Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/30/2449776/petty-makes-crew-chief-change.html
Wednesday 31 October 2012
Lewis Hamilton: “It was a wicked race for me…”
Lewis Hamilton was in optimistic mood after the Indian GP – despite losing a place relative to his grid position and all but the slenderest mathematical chance of winning the championship. Hamilton enjoyed pushing Mark Webber in the closing stages, … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/10/28/lewis-hamilton-it-was-a-wicked-race-for-me/
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/
Video: Car and Driver Abroad Pushes the Koenigsegg Agera R to its Limits
To your average car buyer, Koenigsegg may be nothing but gibberish, but to a car buff, it is one of the baddest car manufacturers on the planet. Founded in 1994 and having produced limited numbers of each of its production models – CC8S, CCR, CCX, CCXR, Trevita, Agera and Agera R – it has quickly become a unicorn in the hypercar realm. Unfortunately, the unquestioned leader of the hypercar realm, to date, has been Bugatti and its record-setting Veyron.
Well, Car and Driver Abroad got an invite to Sweden to come drive the Agera R around the Swedish automaker’s track in an attempt to prove that the Agera R is a different animal than the Bugatti Veyron. With this comes a fantastic video of Car and Driver whipping the Agera R around a windy track and really testing how well this hypercar can handle...and it performed admirably.
The in-car camera gives you a good listen to all of the cabin noise that is 5.0-liter, turbocharged V-8 engine creates, and there’s plenty. This is thanks to the 1,140-horsepower, V-8 engine being bolted directly to the chassis, allowing all of the vibration and ruckus to make its way into the cabin. Some people may find that obnoxious, but this is the type of car that is meant to be heard. That’s simply part of its charm. If you don’t like it, don’t buy a hypercar…
What Koenigsegg and Car and Driver really proved here is that the Agera R is no competition to the Veyron… Not because it’s not as fast or not as much fun as the Veyron, but because it is a completely different car. Sure, the Veyron will rip off your face, if you really want it to, but it is also refined and somewhat timid. The Agera R is sheer adrenaline and muscle all packed into a svelte 3,250-pound body with a chassis built to drive circles around the Veyron.
What an impressive car and what a very telling video.
Video: Car and Driver Abroad Pushes the Koenigsegg Agera R to its Limits originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 31 October 2012 06:00 EST.
Robert Kubica Could Be Ruled Out For At Least A Year Following Accident
Polish racing driver Robert Kubica will spend at least one whole year recovering from a rally crash he suffered this morning, according to his surgeon. Kubica, who races for Renault Lotus crashed the Skoda Fabia rally car this morning and was airlifted to hospital suffering serious injuries. He has spent many hours in surgery, with [...]
Not bad for the number two driver
There was a moment of levity in the news conference after the British Grand Prix when race-winner Mark Webber was asked if he would continue to fight for the championship or back off and support Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
The journalist in question clearly does not know Webber very well. But the men on either side of him - Vettel and the world championship leader Fernando Alonso - certainly do. The two of them broke out into broad, knowing grins at the sheer unlikeliness of the suggestion.
Webber, as befits a man with class out of the cockpit to match his ability in it, treated his inquisitor with a delicacy that some of his rivals might have found more difficult to summon. But, before expanding on his answer, even he couldn’t resist drawing the humour out of the situation.
“Yeah,” he drawled, smothering a smile. “At Hockenheim (the next race), we will let Seb through.” Cue even bigger smiles from Alonso and Vettel, who are well aware he will be doing no such thing.
Mark Webber (left) celebrates winning the British GP with team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Photo: Getty
There is no Formula 1 driver more rooted in the concept of fair but hard competition than Webber – as his battles for equal treatment at Red Bull, which boiled over at Silverstone in the previous two races, attest.
There was no repeat this year of the squabbles that took place in 2010 and 2011, when Red Bull’s apparent preference for Vettel – and the Australian’s absolute refusal to play a supporting role - were laid bare in different ways.
The internal dynamic at Red Bull is very different this year. The team and drivers seem more at peace with their respective positions, and the drivers are fighting it out on the track without the tensions of previous seasons. And Webber is proving every bit a match for the double champion.
Webber out-qualified Vettel in the wet on Saturday, lining up alongside pole position man Alonso on the front row, and then won a straight battle with the Ferrari driver in the sunshine of race day to move within 13 points of the world championship lead.
