
Toni Branca Gianfranco Brancatelli Eric Brandon Don Branson Tom Bridger
It was another frustrating season at the back of the grid for F1?s relative new boys. Lotus, HRT and Virgin all in their sophomore seasons in Formula One all failed, again, to score points in 2011. So what went wrong last season and what does 2012 have in store. Lotus They?ve arguably been the best [...]
Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer
Two men in Wellford, South Carolina, have been charged with armed robbery. Mario Andretti Jackson, 38, and Tyler Alexander Fernandez, 19, were charged after being arrested on Monday. For those of you who might not understand the significance of such a story, it should be noted that Mario Andretti is a legend of American racing, [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/funny-old-world/
Mark Blundell Raul Boesel Menato Boffa Bob Bondurant Felice Bonetto
Patrick finishes 17th at Phoenix By Diego Mejia Sunday, February 27th 2011, 07:21 GMT Danica Patrick improved on her previous form at Phoenix International Raceway by finishing 17th in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event. After an eventful first race at the one-mile Arizona oval last November, Patrick had a smoother run this time around as she continues to build on her stock car experience, while pondering still a possible full-time move from IndyCar. Although Patrick managed to finished the race two positions shy of her top-15 target, she eventually finished three laps down on winner Kyle Busch as the 200 laps saw little incidents and long green-flag periods that did not allow her to recover ground and be in contention further up. Related posts:
- NASCAR: Patrick finishes 27th at Michigan Patrick finishes 27th at Michigan By Diego Mejia Sunday, August…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/nascar-patrick-finishes-17th-at-phoenix/
Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi
The 2012 Formula 1 season gets underway this month and here are some videos to get you in the mood. While you are here, why not check out which drivers are under pressure in 2012? Enjoy these videos! More to come! [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog [...]
Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
| The wreckage of Jochen Rindt’s car at Barcelona |
An excellent insight into the world of F1 as it used to be can be found on the regularly-interesting Letters of Note website. It publishes a hitherto unseen letter from Jochen Rindt to Lotus boss Colin Chapman written shortly after Rindt?s crash at Barcelona which was a result of the wing system on Lotus 49 collapsing at speed.
?Colin. I have been racing F1 for 5 years and I have made one mistake (I rammed Chris Amon in Clermont Ferrand) and I had one accident in Zandvoort due to gear selection failure otherwise I managed to stay out of trouble. This situation changed rapidly since I joined your team. ?Honestly your cars are so quick that we would still be competitive with a few extra pounds used to make the weakest parts stronger, on top of that I think you ought to spend some time checking what your different employes are doing, I sure the wishbones on the F2 car would have looked different. Please give my suggestions some thought, I can only drive a car in which I have some confidence, and I feel the point of no confidence is quite near.?
A little more than a year later Rindt’s Lotus suffered mechanical breakdown just before braking into one of the corners. He swerved violently to the left and crashed into a poorly-installed barrier, killing him instantly.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/the_point_of_no_confidence_is.php
Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/05/sutil-scandal-i-suppose-im-witness-x.html
Manny Ayulo Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti Julian Bailey Mauro Baldi
| Will Christian Horner regret not utilising team orders in Brazil? |
Michael Spearman of The Sun, says that the £65,000 fine Ferrari received for breaching the team orders ban in Germany will seem like loose change if Fernando Alonso wins the drivers? title in Abu Dhabi.
?The extra seven points Alonso collected when Ferrari ordered Felipe Massa to move over for him in Germany earlier in the season are now looking even more crucial. ?And the £65,000 fine they picked up for ruthlessly breaking the rules will seem loose change if Alonso clinches the title in his first year with the Maranello team. ?Red Bull could have switched the result yesterday given their crushing dominance and still celebrated their first constructors’ championship just five years after coming into the sport. ?That would also have given Webber an extra seven points, leaving him just one behind Alonso.?The Guardian?s Paul Weaver says that if Fernando Alonso does take the drivers? title in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari owes a debt of gratitude to Red Bull for their decision not to employ team orders in Brazil.
?If Alonso does take the title next week it would not be inappropriate were he and Ferrari to send a few gallons of champagne to Red Bull’s headquarters in Milton Keynes. ?While Red Bull should be heartily applauded for the championship they did win today their apparent acceptance that Ferrari might carry off the more glamorous prize continues to baffle Formula One and its globetrotting supporters. ?Their refusal to make life easy for Webber, who has led for much of the season and is still seven points ahead of Vettel, means that whatever happens in the desert next week Alonso, the only driver who was capable of taking the championship in the race today, only has to secure second place to guarantee his third world title.?The Independent?s David Tremayne is also of the opinion that Red Bull may regret not using team orders in Brazil.
?Had Red Bull elected to adopt team orders and let Webber win ? something that the governing body allows when championships are at stake ? Webber would have left Brazil with 245 points ? just one point off the lead. For some that was confirmation of his suggestion that Vettel is the team’s favoured driver ? which generated an angry call from team owner Dietrich Mateschitz in Austria and was much denied by team principal, Christian Horner. ?And it sets up a situation where, if the result is repeated next weekend, as is likely, Vettel and Webber will tie on 256, five behind Alonso.?The Mirror?s Byron Young has put Lewis Hamilton?s fading title chances down to an inferior McLaren machine and he admits the 2008 World Champion now needs a miracle.
?Sebastian Vettel’s victory sends the world title fight to a four-way showdown for the first time in the sport’s history. ?Hamilton goes there as part of that story with a 24-point deficit to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, but with just 25 on offer in the final round in six days’ time it would take more than a miracle. ?Driving an outclassed McLaren he slugged it out against superior machinery and stiff odds to finish fourth.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/team_orders_in_spotlight_again_1.php
Jo Bonnier Roberto Bonomi Juan Manuel Bordeu Slim Borgudd Luki Botha
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/30/2034611/engineer-dallara-was-asked-to.html
Julian Bailey Mauro Baldi Bobby Ball Marcel Balsa Lorenzo Bandini
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Barring an unforeseen scheduling hiccup, two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart and 2008 Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton will swap race cars in an exhibition later this year, Stewart-Haas Racing spokesman Mike Arning confirmed Saturday. Hamilton Stewart The seat swap comes at the hands of Mobil 1, a mutual sponsor for the two drivers, and is expected to take place at Watkins Glen International sometime during the summer.The cars involved will not be show cars. Related posts:
- Tony Stewart: NASCAR’s clampdown on criticism OK SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Count two-time NASCAR Cup champion Tony Stewart…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/nascars-tony-stewart-f1s-lewis-hamilton-to-swap-cars/
Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati George Amick Red Amick Chris Amon
Fernando Alonso starts the Bahrain GP from ninth place on the grid, but with a free choice of soft or medium tyres for the grid after he didn?t do a flying lap in Q3. The Spaniard had used up all … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/04/21/fernando-alonso-i-dont-expect-rain-for-tomorrow/
Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut Trevor Blokdyk Mark Blundell Raul Boesel
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/qbyTsMcvDrw/street-party-in-bahrain-continues.html
Derek Bell Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo Tom Belso JeanPierre Beltoise
Pirelli: tyre rules may need bringing up-to-date is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Pirelli have suggested F1′s tyre rules should be revised to improve the action on race weekends.
Pirelli: tyre rules may need bringing up-to-date is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/ho176wNVz4A/
Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/29/2032938/angelelli-taylor-win-grand-prix.html
Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut Trevor Blokdyk Mark Blundell
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/_k1sLJaZhWY/indycar-tv-schedule.html
Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
Formula 1′s visit to Bahrain was not greatly disrupted by protesters, but there are beginning to be fears that the sport could run into trouble later this summer in Montreal. For the last 11 weeks students in the city have been protesting about the raising of tuition fees and in recent days the action has [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/meanwhile-in-montreal/
Roberto Bonomi Juan Manuel Bordeu Slim Borgudd Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/O_Z1ZqGZQ3c/formula-1-rewind.html
Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot
Sebastian Vettel’s behaviour during and after the Malaysian Grand Prix has been causing a bit of a fuss in Germany over the past few days.
The media have lapped up his response to his collision with backmarker Narain Karthikeyan, in much the same way as their British counterparts would have done with a similar incident involving Lewis Hamilton, and Vettel has come in for a fair bit of criticism.
On the BBC after the race, Vettel called Karthikeyan an “idiot” for his role in the collision that cost the world champion fourth place.
Speaking in German, the word he chose was “cucumber” – a common insult in that country for bad drivers on the road.
Vettel faces increased competition from outside and inside his Red Bull Team. Photo: Getty/AFP
It has also been pointed out that shots from Vettel’s onboard camera appear to show the 24-year-old Red Bull driver giving Karthikeyan a middle-finger salute as he drives past. This has led some to call for him to be punished by governing body the FIA, which so far is keeping a low profile on the matter.
