Monday 30 April 2012
Drivers' meeting 'promises to be very interesting'
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
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
Ferrari F70 HY-KERS
 |
Ferrari has already confirmed two things for its future. The first to come was the fact that it will soon feature a V-12 hybrid drivetrain dubbed the HY-KERS system. The second thing that Ferrari confirmed was the fact that a new Enzo-like vehicle will debut in the coming years boasting this HY-KERS system as its power plant.
Some snooping around also produced that this new “Enzo” may bear the F70 name. Currently, the details on this upcoming F70 are scarce, at best, and all we have seen in the form of visuals on it are some spy shots of its testing mule, which looks more like an Italia 458 with poorly placed metal slabs bolted onto it. The same rings true for the interior. What we do know is that in an effort to reduce weight, the F70 will include some carbon-fiber panels.
We also know a good deal about the 6.3-liter V-12 HY-KERS (Hybrid-Kinetic Energy Recovery System) that will power it. Starting with the internal combustion side; this engine will be as efficient as possible, using multi spark technology – a series of cooler sparks as the piston travels upward – that assures that no fuel goes to waste by the spark plug igniting multiple times before the each cylinder hits top-dead-center. This combustion engine links to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
On the electrical side, you have a series of components working together for optimal efficiency. On the backside of the seven-speed trans, you have a high-power traction motor. This motor electrifies the seven-speed trans, adding to the power the engine delivers to it. Attached to the gasoline engine is an auxiliary generator that charges the batteries, as needed. Lastly, on top of the transmission is the hybrid power unit, which features two inverters and a smart cooling system.
All of this crazy technology plops down a whopping 920 combined horsepower and a 0 to 200 km/h (124 mph) time of 6.5 seconds. This also drops the CO2 emissions by a whopping 40 percent, 10 percent more than the initial tests.
We will continue to keep you updated with additions to this review, as more info becomes available, so stay tuned!
Ferrari F70 HY-KERS originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 30 April 2012 10:00 EST.
Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/ferrari/2014-ferrari-f70-hy-kers-ar128704.html
Journalists shocked at Korea award
 Scarecrows adorn the entrance to a barren Korean International Circuit |
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/12/journalists_shocked_at_korea_a.php
Alonso sets the standard
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
Life in the pit lane
 The Mercedes pit crew prepare for Michael Schumacher in Singapore |
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
“If you’re not winning …you’re not trying” review | Review
“If you’re not winning …you’re not trying” review is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
"If you're not winning ...you're not trying", the insightful documentary on Lotus's 1973 world championship campaign, has been re-released on DVD.
“If you’re not winning …you’re not trying” review 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/~3/30WhZBRkJpw/
BIKES: 2012 Ducati 1199 Panigale First Ride
Road Test Editor, Adam Waheed, reviews the 2012 Ducati 1199 Panigale.
Source: http://motorcycling.speedtv.com/article/bikes-2012-ducati-1199-panigale-first-ride/
Ferrari Launch Their 2011 Car The F150
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/
Sunday 29 April 2012
Show us your stalled projects!!!
and why are they just sitting.........
mine........ '57 chrysler 300, need paint, primer, kids out of school (nerve racking)
'61 plymouth, just plain nerve racking, fit problems etc.
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1014234.aspx
How Webber turned tables on Vettel
The madcap conclusion to the Chinese Grand Prix, with 12 cars battling nose to tail for second place behind winner Nico Rosberg, was packed with some of the best racing Formula 1 could ever produce.
But among the wheel-to-wheel battles and overtaking moves, one incident stood out more than most.
With 20 laps to go, Mark Webber's Red Bull ran a little wide on the 170mph exit of Turn 13, caught the edge of the kerb, and its nose reared up into the air.
The car looked briefly as if it might take off - as Webber did in the 2010 European Grand Prix, when his car landed upside down before skidding into the barriers, without injury to its driver. He also suffered two similar accidents at Le Mans in 1999.
But then the nose crashed down on to the track. "It's always a worrying moment when it gets a lot of air under it like that," said team boss Christian Horner. "He's used to that. I should think he was on the brakes."
He wasn't, as it turns out. Webber told me a "little lift" of the accelerator was enough to bring the car back down again.
For those watching, it was a heart-stopping moment. But Webber obviously did not dwell on it long - in the very next sector of the lap, he set his fastest time of the race so far.
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Shanghai was another impressive weekend from Webber, notwithstanding a couple of errors that probably cost him a podium finish.
He spent last year in the shadow of team-mate Sebastian Vettel as the German cantered to a second world title. While Vettel took 11 victories, Webber won once in Brazil - and then only when Vettel's car hit gearbox trouble.
This year is a different story. Not only have Red Bull slipped back into the pack, but Webber has so far had the edge on Vettel.
The qualifying score is three-nil in Webber's favour and the final overtaking move in those frantic concluding laps in China was Webber separating his team-mate from fourth place between the penultimate and final corners of the last lap.
It was the climactic moment of a fascinating weekend at Red Bull, whose drivers were in cars of two different specifications.
Vettel has never been happy with the handling of the RB8 in the upgraded trim that was introduced at the final pre-season test. And for China he reverted to the specification in which the car was launched, while Webber stuck with the newer one.
According to chief technical officer Adrian Newey, incidentally, the car was in exactly its initial configuration - not, as we reported over the weekend, with slightly longer exhaust pipes.
The two designs have a different aerodynamic philosophy.
The older one uses the exhausts to improve the airflow through the "coke-bottle" area at the rear of the car. The newer one aims to direct the gases at the area where the floor meets the rear tyre, to "seal" the diffuser.
Both improve downforce, but to different degrees, in different ways and with different effects.