The internal qualifying score at Red Bull is now five-four in Webber’s favour, and the 35-year-old has two wins to the German’s one. After a difficult season watching Vettel romp to the title in 2011, Webber has bounced back in style this season. A serious title contender he certainly is.
For a long time, the British Grand Prix looked to be Alonso’s to lose. He converted pole position into a lead at the first corner, with the help of a take-no-prisoners sweep across the track to deter the faster-starting Webber, and he led through both rounds of pit stops.
But in the last 14 laps before the chequered flag, Alonso found his Ferrari a much less competitive proposition on the ‘soft’ tyres he had saved to the end of the race because he had not liked them when he tried them in the one dry practice session on Saturday morning.
Webber remorselessly closed him down and, with Alonso defenceless, swept by into the lead with four laps to go.
It would be easy to blame Ferrari for choosing a strategy that in hindsight turned out to lose them the race. Easy but wrong.
It made perfect sense to save the more fragile ‘soft’ tyres to the end of the race, when the track would have more rubber on it and the cars would be carrying less fuel. It just turned out, in hindsight, to be the incorrect choice.
Alonso, Webber and their respective teams have reason to leave Silverstone satisfied.
Ferrari confirmed their recent progress, and theirs is now clearly a seriously fast race car – as evidenced by the fact that Alonso has contended for victory in each of the last five races, as well as team-mate Felipe Massa’s upturn in form. It is a remarkable turnaround after starting the season 1.5 seconds off the pace.
But, as both Alonso and Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali admitted after the race, the car is not quite a match for the Red Bull, which is now clearly the fastest in the field.
Although Red Bull team boss Christian Horner denied it after the race, the championship seems to be distilling down to a straight fight between Alonso and the Red Bull drivers – Vettel is only 16 points behind Webber.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton is being left behind in fourth place. He is 37 points behind Alonso in the standings after finishing eighth at Silverstone, but more worryingly McLaren have slipped from the pace.
Quite apart from the problems this will cause for them in the championship, it is particularly bad timing for a team whose driver is out of contract at the end of the season.
Hamilton is known to have had conversations with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. It is not clear how much interest there is in him by any of them but this is not the sort of performance that will encourage him to sign a new contract at McLaren.
The fact that even Bernie Ecclestone – who has never needed an excuse to kick Silverstone – refused to blame them for the horrendous traffic jams of Friday that led to them asking 20,000 fans with tickets not to come on Saturday underlines the reality that the organisers can hardly be blamed for the wettest June on record.
Nevertheless, there were clear examples of organisational problems as well as bad luck, and the track’s contingency plans clearly did not work on Friday, even if Silverstone did subsequently manage to dig themselves out of the hole they found themselves in with some effectiveness. They also showed laudable honesty in admitting there were serious problems.
The situation is more complex than it seems. The size of the fees charged by Ecclestone make it hard for races to make any money out of hosting a grand prix and Silverstone simply does not have the funds to pour money into solving the problem.
But a problem there is, and it could easily recur – as every F1 driver pointed out at the weekend, the British summer is notorious for its poor weather.
Those involved in the post-mortem meetings planned for this coming week will have to be imaginative in trying to coming up with solutions, but solutions, whatever they are, do need to be found.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/07/andrew_benson_1.html
Vettel takes over at the top
As Sebastian Vettel put down his winner’s trophy after holding it up in celebration on the Korean Grand Prix podium, Fernando Alonso tapped him on the back and reached out to shake his hand. It was a symbolic reflection of the championship lead being handed from one to the other.
After three consecutive victories for Vettel and Red Bull, the last two of which have been utterly dominant, it does not look as though Alonso is going to be getting it back.
Alonso will push to the end, of course, and he made all the right noises after the race, talking about Ferrari “moving in the right direction” and only needing “a little step to compete with Red Bull”.
“Four beautiful races to come with good possibilities for us to fight for the championship,” he said, adding: “Now we need to score seven points more than Sebastian. That will be extremely tough but we believe we can do it.”
Sebastian Vettel won the Korean GP by finishing ahead of team-mate Mark Webber and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso (left). Photo: Reuters
Indeed, a couple of hours after the race, Alonso was quoting samurai warrior-philosophy again on his Twitter account, just as he had in Japan a week before.
"I've never been able to win from start to finish,” he wrote. “I only learned not to be left behind in any situation."