Comparisons have been drawn with McLaren’s Jenson Button – who also failed to score any points in Malaysia, but who reacted with his usual calm.
Vettel, some in Germany have said, doesn’t know how to lose.
They point out that last year he won 11 races on his way to one of the most dominant championship victories in Formula 1 history. Failing to win four races in a row in that context, the critics say, should not elicit this kind of reaction.
Vettel has not spoken in public since leaving Malaysia, and Red Bull are shrugging it off.
After the race on Sunday, team principal Christian Horner defended Vettel’s driving in the collision with Karthikeyan, saying that it was the Indian’s “responsibility to get out of the way of the leaders as he is a lapped car”.
Although the stewards penalised Karthikeyan for the incident, others are not sure it’s quite so clear-cut.
One leading F1 figure told me: “It was completely Vettel’s fault – he needed to give Karthikeyan more space. He only had to clear the last inch and he cut across the front of him. He was showing a bit of frustration and it bit him.”
Certainly Vettel has found himself at the start of 2012 in a situation with which he is not familiar.
Vettel has had the fastest car in F1 since at least the middle of 2009, and he has used it to good effect.
But now things are different. Red Bull’s new car is not a match for the McLaren, and it has also been behind one Mercedes and one Lotus on the grid in each of the first two races.
For a man who is as driven to win – to dominate even – as Vettel is, that will not be a comfortable situation.
Nor will it have escaped his attention that team-mate Mark Webber has so far out-qualified him in both races this year – again, quite a turnaround from 2011, when the Australian managed it only three times in 19 grands prix.
It is early days, but so far the comparison between the two Red Bull drivers looks much more like it was in the first part of 2010 – before the team started fully exploiting the exhaust-blown diffusers that dominated the last 18 months and which have been banned for this season.
Webber was never that comfortable in last season’s Red Bull – and while he came to match Vettel on race pace in the second half of last season, he never really got on terms with him in qualifying.
Much of that was to do with the behaviour of the car on corner entry, where the exhaust-blown diffusers were so powerful in increasing performance.
Red Bull’s decline has also coincided with the stiffening of the front-wing load test, an attempt to stop teams allowing the ends of the wing to droop towards the track at speed to increase downforce. Red Bull were noticeably better at doing this than the other teams.
It may be an unrelated coincidence, but this year’s Red Bull suffers from understeer, a lack of front-end grip – a handling characteristic Webber is comfortable with, while Vettel prefers oversteer.
This is not the first time Vettel has been criticised for letting his emotion get the better of him when things are not going his way.
There was the infamous ‘nutter’ sign he directed at Webber following their collision in the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix.
There were also mistakes in Britain, Belgium and Singapore that year as he very nearly gifted the world title to Ferrari and Fernando Alonso, who lost it only after a strategic error in the final race.
Such was Vettel’s domination in 2011 that it never arose- leading some to say he had reached a new level of maturity both in and out of the car.
The truth of that claim looks set to be tested this year, as Red Bull and Vettel struggle to regain a position that the driver at least seems to consider is rightfully his.
Meanwhile, his rivals will have been watching with interest.
Webber, Alonso, Button and Hamilton remember Vettel’s behaviour in 2010 all too well.
Betraying his emotions in such an obvious way will be seen by them as a weakness – they will look at it and think he is rattled.
So it is true to say on the one hand that Vettel’s reaction proves he is a winner.
But it is also the case that learning how to lose gracefully – as Button and Alonso, particularly, have learnt in recent years – has its benefits as well.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/vettel_collision_a_champion_un.html
Chris Bristow Peter Broeker Tony Brooks Alan Brown Walt Brown
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/01/2036191/nascar-sprint-cup-aarons-499-preview.html
Pablo Birger Art Bisch Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut
Ferrari Technical director Pat Fry has said that he doesn’t expect the team to start the 2012 season well. Who remembers the 1988 Austalian Grand Prix? Many have suggested that Ferrari need to hit the ground running to improve on last year, but Fry is in a rather pessimistic mood. Speaking at the end of a tough pre-season, [...]
Eric Brandon Don Branson Tom Bridger Tony Brise Chris Bristow
Jenson Button teamed up with record breaking cyclist Lance Armstrong, as he continues to prepare for another Formula One season. The McLaren driver excitedly tweeted that he would be riding with Armstrong, the 7 time Tour de France winner, in Hawaii. Armstrong responded via Twitter “I hope he doesn’t ride as srong as he drives [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/button-steps-up-pre-season-training-with-lance-armstrong/
Adolf Brudes Martin Brundle Gianmaria Bruni Jimmy Bryan Carlo Abate
F1 even closer in 2012 than it was in 2010 is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
The performance data for the first four races of 2012 reveals F1 teams are even closer than they were in 2010.
F1 even closer in 2012 than it was in 2010 is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/L2KkynfWHYY/
Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
Jenson Button teamed up with record breaking cyclist Lance Armstrong, as he continues to prepare for another Formula One season. The McLaren driver excitedly tweeted that he would be riding with Armstrong, the 7 time Tour de France winner, in Hawaii. Armstrong responded via Twitter “I hope he doesn’t ride as srong as he drives [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/button-steps-up-pre-season-training-with-lance-armstrong/
Olivier Beretta Allen Berg Georges Berger Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/29/2032706/power-claims-third-straight-win.html
Karl Gunther Bechem Jean Behra Derek Bell Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo
| Scarecrows adorn the entrance to a barren Korean International Circuit |
Two leading Formula One journalists have expressed their surprise at Korea being named the best grand prix promoter of the season at the FIA?s annual prize gala in Monaco last Friday. The Korean Grand Prix received the Race Promoters’ Trophy despite the event taking place at an incomplete facility with few race fans in attendance and team members and media staying at disparagingly dubbed ‘love hotels’. “Korea. Korea? KOREA??!! I must have been somewhere else,” said Times correspondent Kevin Eason on Twitter. Daily Mirror journalist Byron Young added, “The Korean GP, complete with event and flight chaos, shoddy hotels and things I won’t mention, won the race promotors? trophy. Why?”
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/12/journalists_shocked_at_korea_a.php
Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso
Jeff Gordon Ends Drought Jeff Gordon snaps 66-race winless streak by taking the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at PhoenixJeff Gordon Ends Drought AVONDALE, Ariz. — Just before peeling off what he called a lame burnout near the finish line, Jeff Gordon screamed into his radio, the emotion pouring out with his voice. [+] Enlarge Jared C. Related posts:
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Source: http://doxcar.com/jeff-gordon-wins-at-phoenix-to-snap-66-race-drought/
Rene Arnoux Peter Arundell Alberto Ascari Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Busch became the first driver in a national NASCAR race to win wire-to-wire in nearly eight years. [+] Enlarge Tom Pennington/Getty Images Kyle Busch performs a burnout after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday Related posts:
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Source: http://doxcar.com/kyle-busch-goes-wire-to-wire-in-nwide-phoenix-win/
Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella Mário de Araújo Cabral Frank Armi Chuck Arnold
Fernando Alonso’s face as he stood on the top step of the podium said it all – a mixture of extreme satisfaction, delight and disbelief.
“Incredible, incredible,” he said in Spanish in his television interviews immediately afterwards, and that seemed as good a summing up as any of one of the most remarkable and thrilling grands prix for some time.
Alonso’s victory was the 28th of his career and it moved him ahead of Sir Jackie Stewart in the all-time list of winners – he is now behind only Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell, whose 31 wins are his next target.
The Ferrari team leader’s presence in such celebrated company is a reminder, as if one was needed, of what a great grand prix driver Alonso is and it was appropriate that his drive on Sunday was one that befitted such a landmark.
Alonso moved up to fifth on the all-time victories list with his win in Malaysia. Photo: Getty
Arguably not the greatest qualifier, Alonso has produced some stunning races in his career, and the one in Malaysia on Sunday ranks up there with the very best.
The Ferrari in its current form has no business whatsoever being able to win a race. In normal, dry conditions, it is way off the pace of the McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Lotus, and almost certainly slower also than the Williams and the Sauber.
And yet there was Alonso, up in fifth place from eighth on the grid by the end of lap one, challenging world champion Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull, which he moved ahead of thanks to stopping one lap earlier for wet tyres in the downpour that led to the race being stopped on lap six.
What won him the race, though, were the laps after the re-start.
He emerged in the lead on lap 16, helped by McLaren having to hold Lewis Hamilton in the pits as Felipe Massa came past.
After everyone had stopped for intermediate tyres, Alonso was 2.4 seconds ahead of Sauber’s Sergio Perez – of whose stunning performance more later – and 6.2secs ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren.