"There were some characteristics about the upgraded car that weren't particularly suited to (Vettel's) style of driving, which is to carry a lot of speed into the corner," said Horner.
Vettel qualified only 11th, but said afterwards that he "felt happier with the car than (in) previous races". But the decision to put him back into the older-spec car in China was not, Newey said in an exclusive interview after the race, at the driver's request.
The newer car had shown "a few characteristics that haven't worked as intended," Newey explained, "so we simply brought the old bodywork for Seb this weekend to get some more data, as a direct comparison."
It was a test session, basically, and Vettel was chosen to run the older-spec car because he preferred its handling.
"We could have then put both cars to the latest spec, the spec that Mark raced, on Friday evening," Newey said. "But we felt that would be more disruptive than simply continuing. And we'd have probably burnt a (mandatory FIA working hours) curfew in the process. But both cars will be back to the new spec in Bahrain."
Newey clearly believes the newer car is faster, but he says it's "difficult to say" by how much.
I pressed him, asking if he thought the difference in performance between the two cars was in the region of the 0.331 seconds by which Webber was faster than Vettel in second qualifying, which Vettel did not progress beyond.
Newey said: "Mark seems to have taken to this car more easily than Seb at the moment, but that's simply the reverse of what happened last year."
Indeed it is. But why?
Engineers in rivals teams say Red Bull have been hurt more than any other team by the banning of exhaust-blown diffusers this year because they were exploiting the technology, which pumped exhaust gases along the floor of the car even when the driver was off the throttle, far more effectively than anyone else.
Red Bull pioneered it. If you got it right, and combined it effectively with the overall design of the car, it could gain you something in the region of a second a lap. But it was difficult to master the aerodynamic effects and most teams never did.
This year, the teams are still trying to exploit exhausts gases in a similar way, to hold on to some of the downforce-boosting effect. But the regulations now define an area within which the exhaust exits must be, engine mapping is restricted, and the gains are reduced to about 10% of what was available in 2011.
Webber never really got on with the way the Red Bull behaved last year.
But this year the cars are handling in a more conventional fashion, and he is back to where he was in 2010, when he and Vettel were evenly matched and Webber led the championship for much of the year.
The Red Bull drivers' Chinese GP results match their championship positions. Webber is fourth on 36 points, eight ahead of Vettel and nine behind leader Lewis Hamilton.
Whether Red Bull can improve their car enough to fight consistently for victories - and therefore the title - remains to be seen. But they are too good a team, led by too brilliant a designer, to stay down for long.
And the battle between their drivers adds a delicious extra dimension to their fightback.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/how_webber_turned_tables_on_ve.html
INDYCAR: Power, Chevrolet Unstoppable In Sao Paulo
Team Penske’s Will Power earned his third consecutive IndyCar win, the fourth straight for Chevy and completed personal a hat trick at the Brazilian street circuit.
Source: http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-power-chevrolet-unstoppable-in-sao-paulo/
Why Michael Schumacher Could Win The 2011 World Championship
Michael Schumacher’s 2010 comeback was somewhat abortive. The results, the driving standard and the overtakes were well below par for the former champion. He even let his team mate beat him for the first time in his career. So why can Schumacher, the fallen Ferrari hero, win the world championship for an 8th time? It’s [...]
Sebastian Vettel: “I owe this one to the team…”
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/
Reading between the lines in a phoney war
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
Saturday 28 April 2012
'The point of no confidence is quite near'
 The wreckage of Jochen Rindt's car at Barcelona |
“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
Team order rule needs a re-think
 Jean Todt arives for Wednesday's hearing |
“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
Lotus told Grosjean not to hold Raikkonen up | F1 Fanatic round-up
Lotus told Grosjean not to hold Raikkonen up 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: New video from the Bahrain Grand Prix shows Romain Grosjean was instructed to let Kimi Raikkonen past for second place.
Lotus told Grosjean not to hold Raikkonen up 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/~3/9ie0fQAQQKA/
The two Kimi Raikkonens
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
Michael Schumacher: “I’m not happy about the situation”
Over the course of his long career Michael Schumacher has rarely strayed into controversy with off-track comments, always preferring to keep his thoughts to himself. However after the Bahrain GP his frustrations came to the surface after what he called … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/04/23/michael-schumacher-im-not-happy-about-the-situation/
Spyker preparing to increase production substantially over coming years
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We’re all familiar with the Spyker name, so much so that we’re under the impression that the tiny company actually produced at least 50 units annually. However, the company’s CEO Victor Muller recently confirmed that Spyker only produced 12 new cars in 2011, a figure very similar to the amount of cars which Pagani produced in the same time period.
However, Muller isn’t going to let those relatively unimpressive numbers dissuade him, as he wants the company to continue to grow in the coming years and with Saab now completely split from Spyker, it’s the perfect time for Muller to look into strategies to expand the company.
Unfortunately, Spyker’s failed attempt to acquire Saab did affect their car production to such an extent that production has pretty much skidded to a stop. Consequently, Muller is currently looking for an investment of $32 million to restart production, and if all goes well Muller hopes that Spyker can produce upwards of 1,000 cars annually in the coming years.
If Spyker does manage to find this much required investment, then its model line could also be increased to accommodate the 2006 D12 Peking-To-Paris SUV Concept and with luxury SUVs seemingly being the talk of the town recently, the company could be onto a winner if it does put the D12 into production.
The biggest thing standing in the way of Muller achieving these aims may be his inability to receive the necessary funds. Unsurprisingly, after his failed attempt to run Saab and failed attempt to run his own Formula 1 team, firms are understandably apprehensive about whether or not he can deliver on his claims.
Spyker preparing to increase production substantially over coming years originally appeared on topspeed.com on Saturday, 28 April 2012 03:00 EST.
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