Fighting against the seemingly inevitable is his only option. The facts are that the Ferrari has been slower than the Red Bull in terms of outright pace all year, and there is no reason to suspect anything different in the final four races of the season.
Vettel’s victory in Korea was utterly crushing in the manner of so many of his 11 wins in his dominant 2011 season. The Red Bull has moved on to another level since Singapore and Vettel, as he always does in that position, has gone with it.
Up and down the pit lane, people are questioning how Red Bull have done it, and a lot of attention has fallen on the team’s new ‘double DRS’ system.
This takes an idea introduced in different form by Mercedes at the start the season and, typically of Red Bull’s design genius Adrian Newey, applies it in a more elegant and effective way.
It means that when the DRS overtaking aid is activated – and its use is free in practice and qualifying – the car benefits from a greater drag reduction, and therefore more straight-line speed than its rivals.
Vettel has been at pains to emphasise that this does not help Red Bull in the race, when they can only use the DRS in a specified zone when overtaking other cars. But that’s not the whole story.
The greater drag reduction in qualifying means that the team can run the car with more downforce than they would otherwise be able to – because the ‘double DRS’ means they do not suffer the normal straight-line speed deficit of doing so.
That means the car’s overall lap time is quicker, whether in race or qualifying. So although the Red Bull drivers can’t use the ‘double DRS’ as a lap-time aid in the actual grands prix, they are still benefiting from having it on the car.
And they are not at risk on straights in the race because the extra overall pace, from the greater downforce, means they are far enough ahead of their rivals for them not to be able to challenge them, let alone overtake them. As long as they qualify at the front, anyway.
It’s not all down to the ‘double DRS’, though. McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe said in Korea: “They appear to have made a good step on their car. I doubt that is all down to that system. I doubt if a lot of it is down to that system, actually. You’ll probably find it’s just general development.”
BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson will go into more details on this in his column on Monday. Whatever the reasons for it, though, Red Bull’s rediscovered dominant form means Alonso is in trouble.
While Red Bull have been adding great chunks of performance to their car, Ferrari have been fiddling around with rear-wing design, a relatively small factor in overall car performance.
They have admitted they are struggling with inconsistency between the results they are getting in testing new parts in their wind tunnel and their performance on the track, so it is hard to see how they will close the gap on a Red Bull team still working flat out on their own updates.
The Ferrari has proved adaptable and consistent, delivering strong performances at every race since a major upgrade after the first four grands prix of the year.
But the only time Alonso has had definitively the quickest car is when it has been raining. It is in the wet that he took one of his three wins, and both his poles.
But he cannot realistically expect it to rain in the next three races in Delhi, Abu Dhabi and Austin, Texas. And after that only Brazil remains. So Alonso is effectively hoping for Vettel to hit problems, as he more or less admitted himself on Sunday.
How he must be ruing the bad breaks of those first-corner retirements in Belgium and Japan – even if they did effectively only cancel out Vettel’s two alternator failures in Valencia and Monza.
If anyone had reason on Sunday to regret what might have been, though, it was Lewis Hamilton, who has driven fantastically well all season only to be let down by his McLaren team in one way or another.
Hamilton, his title hopes over, wasted no time in pointing out after the race in Korea that the broken anti-roll bar that dropped him from fourth to 10th was the second suspension failure in as many races, and a broken gearbox robbed him of victory at the previous race in Singapore.
Operational problems in the early races of the season also cost him a big chunk of points.
Hamilton wears his heart on his sleeve, and in one off-the-cuff remark to Finnish television after the race, he revealed a great deal about why he has decided to move to Mercedes next year.
“It’s a day to forget,” Hamilton said. “A year to forget as well. I’m looking forward to a fresh start next year.”
In other words, I’ve had enough of four years of not being good enough, for various reasons, and I might as well try my luck elsewhere.
There was another post-race comment from Hamilton, too, that said an awful lot. “I hope Fernando keeps pushing,” he said.
Hamilton did not reply when asked directly whether that meant he wanted Alonso to win the title. But you can be sure that remark is a reflection of Hamilton’s belief that he is better than Vettel, that only Alonso is his equal.
Whether that is a correct interpretation of the standing of the three best drivers in the world, it will take more than this season to tell.