At that point, most would have expected Hamilton – one of the greatest wet-weather drivers in history – to close in on the two cars ahead of him. Instead, Alonso pulled away from Perez, who himself pulled away from Hamilton.
This was, as BBC F1 co-commentator David Coulthard said, “Alonso at his brilliant best”, as he built an eight-second lead over Perez in 12 laps.
Alonso is such a benchmark, so peerless, so utterly relentless and unforgiving when he senses a sniff of a win, that it seemed impossible at that stage that he would not win the race.
But then Perez began to come back at him – showing the differing characteristics of the two cars that have been apparent since the start of pre-season testing. The Ferrari is hard on its tyres and the Sauber is the opposite.
Closer and closer Perez got, first by fractions, then by full seconds until by lap 40 he appeared to have Alonso at his mercy.
Stopping a lap earlier than Perez for ‘slick’ dry-weather tyres put his lead back up to seven seconds, but on these the Sauber was even more superior.
Perez was within a second of Alonso by lap 48 – with eight to go – and what would have been a fully deserved victory by a man who from the beginning of his career last year has looked destined for great things seemed inevitable.
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F1 being what it is, a lot may well be made of the radio call that Perez received at about this point. “Checo, be careful, we need this position,” he was told by his team, who use Ferrari engines. Was this simply a team that is known to be struggling for finance sensibly warning an excited young driver to make sure he didn’t bin it when a valuable podium place was up for grabs? Or was it, as some will surmise, team orders in disguise, an order not to try to deprive the company on whose largesse they have depended in many more seasons than this one of a much-needed win? If it was a team order, Perez didn’t seem to pay any attention – he continued to push hard until he made that fateful error. And team principal Monisha Kaltenborn dismissed any thoughts of a conspiracy.
“What we meant was get the car home,” she said. “It was important to us to get the result – there was nothing else to it. There was no instruction.”
Either of them would have been a deserving winner after two superlative drives – and there were other noteworthy performances down the field, too.
Bruno Senna showed something of his famous uncle’s wet-weather skills with his climb up from last place at the restart to finish an impressive sixth.
And Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne, who narrowly missed out on a point on his debut last weekend in Australia, delivered in spades with a sure-footed drive in the treacherous conditions at Sepang.
The Frenchman was the only driver to stick with intermediate tyres in the early downpour, and he continued to perform impressively on his way to eighth place, just behind last year’s rookie of the year Paul di Resta, who also looked good.
Senna, Vergne and most of all Perez clearly have bright futures ahead of them.
But ahead of them all was the man whose consistent excellence over a 10-year career not only they but everyone else in F1 has to aspire to.
“Great race for Alonso, top job, and also Perez,” Jenson Button said on Sunday evening in Malaysia. You can say that again.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/alonso_sets_the_standard.html
Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore Bill Aston Richard Attwood
Albert Park, Melbourne
Statements of intent do not come much more emphatic than the one Jenson Button made with a dominant victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Crushingly superior in a straight fight with McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Button got off to the perfect start in a season that promises to be very different from Sebastian Vettel’s one-sided championship win last year.
There were fears after McLaren’s one-two in qualifying that they would run away in the race – and they proved to be half right.
Button left Hamilton behind and never looked like losing the race. It was a win as comfortable as any of the six in seven races he took at the start of 2009 to lay the foundations for his championship year with the Brawn team.
Jenson Button has won three of the last four Australian grands prix. Photo: Getty
Button admitted to BBC Sport after the race not only that he always gets “nervous-excited” before grands prix, but that he was more nervous before this one than perhaps any other.
One assumes it was founded in the knowledge that after starting his first two seasons at McLaren with cars that were off the pace of the Red Bull, he now had a real chance of getting his year off to the best possible start.
Contrary to appearances, that nervousness led to a slight error at the start. After a superb initial getaway, Button went for second gear too early, which delayed his charge to the first corner.
Luckily for Button, Hamilton had also had a bad start, and with the inside line, the corner – and, as it turned out, the victory – were his.
Ironically, the win bore more than a slight resemblance to many of Vettel’s in 2011.
Button went off like a frightened rabbit in the first two laps, the aim being to be far enough ahead at the start of lap three – when the drivers are first allowed to use the DRS overtaking aid – to ensure he was out of reach of his pursuers.
Rather than ease off, though, Button just kept going, a succession of fastest laps moving him more than three seconds clear within six laps, after which it stabilised.
So dominant was Button that even had Hamilton converted his lead at the start into one at the end of the first lap, it is difficult to imagine that the result would have been any different.
Hamilton cut a subdued figure after the race, giving short, quietly-spoken answers to questions. He admitted he “didn’t generally have great pace” and, after producing a stunning lap in qualifying to take pole, was clearly not expecting Button’s demoralising
performance.
Hamilton’s mood will not have been helped by losing out on second place to Vettel, largely through bad luck.
After leaving the two cars out slightly too long before their first pit stops, McLaren did exactly the right thing in stopping them one after the other for their second.
It was Hamilton’s bad luck that he was delayed by the introduction of the safety car on the very next lap, allowing Vettel to sneak ahead.
Vettel said after the race that he would have “had a crack” at Hamilton even without that stroke of good fortune.
But the two cars were evenly matched and if Hamilton, whose car was faster on the straight, was not able to pass Vettel it seems unlikely that Vettel would have been able to overtake the McLaren.
The manner of Button’s victory – Vettel described him as “unbeatable” – led to inevitable questions about whether McLaren will now dominate this season in the way Red Bull did last.
But as Hamilton said, it is “too early to tell” if McLaren are comfortably ahead of Red Bull.
“In qualifying we’re quite quick and competitive,” he said, “but they were massively quick in the race. I think they’re still a force to be reckoned with.”
Vettel, meanwhile, proved once again how ridiculous it ever was to suggest he could not race – his move around the outside of Nico Rosberg at Turn Nine on lap two was hugely impressive.
Behind the top two teams, an intriguing race has set the season up nicely.
Romain Grosjean made some errors befitting his semi-novice status as he squandered his excellent third place on the grid, but his Lotus team look like they could have the pace to challenge close to the front if they have a clean weekend.
Mercedes’ race pace was a disappointment after their impressive form in qualifying – which extreme was the true representation of their competitive position remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso dragged his Ferrari up to fifth place with a typically resilient and impressive performance, although the car’s lap times once the race settled down suggested the team still have a lot of work to do.
The mixed-up grid, caused by typical early seasons problems for Red Bull, Alonso and Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying, led to some superb battles throughout a race that seemed to confirm the impression of pre-season testing that the grid has closed up this year.
“We all think this is a special year in F1 with six world champions and so many competitive teams,” Button said. “F1 is in a special place and it’s a great sport to be a part of.”
Malaysia next weekend will provide further evidence of what lies ahead. Button and Hamilton, for very different reasons, will be anxious to get on with it.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/albert_park_melbourne_statemen.html
Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer Zsolt Baumgartner Elie Bayol Don Beauman
Kimi Raikkonen was to the point, as ever.
As pre-season testing wound to a close at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, the man who returns to Formula 1 this season after two years in rallying was asked how he felt the teams compared.
“In two weeks we know,” the Lotus driver said. “There is no point to guess here. I don’t know who’s going to be fastest. Nobody knows.”
Up and down the pit lane, drivers from other teams were expressing more or less the same view.
“McLaren look very strong,” said Red Bull’s Mark Webber. “And some of the other times done by other teams were pretty handy, too.”
Jenson Button, meanwhile, managed to cover all bases in three sentences.
“There’s a lot of work needs to be done before we’re properly competitive,” the McLaren driver said. “I’m reasonably happy with what we have. I don’t know where we are but the feeling is good.”
That summed up the situation pretty well at the end of three pre-season tests.
The lap times have been particularly difficult to read this year but it seems some patterns have emerged.
Up and down the pit lane, the general view is that the field is a lot closer than in recent years. Red Bull are again very strong, McLaren look like running them close and Mercedes appear to have made a step forward. Lotus, Sauber and Force India have also looked pretty handy.
Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says he is “expecting the tightest start to a season we’ve seen for a number of years“.
People don’t just invent these views – they are formed by looking through the mountains of data that each day of testing throws up.
Kimi Raikonnen returns to Formula 1 after a three year absence.
Analysing the lap times also produces some interesting numbers.
While it is not possible to know the programmes each team is running at any time, it is a reasonable assumption that over the course of winter testing all the teams will get through pretty much the same sort of work.
So, logically, an average of every lap time a driver has done over the three tests should give some indication of where each team is.
On average, over the whole of winter testing, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was the fastest of the drivers from last year’s top two teams, by 0.3secs from Button, with Hamilton a similar margin further back and just in front of Webber.