In the meantime, if Alonso and Ferrari are not to be mistaken in their belief that they still have a chance, “keeping pushing” is exactly what they must do. Like never before.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/10/as_sebastian_vettel_put_down.html
Nico Hulkenberg joins Sauber for 2013 | 2013 F1 season
Nico Hulkenberg joins Sauber for 2013 is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Nico Hulkenberg will move to Sauber for 2013, the team has confirmed.
Nico Hulkenberg joins Sauber for 2013 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/QfKHKZGMPgQ/
Tuesday 30 October 2012
Kimi Raikkonen: “I feel very comfortable with Lotus”
Kimi Raikkonen says that staying with Lotus in 2013 was “the obvious choice” after such a strong season this year. The team confirmed earlier today that the Finn will continue for a second year. “I think my return to Formula … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/10/29/kimi-raikkonen-i-feel-very-comfortable-with-lotus/
'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
Cool, canny Alonso seems to have all the answers
The remarkable story of Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's incredible season continued at the German Grand Prix as the Spaniard became the first man to win three races in 2012 and moved into an imposing lead in the world championship.
Those three victories have all been very different, but equally impressive. And each has demonstrated specific aspects of the formidable army of Alonso's talents.
In Malaysia in the second race of the season, at a time when the Ferrari was not competitive in the dry, he grabbed the opportunity provided by rain to take a most unexpected first win.
In Valencia last month, it was Alonso's opportunism and clinical overtaking abilities that were to the fore.
Other drivers may wonder how to stop Alonso's relentless drive to a third title. Photo: Getty
And in Germany on Sunday his victory was founded on his relentlessness, canniness and virtual imperviousness to pressure.
Ferrari, lest we forget, started the season with a car that was the best part of a second and a half off the pace. Their progress since then has been hugely impressive.
But vastly improved though the car is, it was not, as Alonso himself, his team boss Stefano Domenicali and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel all pointed out after the race on Sunday, the fastest car in Germany.
Vettel's Red Bull - which finished second but was demoted to fifth for passing Jenson Button by going off the track - and the McLaren appeared to have a slight pace advantage over the Ferrari, given their ability to stay within a second of it for lap after lap.
But Alonso cleverly managed his race so he was always just out of reach of them when it mattered.
He pushed hard in the first sector every lap so he was always far enough ahead at the start of the DRS overtaking zone to ensure his pursuers were not quite close enough to try to pass him into the Turn 6 hairpin.
After that, he could afford to back off through the middle sector of the lap, taking the stress out of his tyres, before doing it all over again the next time around.
Managing the delicate Pirelli tyres in this way also meant he could push that bit harder in the laps immediately preceding his two pit stops and ensure he kept his lead through them.
Equally, he showed the presence of mind to realise when Lewis Hamilton unlapped himself on Vettel shortly before the second stops that if he could, unlike the Red Bull driver, keep Hamilton behind, it would give him a crucial advantage at the stop.
It was not quite "67 qualifying laps", as Domenicali described it after the race, but it was certainly a masterful demonstration of control and intelligence.
And there was no arguing with another of the Italian's post-race verdicts. "(Alonso) is at the peak of his personal performance, no doubt about it," Domenicali said.
It was the 30th victory of Alonso's career, and he is now only one behind Nigel Mansell in the all-time winners' list. The way he is driving, he will surely move ahead of the Englishman into fourth place behind Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna before the end of the year.
At the halfway point of the season, Alonso now looks down on his pursuers in the championship from the lofty vantage point of a 34-point advantage.
That is not, as Red Bull team principal Christian Horner correctly pointed out in Germany, "insurmountable" with 10 races still to go and 250 points up for grabs. But catching him when he is driving as well as this will take some doing.
Alonso is clearly enjoying the situation, and is taking opportunities to rub his rivals' noses in it a little.
He is not the only driver to have been wound up by the index-finger salute Vettel employed every time he took one of his 11 wins and 15 pole positions on the way to the title last year.
So it was amusing to see Alonso do the same thing after he had beaten the German to pole position at Vettel's home race on Saturday.
The exchange between Alonso, Button and Vettel as they climbed out of their cars immediately after the race was also illuminating.
After standing on his Ferrari's nose to milk the applause, Alonso turned to Button and said: "You couldn't beat me?" He then pointed to Vettel and said: "He couldn't either."
All part of the game, but a little reminder to both men of what a formidable job Alonso is doing this season.
The race underlined how close the performance is between the top three teams this year.
Red Bull had a shaky start to the season by their standards - although to nowhere near the extent of Ferrari - but have had on balance the fastest car in the dry since the Bahrain Grand Prix back in April.
And while McLaren have had a shaky couple of races in Valencia and Silverstone, they showed potential race-winning pace in Germany following the introduction of a major upgrade.
Despite a car damaged when he suffered an early puncture on debris left from a first-corner shunt ironically involving Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa, Hamilton was able to run with the leaders before his retirement with gearbox damage.
And Button impressively fought his way up to second place from sixth on the grid, closing a five-second gap on Alonso and Vettel once he was into third place.
This has not been Button's greatest season, as he would be the first to admit.
Germany was the first race at which he has outqualified Hamilton in 2012 and even that may well have been down to the different tyre strategies they ran in qualifying.
Nevertheless, he remains a world-class grand prix driver and Germany proved the folly of those who had written him off after his recent struggles.
And despite Alonso's lead in the championship, the season is finely poised.
Germany was a low-key race for Mark Webber, who was unhappy with his car on the harder of the two tyres but remains second in the championship. And Red Bull's two drivers clearly have the equipment to make life difficult for Alonso.
The McLaren drivers are determined to make something of their season still and Lotus are quick enough to cause the three big teams some serious concern.
Mercedes, meanwhile, have a bit of work to do to turn around their tendency to qualify reasonably well and then go backwards in the race.
"It's going to be a great, great season," said McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh on Sunday. "It already has been a great season."
And the next instalment is already less than seven days away in Hungary next weekend.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/07/cool_canny_alonso_looks_diffic.html
Marussia Virgin Racing Launch Their 2011 Car
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/
Smooth Button masters F1's greatest test
At the circuit widely regarded as the greatest test of a racing driver in the world, Jenson Button took a victory in the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday that was probably the most dominant this season.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who finished second to Button after an impressive performance of his own, had an even bigger margin of superiority in Valencia but he was unable to make it count because his car failed.
Button had no such trouble. He stamped his authority on the weekend from the start of qualifying and never looked back, as all hell broke loose behind his McLaren.
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The frightening first-corner pile-up helped him in that it took out a potential threat in world championship leader Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. The Spaniard was up to third place from fifth on the grid before being assaulted by the flying Lotus of Romain Grosjean, who had collided with the other McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.
But before the race Alonso had entertained no prospect of battling for victory, and while he would almost certainly have finished on the podium, there is no reason to believe he would have troubled Button.
The Englishman also comfortably saw off in the opening laps the challenge of Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen, hotly tipped before the weekend.
Raikkonen was left to battle entertainingly with rivals including Vettel and Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher, on whom the Finn pulled an astoundingly brave pass into the 180mph swerves of Eau Rouge which was almost a carbon copy of Red Bull driver Mark Webber's move on Alonso last year.
Button, meanwhile, was serene out front, never looking under the remotest threat.
For Button, this was a far cry from the struggles he has encountered in what has not overall been one of his better seasons.
A strong start included a dominant victory in the opening race in Australia and second place in China.
But after that he tailed off badly, struggling with this year's big Formula 1 quandary - getting the temperamental Pirelli tyres into the right operating window.
The 32-year-old had a sequence of weak races and even at other times has generally been firmly in Hamilton's shade.
Those struggles were ultimately solved by some head-scratching on set-up at McLaren, but they were undoubtedly influenced by Button's smooth, unflustered driving style.
Button's weakness - one of which he is well aware - is that he struggles when the car is not to his liking. Unlike Alonso and Hamilton, he finds it difficult to adapt his style to different circumstances.
The flip side of that is that when he gets the car's balance right, he is close to unbeatable. It is a similar situation to that of two former McLaren drivers - Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Senna, like Hamilton, was usually faster, but when Prost, whose style was similar to Button's, got his car in the sweet spot he was matchless.
"I obviously have a style where it's quite difficult to find a car that works for me in qualifying," Button said on Saturday, "but when it does we can get pole position."
Perhaps an elegant style that does not upset the car or over-work the tyres was exactly what was needed through the demanding corners of Spa's challenging middle sector.
That was McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe's view, certainly.
"It could well be," Lowe said, "because it's made up of these longer flowing corners rather than the short, stop-start ones. So that may well be something he can work with well, just tucking it all up and smooth lines."
Was this the secret to Button's performance in qualifying, when he was a remarkable 0.8 seconds quicker than team-mate Lewis Hamilton?