The specific average times look like this:
Vettel one minute, 25.340 seconds
Button 1:25.664
Hamilton 1:25.937
Webber 1:25.951
It’s also worth pointing out that the pattern of the last two or three years has been for Red Bull’s true pace to be disguised in both winter testing and in free practice at the grands prix.
Whether they are running more fuel than their rivals, or a weaker engine map, Red Bull always seem to find more time when it matters than the others do.
Mercedes have clearly been doing a different programme from the other teams – with a far greater concentration of longer runs – so comparing their times is potentially less instructive.
But when you see that Nico Rosberg did a 1:22.932 at the start of a 13-lap run on the penultimate day of testing, you know they have a pretty decent car.
“It’s still going to be the teams from last year that we need to beat,” Rosberg said, sounding confident. “But I think we have a good chance to annoy them a few times early in the season.”
And then there is Ferrari. Unless there is some Oscar-worthy acting going on, they are in trouble.
Ferrari have been open about the fact that they are struggling to understand the behaviour of their radical new car. Insiders tell BBC Sport that sometimes it behaves well and predictably, and sometimes it does not, and the team have no idea why.
The sense of crisis was heightened by Ferrari’s decision to cancel their driver media briefings over the final weekend of testing, saying they wanted them to concentrate solely on their job.
But Fernando Alonso did speak on television at the Barcelona-Sporting football match on Saturday night, saying: “In the first races we will suffer because we are not 100%.”
Ferrari put up technical director Pat Fry instead of Alonso on Sunday, and he admitted that he thought it unlikely the team would be able to finish on the podium in Melbourne.
One can only imagine the pressure Fry must be feeling right now.
A diffident man who is uncomfortable with the media, Fry is in his first year in the job following the dismissal of predecessor Aldo Costa. And he has overseen a design office that was told to take risks this season in an attempt to close the gap to Red Bull after a poor 2011.
They’ve taken those risks – but it does not look for now as if they have made wise choices.
And yet, and yet. If you average out Alonso’s lap times over the whole of winter testing, guess what? He is the fastest of all – by 0.3secs. No wonder Webber says: “The mystery is the Ferrari.”
So what’s going on? The new F2012 looks like it can do a decent lap time, so it is conceivable that it will qualify pretty well in Melbourne the weekend after next.
But according to BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson, who spent some time watching trackside in Barcelona, it seems to quickly drop in performance, initially losing grip on turn-in, and later on corner exits too.
It seems to use its tyres particularly aggressively. Ferrari have been afflicted these last few years by a car that raced better than it qualified because it used its tyres too gently. In seeking to fix this trait, have they now gone too far the other way?
It’s not as if they can blame the drivers either. In Alonso, they have an all-time great, a gold standard who will push the car to its absolute limit on every single lap of every single race. Many consider his season in 2011 to have been better than his title-winning years with Renault in 2005-06, considering the equipment at his disposal.
This, team boss Stefano Domenicali has admitted to BBC Sport, was the point of signing the Spaniard on a lucrative contract that commits him to the team until the end of 2016. It puts pressure on the team to deliver.
Of course, all this may turn out to be an illusion. Perhaps Alonso will be a contender for victory in Melbourne, and throughout the year. But let’s assume for a moment he isn’t.
Back in 2007, when his relationship with McLaren was in tatters, Alonso had talks with Red Bull to discuss moving there.
Red Bull were keen but in the end Alonso opted for a move back to Renault, knowing a Ferrari seat was waiting for him a couple of years down the line.
At the time, with Ferrari contending for the title for the 10th time in 11 years and Red Bull still in the midfield, you could hardly fault the logic.
But now, in his quiet moments, or when he’s watching Vettel celebrate yet another win, or looking at the beautifully intricate detail at the back of the Red Bull, or when he’s wrestling his uncooperative mount into a corner, does Alonso wish he could turn back the clock?
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/kimi_raikkonen_was_to_the_poin.html
Marcel Balsa Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza John Barber
| The wreckage of Jochen Rindt’s car at Barcelona |
An excellent insight into the world of F1 as it used to be can be found on the regularly-interesting Letters of Note website. It publishes a hitherto unseen letter from Jochen Rindt to Lotus boss Colin Chapman written shortly after Rindt?s crash at Barcelona which was a result of the wing system on Lotus 49 collapsing at speed.
?Colin. I have been racing F1 for 5 years and I have made one mistake (I rammed Chris Amon in Clermont Ferrand) and I had one accident in Zandvoort due to gear selection failure otherwise I managed to stay out of trouble. This situation changed rapidly since I joined your team. ?Honestly your cars are so quick that we would still be competitive with a few extra pounds used to make the weakest parts stronger, on top of that I think you ought to spend some time checking what your different employes are doing, I sure the wishbones on the F2 car would have looked different. Please give my suggestions some thought, I can only drive a car in which I have some confidence, and I feel the point of no confidence is quite near.?
A little more than a year later Rindt’s Lotus suffered mechanical breakdown just before braking into one of the corners. He swerved violently to the left and crashed into a poorly-installed barrier, killing him instantly.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/the_point_of_no_confidence_is.php
Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo Tom Belso JeanPierre Beltoise Olivier Beretta
 The Mercedes pit crew prepare for Michael Schumacher in Singapore |
Away from the world of multi-million-pound car development laboratories and drivers whose small change takes care of the Monte Carlo harbour fees, another drama will play out in Singapore this week. The Independent’s David Tremayne joins F1′s unsung heroes.
These are not select millionaires but up to 16 ordinary, yet gifted, guys; team mechanics who have worked their way up the system and often migrate from team to team, are paid real-world wages of between £30,000 and £50,000 a year, are drilled to perfection ? and whose split-second synchronisation brings their teams huge rewards.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/life_in_the_pit_lane.php
Gino Bianco Hans Binder Clemente Biondetti Pablo Birger Art Bisch
Mercedes buyout ‘won’t change team’ By Edd Straw Monday, February 28th 2011, 12:50 GMT No changes will be made to the way that Mercedes GP is run after Daimler AG and Aabar Investments took full control of the team, according to the German firm’s motorsport boss Norbert Haug. It was announced this morning that Mercedes and Aabar had acquired the remaining 24.9 per cent of the team, which was owned by the five shareholders involved in the original management buyout of Honda in 2009 – Ross Brawn, Nick Fry, Caroline McGrory, John Marsden and Nigel Kerr. Related posts:
- F1: Mercedes working flat out to catch up Mercedes working flat out to catch up By Pablo Elizalde…
- F1: Haug: No doubt Mercedes will win again Haug: No doubt Mercedes will win again By Jonathan Noble…
- F1: Mercedes denies management friction Mercedes denies management friction By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, September 28th…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/f1-mercedes-buyout-wont-change-team/
Tom Bridger Tony Brise Chris Bristow Peter Broeker Tony Brooks
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/yuZx0A5IZn8/guess-whos-birthday-it-is.html
Jimmy Bryan Carlo Abate George Abecassis Kenny Acheson Andrea de Adamich
Patrick finishes 17th at Phoenix By Diego Mejia Sunday, February 27th 2011, 07:21 GMT Danica Patrick improved on her previous form at Phoenix International Raceway by finishing 17th in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event. After an eventful first race at the one-mile Arizona oval last November, Patrick had a smoother run this time around as she continues to build on her stock car experience, while pondering still a possible full-time move from IndyCar. Although Patrick managed to finished the race two positions shy of her top-15 target, she eventually finished three laps down on winner Kyle Busch as the 200 laps saw little incidents and long green-flag periods that did not allow her to recover ground and be in contention further up. Related posts:
- NASCAR: Patrick finishes 27th at Michigan Patrick finishes 27th at Michigan By Diego Mejia Sunday, August…
- Danica Patrick looking forward to NASCAR return FORT WORTH, Texas — Danica Patrick is looking forward to…
- NASCAR: Patrick takes best NASCAR finish Patrick takes best NASCAR finish By Diego Mejia Saturday, February…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/nascar-patrick-finishes-17th-at-phoenix/
Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer Zsolt Baumgartner Elie Bayol
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/06/bahrain-is-still-not-a-certainty.html
Red Amick Chris Amon Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/27/2029952/kurt-busch-wins-at-nationwide.html
Menato Boffa Bob Bondurant Felice Bonetto Jo Bonnier Roberto Bonomi
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/08/bruno-is-ready.html
Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Busch became the first driver in a national NASCAR race to win wire-to-wire in nearly eight years. [+] Enlarge Tom Pennington/Getty Images Kyle Busch performs a burnout after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday Related posts:
- NASCAR: Kyle Busch closes on Phoenix sweep Kyle Busch closes on Phoenix sweep By Diego Mejia Sunday,…
- Kyle Busch rolls to 8th Nationwide win of season CLERMONT, Ind. — Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski kept it…
- Kyle Busch leads final 107 laps for trucks victory AVONDALE, Ariz. — A quick pit stop and some key…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/kyle-busch-goes-wire-to-wire-in-nwide-phoenix-win/
Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/27/2028929/richmond-race-is-crucial-for-denny.html
Manny Ayulo Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti Julian Bailey Mauro Baldi
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/07/webber-on-the-verge-of-walking.html
Tony Brooks Alan Brown Walt Brown Warwick Brown Adolf Brudes
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/05/sutil-not-giving-anything-away.html
Peter Arundell Alberto Ascari Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore
 |
Brazil?s F1 fever may have overstepped the mark after a local prosecutor threatened Felipe Massa with a six-year jail term if he ?defrauds? the sporting public by letting Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso past at Sunday?s grand prix. The story, reported by a local paper and picked up by the Daily Telegraph, is the latest of several anti-Massa reports to emerge from his home country since the team orders controversy at the German Grand Prix earlier this year. The Daily Telegraph’s Tom Cary reckons that Massa simply isn’t living up to his home crowd’s high expectations.