In a well-publicised series of tweets after qualifying, Hamilton blamed this on the team's collective decision - with which he agreed when it was made - to run his car on a set-up with higher downforce.
This is a perfectly valid decision at Spa -it was a route that Raikkonen also took - and in pure lap time the two differing approaches should balance themselves out. But for them to do so, the driver with the higher downforce set-up has to make up in the middle sector the time he has lost on the straights.
As the McLaren telemetry of which Hamilton so unwisely tweeted a picture on race morning proved, however, that was not the case. Hamilton was not fast enough through sector two - indeed his time through there on his final qualifying lap was 0.3secs slower than his best in the session.
Hamilton tweeted a photo of the McLaren telemetry, prompting a rebuke from his team.
That was the real reason why he was slower than Button in Spa qualifying - not the fact he was down on straight-line speed, which was always going to be the case once he went with the set-up he did.
It's worth pointing out in this context that Hamilton was also significantly slower than Button in final practice - a fact that led him to take the gamble on the different set-up.
How Hamilton would have fared in the race will never be known, because of the accident with Grosjean.
It was a scary moment - Grosjean's flying Lotus narrowly missed Alonso's head - and the incident underlined once again why F1 bosses are so keen to introduce some kind of more effective driver head protection in the future.
From the point of view of a disinterested observer, the only plus point of the accident, which also took out the two impressive Saubers, was that it has narrowed Alonso's lead in the championship. Vettel is now within a race victory of the Spaniard.
Despite this, to his immense credit, Alonso was a picture of measured calm after the race.
Invited to criticise Grosjean, he refused. Although, being the wise owl he is, he not only had at his fingertips the statistics of Grosjean's first-lap crashes this season, but slipped them into his answer.
"I am not angry [at Grosjean]," he said. "No-one did this on purpose, they were fighting, two aggressive drivers on the start, Lewis and Romain and this time it was us in the wrong place at the wrong time and we were hit.
"It's true also that in 12 races, Romain had seven crashes at the start, so..."
It was, Alonso pointed out, a good opportunity for governing body the FIA to make a point about driving standards this season, which Williams's Pastor Maldonado has also seemed to be waging a campaign to lower.
It was an opportunity the stewards did not decline.
Grosjean will now watch next weekend's Italian Grand Prix from the sidelines after being given a one-race suspension, the first time a driver has been banned since Michael Schumacher in 1994. Maldonado has a 10-place grid penalty for jumping the start and causing his own, independent, accident.
Earlier this year, triple world champion Jackie Stewart, who is an advisor to Lotus, offered to sit down with Grosjean and give him some advice about the way he approached his races.
Stewart is famous not only for his campaign for safety in F1 but also for his impeccable driving standards during his career. He has helped many drivers in his time, but Grosjean turned him down.
On Sunday evening, I was contacted by an old friend, the two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 and former IndyCar champion Gil de Ferran, who was involved in F1 a few years ago as a senior figure in the Honda team.
That coaching, De Ferran said, "seems like a great idea".
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/smooth_button_masters_f1_great.html
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
Monday 29 October 2012
BIKES: 2012 Barber Vintage Festival
Neale Bayly travels to Alabama to attend the Barber Vintage Festival with over 57,000 other enthusiasts and fans of vintage bikes.
Source: http://motorcycling.speedtv.com/article/bikes-2012-barber-vintage-festival/
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 [...]
Hamilton: title defeat is “heartbreaking” | F1 Fanatic round-up
Hamilton: title defeat is “heartbreaking” 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: Hamilton "heartbroken" by title defeat • Vettel denies Ferrari rumours • Schumacher expects little from final races
Hamilton: title defeat is “heartbreaking” 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/-qgehCk0T2o/
Indian Grand Prix Roundup: Vettel Extends His Lead
Sebastian Vettel extended his lead at the top of the World Drivers’ Championship with a pole to flag victory in India. The German’s position at the front never looked under any threat as he produced a disciplined drive to build the buffer between himself and Fernando Alonso in the individual standings. The Spaniard performed admirably [...]