?A public raised on a diet of Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna were simply appalled and saddened in equal measure by Massa?s apparent lack of ambition.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/massa_threatened_with_jail_ove.php
Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo Tom Belso JeanPierre Beltoise Olivier Beretta
| Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel celebrate with Red Bull boss Christian Horner on the podium |
Sections of the international media have questioned Red Bull’s strategic approach to the world championship. After Sebastian Vettel won the Brazilian Grand Prix from the team’s points leader Mark Webber at Interlagos, Der Spiegel noted: “Red Bull gives (Fernando) Alonso wings”. Not switching the places means that Spaniard Alonso can take his Ferrari to just second place this weekend in Abu Dhabi and be champion, whereas the alternative strategy would have set up Webber for a straight fight. “It is not easy for Webber to drive in a team that considers him a burden to be up against Vettel,” said La Gazzetta dello Sport. Tuttosport noted that it seems “the Austrian team would be happier to lose than to see Webber beat Vettel”. “No team orders at Red Bull. Another own goal,” headlined La Repubblica. Joan Villadelprat wrote in his El Pais column: “Had Red Bull opted for Webber a few races ago, the Australian would probably now be champion.” Red Bull, however, is unrepentant. Team owner Dietrich Mateschitz told Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper that “second under proper conditions can often be more valuable than a first”. But there is a feeling that the team is not simply giving up the fight for the drivers’ title. One columnist in Brazil’s Globo wondered if Vettel’s radio message in Abu Dhabi might sound something like ‘So … Mark is faster than you’. “I’m always in favour of leaving the fight on the track with equal chances for both sides,” said Rubens Barrichello. “But I wonder if they would do that if the situation was in reverse. ?Mark has done a great job this year and he has been told by his team what position he is in,” said Lewis Hamilton. “Against adversity he has kept at it. I want to see Mark win.” Webber believes that, if a strategy is deployed, it will only be on the “last lap” of the season this weekend. “Sebastian is part of a team,” said Niki Lauda, who believes Webber should be backed fully by Red Bull. “If he does anything it should be helping Webber and not just on the last lap.” Webber is quoted by Bild newspaper: “It makes sense. Otherwise it would mean that Ferrari’s team orders would have paid off for Fernando.” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner hints that sense will ultimately prevail. “We have already given too many presents to Fernando this year,” he is quoted by Autosprint.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/red_bull_under_the_spotlight.php
Bob Bondurant Felice Bonetto Jo Bonnier Roberto Bonomi Juan Manuel Bordeu
Rosberg’s China win rated fifth-best race of last five years is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
The Chinese Grand Prix was rated the fifth-best race since the beginning of 2008 by F1 Fanatic readers.
Rosberg’s China win rated fifth-best race of last five years is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/z-NNLGuaWGg/
Gianfranco Brancatelli Eric Brandon Don Branson Tom Bridger Tony Brise
 |
One side of the Lotus naming dispute has been put forward on a new and in-depth webpage called www.saveteamlotus.com. The basic background is that the Lotus Racing F1 team had its naming rights revoked for next season by Group Lotus and, in order to keep racing under the Lotus name, bought the Team Lotus brand off David Hunt, who had owned it since the original team?s last race in 1994. Group Lotus has now taken Lotus Racing to court to try and stop it using the historic name in Formula One next year. The issue has been a source of constant confusion for many fans and the new webpage offers a breakdown of David Hunt?s and Team Lotus? side of the argument.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/campaign_launched_to_save_team_1.php
Philippe Adams Walt Ader Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/26/2027779/tony-stewart-wins-denny-hamlins.html
Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer Zsolt Baumgartner Elie Bayol
UPDATE ON KUBICA’s CONDITION: http://wp.me/p3uiu-11K Renault Lotus F1 driver Robert Kubica has been airlifted to hospital following a car accident while competing on a rally. The incident, described as a high speed accident, left the Pole injured and he had to be airlifted to hospital. His co-driver Jakub Gerber was uninjured in the incident. While [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/robert-kubica-hospitalised-following-rally-accident/
Erwin Bauer Zsolt Baumgartner Elie Bayol Don Beauman Karl Gunther Bechem
Ferrari have become the first team to launch their 2011 Formula One car – named the F150. Thw F150 name comes from the fact it is 150 years since Italian unification, the flag bearer for the nation decided it was important to increase exposure of the major event in the country’s long history. The cars [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/ferrari-launch-their-2011-car-the-f150/
Tony Brooks Alan Brown Walt Brown Warwick Brown Adolf Brudes
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/06/to-america-hamilton-is-the-new-beckham.html
Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder Clemente Biondetti
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/26/2027769/indycar-upholds-decision-over.html
Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/25/2024821/kurt-busch-to-run-nationwide-race.html
Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut Trevor Blokdyk Mark Blundell Raul Boesel
30 years ago today: Villeneuve and Pironi’s fatal feud at Ferrari is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
The 1982 San Marino Grand Prix, 30 years ago today, began with a political row and ended with a bitter feud between team mates – which had tragic consequences.
30 years ago today: Villeneuve and Pironi’s fatal feud at Ferrari is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/gj5w1vR1dbU/
Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder Clemente Biondetti
Hello there? How’s your winter been? I hope this blog finds you well, my friends, and that 2012 is being kind to you. It’s certainly about to get kinder for us F1 fans as the season gets under way this weekend.
My winter flew by faster than Seb in qualifying as I juggled various TV commitments, along with the usual jobs such as visiting the dentist, watching Norwich City (amazing!) and doing a spot of gardening (thankfully my garden is tiny) – all things that between March and November there just isn’t time for!
Thankfully, just a couple of weeks ago I managed to grab a week in the Maldives with my wife, and that break will be valuable as I jump onto a treadmill that will carry us to the end of 2012.
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For me it’s the start of the F1 season, off to the European Football Championship, the British GP, two weeks at the Olympics and then the end of the F1 season followed by Sports Personality of the Year. So time to take a deep breath and dive on in as the stories develop, the drama unfolds and air miles continue to clock up.
As you know this weekend is the start of a new era of F1 coverage on the BBC, and the job for the team over the winter has been to best deal with the cards we’ve been dealt in terms of the broadcast rights.
Having sat through various production meetings, having exchanged emails, swapped ideas and planned how best to bring the season to life, I’m confident we will deliver a new-look season that you will enjoy.
It’s been like the first day at school for some of the new faces to our team this weekend. Gary Anderson and I got the tram together to collect our accreditation when we arrived in Melbourne on Thursday morning and it was great fun being regaled by stories of F1 from the days when Gary was designing race winning cars.
He also had a few decent stories about being employed by Eddie Jordan but I think they’re best left out off the blog – as entertaining as they were!
I’d also really like to welcome Ben Edwards to the fray. Ben is a great commentator who has raced cars himself and spent the last few years commentating on all forms of motor racing.
He’s passionate, informative, hopefully likes a night out and a beer, and best of all he’s as much a journalist as he is a fan. Good luck keeping David Coulthard in check Ben!
Talking of DC, we had our first dinner of the new season together last night as we both headed out for some Japanese food and a drop of sake here in buzzy, beautiful Melbourne.
Pastor Maldonado, Bruno Senna and Lewis Hamilton were all in there tucking into sushi and sashimi while working out whether to chat to each other or act cool and bag an early psychological advantage ahead of a year when the competition will be intense.
They mainly opted for the latter by the way. I’ll post a blog later in the season about how the drivers live and work together while still being rivals – it’s fascinating.
Meanwhile on radio we’ve got a whole new team – and it’s a great line-up of commentator James Allen, pit-lane reporter Jennie Gow and co-commentator Jaime Alguersuari, who brings real insight having just stepped out of an F1 car himself.
So, what have I learned so far this week? Well I’ve been told that the two new drivers at Toro Rosso have made Mark Webber feel more motivated than ever.
I chatted to Jenson Button who (if it’s possible) seems even more chilled out than he did in 2011.
I’ve also been to the other end of the paddock where Caterham say the decision to put Vitaly Petrov in the car instead of Jarno Trulli is the right move regarding both finances and the future – and I’ve heard plenty of speculation and gossip surrounding HRT and Marussia, who have not run at all in pre-season.
Anyway, it’s amazing how quickly we all get back into the swing of F1. My ‘no crisps’ rule lasted all of 30 minutes, the first running order for Saturday’s qualifying show has been written, and I’ve got a date with Chris Moyles on Radio 1.
We’re delighted to be back, I’m really happy DC and EJ remain part of the team, and this weekend don’t worry about setting your alarm.
We’ve got highlights of qualifying at 1pm on Saturday, and a full two-hour highlights show from 2pm on Sunday. We’ll have all the important action, and plenty of driver interviews and race reaction.
Three years ago I started these blogs – there will be plenty more coming your way in our fourth season of coverage. But what you get is up to you – what do you want to see here during the season..?
Have a great weekend. We’re back!
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2012/03/gearing_up_for_the_new_f1_seas_1.html
Peter Arundell Alberto Ascari Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore
Narain Karthikeyan has made a surprise return to Formula One after being announced as one of Hispania HRT’s drivers for the 2011 season. The Indian driver was unveiled as the first racer to be working with the Spanish based squad, who look likely to enter into a second season of racing despite on-going financial concerns. [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/karthikeyan-makes-surprise-f1-return-with-hrt/
Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/24/2022030/johnson-tops-on-forbes-most-influential.html
Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti Julian Bailey Mauro Baldi Bobby Ball
Caterham team principal Tony Fernandes has spoken about the decision to axe Jarno Trulli in favour of Vitaly Petrov for the 2012 season. Go here for Red Bull v Cowboys! You heard right! Trulli was under contract for the team, but his future in Formula 1 now looks uncertain after being replaced by the Russian. Speaking about the [...]
Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot
Sebastian Vettel’s Bahrain victory didn’t come as easy as some of his past successes as the German had to overcome a strong challenge from the Lotus Kimi Raikkonen. In the end the final tyre changes proved crucial, as RBR pulled … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/04/22/sebastian-vettel-i-owe-this-one-to-the-team/
Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/O_Z1ZqGZQ3c/formula-1-rewind.html
Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati George Amick Red Amick Chris Amon
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/23/2019931/caution-free-races-arent-thrilling.html
Chris Amon Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti
Jenson Button teamed up with record breaking cyclist Lance Armstrong, as he continues to prepare for another Formula One season. The McLaren driver excitedly tweeted that he would be riding with Armstrong, the 7 time Tour de France winner, in Hawaii. Armstrong responded via Twitter “I hope he doesn’t ride as srong as he drives [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/button-steps-up-pre-season-training-with-lance-armstrong/
Chris Amon Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti
| Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel celebrate with Red Bull boss Christian Horner on the podium |
Sections of the international media have questioned Red Bull’s strategic approach to the world championship. After Sebastian Vettel won the Brazilian Grand Prix from the team’s points leader Mark Webber at Interlagos, Der Spiegel noted: “Red Bull gives (Fernando) Alonso wings”. Not switching the places means that Spaniard Alonso can take his Ferrari to just second place this weekend in Abu Dhabi and be champion, whereas the alternative strategy would have set up Webber for a straight fight. “It is not easy for Webber to drive in a team that considers him a burden to be up against Vettel,” said La Gazzetta dello Sport. Tuttosport noted that it seems “the Austrian team would be happier to lose than to see Webber beat Vettel”. “No team orders at Red Bull. Another own goal,” headlined La Repubblica. Joan Villadelprat wrote in his El Pais column: “Had Red Bull opted for Webber a few races ago, the Australian would probably now be champion.” Red Bull, however, is unrepentant. Team owner Dietrich Mateschitz told Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper that “second under proper conditions can often be more valuable than a first”. But there is a feeling that the team is not simply giving up the fight for the drivers’ title. One columnist in Brazil’s Globo wondered if Vettel’s radio message in Abu Dhabi might sound something like ‘So … Mark is faster than you’. “I’m always in favour of leaving the fight on the track with equal chances for both sides,” said Rubens Barrichello. “But I wonder if they would do that if the situation was in reverse. ?Mark has done a great job this year and he has been told by his team what position he is in,” said Lewis Hamilton. “Against adversity he has kept at it. I want to see Mark win.” Webber believes that, if a strategy is deployed, it will only be on the “last lap” of the season this weekend. “Sebastian is part of a team,” said Niki Lauda, who believes Webber should be backed fully by Red Bull. “If he does anything it should be helping Webber and not just on the last lap.” Webber is quoted by Bild newspaper: “It makes sense. Otherwise it would mean that Ferrari’s team orders would have paid off for Fernando.” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner hints that sense will ultimately prevail. “We have already given too many presents to Fernando this year,” he is quoted by Autosprint.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/red_bull_under_the_spotlight.php
Warwick Brown Adolf Brudes Martin Brundle Gianmaria Bruni Jimmy Bryan
| Is it now a three-way battle for the title? |
Fernando Alonso is still the driver in the best position to win the drivers? title according to the Daily Telegraph?s Tom Cary.
?Focus and concentration will be of paramount importance and there is none stronger in this regard than Ferrari?s Fernando Alonso.?
The Guardian?s Oliver Owen thinks that it is Mark Webber?s title to lose now, and that this may be the Australian?s last realistic chance of winning the title.
?He has driven beautifully. Monaco and Silverstone spring to mind. He has been an uncompromising racer, not giving Vettel or Lewis Hamilton an inch in Turkey and Singapore respectively. Most importantly, he has largely avoided the bouts of brain fade that can wreck a season ? his on-track hooning in Melbourne when racing Hamilton being the only exception. But there is a feeling that for Webber it is now or never, that a chance of a tilt at the title may never come again. He is certainly driving as if that is the case and that has been his strength.?
According to The Mirror?s Byron Young, both McLaren drivers are now out of the title hunt after their fourth and fifth place finishes in Suzuka.
?McLaren’s title hopes died yesterday in a weekend from Hell at Suzuka. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and fifth in a Japanese Grand Prix they had to win to have the remotest chance of keeping their title bid alive.”
The Sun?s Michael Spearman was of the same opinion, saying ?Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button’s title hopes were in tatters after a shocker in Japan.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/mclaren_drivers_out_of_title_r_1.php
Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella
| Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel celebrate with Red Bull boss Christian Horner on the podium |
Sections of the international media have questioned Red Bull’s strategic approach to the world championship. After Sebastian Vettel won the Brazilian Grand Prix from the team’s points leader Mark Webber at Interlagos, Der Spiegel noted: “Red Bull gives (Fernando) Alonso wings”. Not switching the places means that Spaniard Alonso can take his Ferrari to just second place this weekend in Abu Dhabi and be champion, whereas the alternative strategy would have set up Webber for a straight fight. “It is not easy for Webber to drive in a team that considers him a burden to be up against Vettel,” said La Gazzetta dello Sport. Tuttosport noted that it seems “the Austrian team would be happier to lose than to see Webber beat Vettel”. “No team orders at Red Bull. Another own goal,” headlined La Repubblica. Joan Villadelprat wrote in his El Pais column: “Had Red Bull opted for Webber a few races ago, the Australian would probably now be champion.” Red Bull, however, is unrepentant. Team owner Dietrich Mateschitz told Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper that “second under proper conditions can often be more valuable than a first”. But there is a feeling that the team is not simply giving up the fight for the drivers’ title. One columnist in Brazil’s Globo wondered if Vettel’s radio message in Abu Dhabi might sound something like ‘So … Mark is faster than you’. “I’m always in favour of leaving the fight on the track with equal chances for both sides,” said Rubens Barrichello. “But I wonder if they would do that if the situation was in reverse. ?Mark has done a great job this year and he has been told by his team what position he is in,” said Lewis Hamilton. “Against adversity he has kept at it. I want to see Mark win.” Webber believes that, if a strategy is deployed, it will only be on the “last lap” of the season this weekend. “Sebastian is part of a team,” said Niki Lauda, who believes Webber should be backed fully by Red Bull. “If he does anything it should be helping Webber and not just on the last lap.” Webber is quoted by Bild newspaper: “It makes sense. Otherwise it would mean that Ferrari’s team orders would have paid off for Fernando.” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner hints that sense will ultimately prevail. “We have already given too many presents to Fernando this year,” he is quoted by Autosprint.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/red_bull_under_the_spotlight.php
Hans Binder Clemente Biondetti Pablo Birger Art Bisch Harry Blanchard
| Will Christian Horner regret not utilising team orders in Brazil? |
Michael Spearman of The Sun, says that the £65,000 fine Ferrari received for breaching the team orders ban in Germany will seem like loose change if Fernando Alonso wins the drivers? title in Abu Dhabi.
?The extra seven points Alonso collected when Ferrari ordered Felipe Massa to move over for him in Germany earlier in the season are now looking even more crucial. ?And the £65,000 fine they picked up for ruthlessly breaking the rules will seem loose change if Alonso clinches the title in his first year with the Maranello team. ?Red Bull could have switched the result yesterday given their crushing dominance and still celebrated their first constructors’ championship just five years after coming into the sport. ?That would also have given Webber an extra seven points, leaving him just one behind Alonso.?The Guardian?s Paul Weaver says that if Fernando Alonso does take the drivers? title in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari owes a debt of gratitude to Red Bull for their decision not to employ team orders in Brazil.
?If Alonso does take the title next week it would not be inappropriate were he and Ferrari to send a few gallons of champagne to Red Bull’s headquarters in Milton Keynes. ?While Red Bull should be heartily applauded for the championship they did win today their apparent acceptance that Ferrari might carry off the more glamorous prize continues to baffle Formula One and its globetrotting supporters. ?Their refusal to make life easy for Webber, who has led for much of the season and is still seven points ahead of Vettel, means that whatever happens in the desert next week Alonso, the only driver who was capable of taking the championship in the race today, only has to secure second place to guarantee his third world title.?The Independent?s David Tremayne is also of the opinion that Red Bull may regret not using team orders in Brazil.
?Had Red Bull elected to adopt team orders and let Webber win ? something that the governing body allows when championships are at stake ? Webber would have left Brazil with 245 points ? just one point off the lead. For some that was confirmation of his suggestion that Vettel is the team’s favoured driver ? which generated an angry call from team owner Dietrich Mateschitz in Austria and was much denied by team principal, Christian Horner. ?And it sets up a situation where, if the result is repeated next weekend, as is likely, Vettel and Webber will tie on 256, five behind Alonso.?The Mirror?s Byron Young has put Lewis Hamilton?s fading title chances down to an inferior McLaren machine and he admits the 2008 World Champion now needs a miracle.
?Sebastian Vettel’s victory sends the world title fight to a four-way showdown for the first time in the sport’s history. ?Hamilton goes there as part of that story with a 24-point deficit to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, but with just 25 on offer in the final round in six days’ time it would take more than a miracle. ?Driving an outclassed McLaren he slugged it out against superior machinery and stiff odds to finish fourth.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/team_orders_in_spotlight_again_1.php
Tony Brise Chris Bristow Peter Broeker Tony Brooks Alan Brown
Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/06/bahrain-is-still-not-a-certainty.html
Michael Andretti Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella Mário de Araújo Cabral
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/ewMLtI0sOlg/no-fenders-on-formula-1-tv-strike.html
Marcel Balsa Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza John Barber
| Is it now a three-way battle for the title? |
Fernando Alonso is still the driver in the best position to win the drivers? title according to the Daily Telegraph?s Tom Cary.
?Focus and concentration will be of paramount importance and there is none stronger in this regard than Ferrari?s Fernando Alonso.?
The Guardian?s Oliver Owen thinks that it is Mark Webber?s title to lose now, and that this may be the Australian?s last realistic chance of winning the title.
?He has driven beautifully. Monaco and Silverstone spring to mind. He has been an uncompromising racer, not giving Vettel or Lewis Hamilton an inch in Turkey and Singapore respectively. Most importantly, he has largely avoided the bouts of brain fade that can wreck a season ? his on-track hooning in Melbourne when racing Hamilton being the only exception. But there is a feeling that for Webber it is now or never, that a chance of a tilt at the title may never come again. He is certainly driving as if that is the case and that has been his strength.?
According to The Mirror?s Byron Young, both McLaren drivers are now out of the title hunt after their fourth and fifth place finishes in Suzuka.
?McLaren’s title hopes died yesterday in a weekend from Hell at Suzuka. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and fifth in a Japanese Grand Prix they had to win to have the remotest chance of keeping their title bid alive.”
The Sun?s Michael Spearman was of the same opinion, saying ?Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button’s title hopes were in tatters after a shocker in Japan.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/mclaren_drivers_out_of_title_r_1.php
Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder Clemente Biondetti
The annual Formula 1 phoney war was in full swing at the second pre-season test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya this week.
Fernando Alonso was talking down Ferrari’s form, Lewis Hamilton was talking up McLaren’s – as, intriguingly, was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. And the unlikely combination of Kamui Kobayashi and Sauber set the fastest time of the week.
As ever, the headline lap times were a poor guide to the order of the grid that can be expected in Melbourne at the first race in just three weeks’ time.
But look behind the fastest laps, and there is usually a way of gleaning at least some sense of form ahead of the season.
Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari could yet to turn out to be a dark horse. Photo: Getty
I’ll preface what follows with a major caveat – this has been one of the most difficult tests to read for some time. But here goes.
Red Bull, as ever, looked especially strong. Vettel was fastest of all on the first day of the test, and throughout the four days he and team-mate Mark Webber set consistently formidable-looking times.
On Wednesday afternoon, Vettel and Hamilton set out to do race-distance runs at more or less the same time. Both did 66 laps – the length of the Spanish Grand Prix, which will be held at the track in May.
Vettel did five pit stops; Hamilton four. Discount laps on which they went in and out of the pits and they both managed 55 flying laps. Vettel completed his more than two minutes faster than Hamilton.
If that was repeated in a race, Hamilton would be lapped by the end.
And the pattern was repeated on Thursday with Mark Webber and Jenson Button, although the margin was reduced to about half a minute.
Of course, this is very far from an exact scientific comparison.
They didn’t use the same tyres as each other – although they don’t necessarily have to in the race either.
We don’t know what they were doing with fuel loads – although it would be counter-intuitive to start putting fuel in at pit stops because it would provide the team with data that was never going to be relevant to competition.
And it’s an especially confusing situation because only the day before Vettel was saying how impressed he had been with the McLaren’s pace on the longer runs.
But there was more – none of it especially happy ready for those hoping for a close season.
On the Wednesday, Vettel’s fastest time of all was nearly a second faster than Hamilton’s on the same type of tyres. Although both were set on very short runs – suggesting a qualifying-type simulation – that’s still potentially meaningless as there is no way of knowing the level of fuel on board at the time.
Nevertheless, if you then look at the lap times both were doing at the start of their race-distance runs, they were about the same margin slower than each driver’s fastest laps as you would expect given a full race fuel load.
That suggests that the headline lap times of those two drivers could be a reasonably accurate indicator of form – again worrying for McLaren.
Of course, this is only testing, and teams have updates to put on their cars before the first race – as Button pointed out. And everyone expects McLaren to be a close to challenger at the front come Melbourne. Nevertheless, few are under any illusions about Red Bull’s strength.
“You’re old enough, Andrew,” one senior insider said to me during the test, “to know that Red Bull look very strong. McLaren and Ferrari are a bit behind. Force India look like they have a quick car, too.”
He might have added that the new Mercedes looks quite decent as well.
But few teams are as difficult to understand right now as Ferrari – who have not done any race simulations to compare with their main rivals.
The messages coming out of the team have all seemed pretty negative.
There has been a lot of attention put on technical director Pat Fry’s remark at the first test in Jerez that Ferrari were “not happy” with their understanding of the car.
Start raking through the time sheets, though, and you begin wonder what’s behind all the negativity.
On headline lap times, Alonso was less than 0.3secs behind Vettel. And on both his days he started 10-lap runs with a lap in the region of one minute 24.1 seconds.
If you take 10 laps’ worth of fuel off that time, you are left with a lap in the low 1:23sec bracket – again, not far off what Vettel managed. And you can bet the Ferrari was running with more than just 10 laps of fuel anyway; most top teams routinely test with 60-80kg of fuel on board.
In other words, the Ferrari actually looks reasonably fast, and an insider did admit: “The car is not as bad as a lot of people think.”
If – and it’s a big if – Ferrari can start to extract that potential before the first race of the season, Red Bull might just have a serious fight on their hands. And that’s without even considering what McLaren might be able to achieve.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/02/reading_between_the_lines_in_a.html
Bobby Ball Marcel Balsa Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza
The Formula 1 teams arrived in Melbourne’s Albert Park to be greeted by grey skies, intermittent rain and blustery wind. But not even the weather could dampen the palpable excitement and nervous tension.
The start of the new season is just a few hours away and everyone from world champions Red Bull to lowly HRT is desperate to find the answer to the question they have been asking all winter. Where will they be come Saturday and Sunday afternoons?
The F1 teams like to keep outsiders guessing before the first race by saying they don’t know where they are in terms of competitiveness, but usually this is little more than kidology.
Such is their capacity to analyse data with massive super-computers that usually they have a very good idea of their position in relation to their rivals, despite the well-known difficulty of predicting form from pre-season testing.
But this year seems different; they genuinely don’t seem to know – so the usual anticipation ahead of the first race of the season is magnified.
Lewis Hamilton said that judging by the data that mattered from winter testing he felt McLaren were “in the top three or four”.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso has also bigged up his team’s chances for the 2012 season. Photo: Getty
Meanwhile, a senior engineer from one of the teams who will be contesting what is expected to be a congested midfield battle told me he was pretty sure Red Bull and McLaren were out front but he didn’t know “whether we will be third or seventh”.
Some people’s anticipation is more nervous than others’, though.
For teams such as Mercedes and Lotus, there is a genuine sense that they have done a good job and moved forward over the winter.
In fact there is a growing sense in the paddock that Mercedes may even be able to give McLaren and Red Bull a run for their money, something team principal Ross Brawn was quick to dismiss as “unlikely”.
For others, the desire to discover the true pace of their car is tinged as much with trepidation as anticipation.
Ferrari have had what Fernando Alonso described here on Thursday as a “tough” winter, struggling with “quite a complex car in terms of set-up and understanding it”.
Alonso was doing his best to talk up the team’s chances, saying: “Maybe we didn’t reach our targets but it doesn’t mean that we are slower than the other cars. That we will not know until Saturday.”
Others are keen to play down the importance of this first race of the season.
Vettel said that Australia this weekend and Malaysia next would do no more than demonstrate a “trend” for performance over the season.
And Brawn said he “preferred to look at the first four races and the range of circuits we have and see how that looks”.
But the statistics belie that point of view.
Albert Park might be a unique street circuit, with a dusty, low-grip surface, and the teams may only just be beginning to work with their new cars. But actually it has proven to be a rather good arbiter of the season to come – five of the last six winners of the Australian Grand Prix have gone on to become world champion that year.
Other themes are also emerging this weekend that will have importance to one degree or another as the season develops.
F1 wouldn’t be F1 without a good technical conspiracy and this year looks like being no different.
Already during pre-season testing there have been eyebrows raised at the way some teams are trying to exploit exhaust gases for aerodynamic effect.
This practice was supposed to have been ended by rule changes that have restricted the positioning and angle of the exhaust pipes and put much stricter limits on engine mapping – both an attempt to rid the sport of so-called exhaust-blown diffusers that became such important tools over the previous two seasons.
But this weekend another potential controversy has emerged over the rear wings on several cars, particularly the Mercedes, Red Bull and the Ferrari.
These new devices – that some believe to be on the fringes of legality – seem designed to exploit the DRS overtaking aid in ways not originally intended.
The DRS was designed as a tool to make overtaking less difficult – if a driver is within a one-second margin of a car he is trying to overtake, he can use the DRS in a specified zone on the track to give him a straight-line speed boost.
Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, meanwhile, have what appear to be extra slots on the rear wing that can work in conjunction with the DRS to either increase straight-line speed even further, or allow the teams to run extra downforce with no drag penalty.
The most noticeable feature of the 2012 cars, though, remains the noses – and specifically the ugly ‘platypus’ step on all but the McLaren and Marussia.
This is a result of a rule that has lowered the nose tips of the cars to increase driver safety, but not lowered the top of the chassis.
The result is a grid full of ridiculous and ugly-looking cars, and very few are troubling to hide their frustration at the situation.
“It is unfortunate,” Brawn said, “and the teams should look at themselves and blame themselves.
“[Governing body] the FIA tried to do what they could and a number of teams wouldn’t agree to the changes because they said they wanted to carry over their chassis, which we all know is a load of nonsense because nobody has carried over their chassis.
“We’ve ended up with a very odd feature on the cars which is not very endearing and I’m sure will get fixed for 2013.”
The noses, of course, will soon be forgotten if the season is close and competitive. And that will only begin to become clear as this weekend unfolds.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/new_f1_season_could_prove_unpr.html
Giovanna Amati George Amick Red Amick Chris Amon Bob Anderson
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Barring an unforeseen scheduling hiccup, two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart and 2008 Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton will swap race cars in an exhibition later this year, Stewart-Haas Racing spokesman Mike Arning confirmed Saturday. Hamilton Stewart The seat swap comes at the hands of Mobil 1, a mutual sponsor for the two drivers, and is expected to take place at Watkins Glen International sometime during the summer.The cars involved will not be show cars. Related posts:
- Tony Stewart: NASCAR’s clampdown on criticism OK SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Count two-time NASCAR Cup champion Tony Stewart…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/nascars-tony-stewart-f1s-lewis-hamilton-to-swap-cars/
Martin Brundle Gianmaria Bruni Jimmy Bryan Carlo Abate George Abecassis
2012 Bahrain Grand Prix lap charts is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
The lap and race charts show how Kimi Raikkonen lost more time behind Felipe Massa than Romain Grosjean – and how poor starts spoiled Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg’s races.
2012 Bahrain Grand Prix lap charts is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/dXqWbe5oroM/
Peter Arundell Alberto Ascari Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Busch became the first driver in a national NASCAR race to win wire-to-wire in nearly eight years. [+] Enlarge Tom Pennington/Getty Images Kyle Busch performs a burnout after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday Related posts:
- NASCAR: Kyle Busch closes on Phoenix sweep Kyle Busch closes on Phoenix sweep By Diego Mejia Sunday,…
- Kyle Busch rolls to 8th Nationwide win of season CLERMONT, Ind. — Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski kept it…
- Kyle Busch leads final 107 laps for trucks victory AVONDALE, Ariz. — A quick pit stop and some key…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/kyle-busch-goes-wire-to-wire-in-nwide-phoenix-win/
Marco Apicella Mário de Araújo Cabral Frank Armi Chuck Arnold Rene Arnoux
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/22/2017856/sun-shines-brightest-on-hamlin.html
Raul Boesel Menato Boffa Bob Bondurant Felice Bonetto Jo Bonnier
Renault: Heidfeld already leading team By Dieter Rencken and Matt Beer Sunday, February 27th 2011, 10:59 GMT Renault team boss Eric Boullier says it was obvious from Nick Heidfeld’s first few laps in the car that he was the man the squad needed to lead its 2011 charge in the absence of the injured Robert Kubica. Heidfeld will fill in alongside Vitaly Petrov at Renault until Kubica recovers from the multiple injuries he suffered in a rally crash three weeks ago. The German had a test audition for Renault before being snapped up, and Boullier said he was very impressed by the way Heidfeld immediately took charge. Related posts:
- F1: Renault ‘very positive’ about Heidfeld Renault ‘very positive’ about Heidfeld By Matt Beer Saturday, February…
- F1: Heidfeld, Liuzzi also in Renault frame Heidfeld, Liuzzi also in Renault frame By Jonathan Noble Tuesday,…
- F1: Heidfeld’s Renault run set for Saturday Heidfeld’s Renault run set for Saturday By Matt Beer Friday,…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/f1-renault-heidfeld-already-leading-team/
Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot
Mercedes buyout ‘won’t change team’ By Edd Straw Monday, February 28th 2011, 12:50 GMT No changes will be made to the way that Mercedes GP is run after Daimler AG and Aabar Investments took full control of the team, according to the German firm’s motorsport boss Norbert Haug. It was announced this morning that Mercedes and Aabar had acquired the remaining 24.9 per cent of the team, which was owned by the five shareholders involved in the original management buyout of Honda in 2009 – Ross Brawn, Nick Fry, Caroline McGrory, John Marsden and Nigel Kerr. Related posts:
- F1: Mercedes working flat out to catch up Mercedes working flat out to catch up By Pablo Elizalde…
- F1: Haug: No doubt Mercedes will win again Haug: No doubt Mercedes will win again By Jonathan Noble…
- F1: Mercedes denies management friction Mercedes denies management friction By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, September 28th…
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Source: http://doxcar.com/f1-mercedes-buyout-wont-change-team/
Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/0TxZQ3shlk4/dallara-dw12-curb-feelers-optional.html
Philippe Adams Walt Ader Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/iIvNCw322VM/my-little-go-daddy-girl.html
Menato Boffa Bob Bondurant Felice Bonetto Jo Bonnier Roberto Bonomi
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/22/2017666/schumacher-penalized-5-spots.html
Bill Brack Ernesto Brambilla Vittorio Brambilla Toni Branca Gianfranco Brancatelli