Pastor present
Pastor Maldonado set the fastest time of the Q1 session in India on Saturday, beating Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber, fernando Alonso, Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean. The middle order featured Felipe Massa, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Michael Schumacher and Kamui Kobayashi. Knocked out were Jean-Eric [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/pastor-present/
Sunday 28 October 2012
Robert Kubica Could Be Ruled Out For At Least A Year Following Accident
Polish racing driver Robert Kubica will spend at least one whole year recovering from a rally crash he suffered this morning, according to his surgeon. Kubica, who races for Renault Lotus crashed the Skoda Fabia rally car this morning and was airlifted to hospital suffering serious injuries. He has spent many hours in surgery, with [...]
Button Steps Up Pre Season Training With Lance Armstrong
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/
Rate the race: 2012 Indian Grand Prix | 2012 Indian Grand Prix
Rate the race: 2012 Indian Grand Prix is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
What did you think of the Indian Grand Prix? Share your verdict on today's race.
Rate the race: 2012 Indian Grand Prix 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/h3hPnjGj1Io/
Hamilton's tough decision
Since BBC Sport chief analyst Eddie Jordan reported on this website last week that Lewis Hamilton was on the verge of switching to Mercedes from McLaren next year, Formula 1 has been awash with speculation about the 2008 world champion's future.
McLaren did their best at last weekend's Italian Grand Prix to dismiss the story - team boss Martin Whitmarsh even joked: "Any sentence that begins, 'Eddie Jordan understands' is immediately questionable, isn't it?"
But it was noticeable that not only did McLaren not deny the story was true, they said very little to suggest Hamilton was staying with them.
From Whitmarsh, it was: "Lewis and his management have made their position clear to us", "my understanding is we're talking to him" and "I'm pretty convinced we will have a very good, competitive driving line-up next year."
None of which translates as "Hamilton is staying".
Hamilton was triumphant at Monza, but how many more races will he win with McLaren? Photo: Getty
As for the doubts cast on the veracity of the story, the source is strong and credible, and the core information - that Hamilton has agreed terms on a contract with Mercedes for next year - is based in fact.
That does not necessarily mean Hamilton will move but it does mean he is thinking about it seriously. And you can make what you will of his downbeat behaviour throughout the Monza weekend - even after he won the race.
In the paddock, the general view was that a move would be a mistake - but it is a much more complicated decision than that.
Firstly, McLaren have undoubtedly been more competitive than Mercedes in the last three years. Between them, Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button have won 16 races since the start of 2010; Mercedes only one, with Nico Rosberg in China this season.
Over an extended period, McLaren have a winning pedigree beyond that of any other team. Only Ferrari have won more grands prix, and they have been in F1 for 16 years longer.
Hamilton, who has been nurtured by the team since he was 13, says: "I want to win." On pure performance, there's only one choice, right?
In F1, things are rarely that simple.
Yes, McLaren usually have a good car, but until this year it had been a long time since they had unquestionably the best.
It was close with Ferrari in 2007-8, although hindsight would suggest now that the McLaren was probably not quite as good then. In which case, you probably have to go back to 2005 to find the last time McLaren had conclusively the fastest car in F1.
This is known to have irked Hamilton in 2010-11, and played some part in the cocktail of issues that led to his difficult season last year, when his frustration at the car's inability to compete for the title and problems with his family and his girlfriend led to what he admitted was his worst season in the sport.
That all changed this season. The McLaren is again setting the pace. But a series of operational problems in the opening races badly affected Hamilton, costing him 40 points. Add those points to his current total and he would be leading Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, not trailing him by a win and a fourth place.
Hamilton has done well to disguise his disappointment publicly, but it was around this time that his management started approaching McLaren's rivals about job opportunities.
On top of that, McLaren are entering an uncertain period. For the first time next year, they will have to pay for their Mercedes engines - that's in the region of eight million euros they cannot spend on the performance of the car unless they find it from other sources.
Tied in with this is the question of salary. McLaren have made it clear they cannot afford Hamilton at any price. The word is they have offered him a cut in money for next season, on the basis that they cannot afford anything more. This might be offset by other compromises, such as over PR appearances, flights and so on.
Already on about half of what Alonso earns at Ferrari, one can imagine how that has gone down with Hamilton - especially as McLaren's portfolio of sponsors makes it very difficult for a driver to do personal deals elsewhere to top up his earnings. That's because almost anywhere he looks there's a clash with a company that has links with McLaren.
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Meanwhile, Mercedes are by definition a "works" team with factory engines, have the might of an automotive giant behind them. They can pay Hamilton a lot more than his current salary - believed to be about £13m - if they want to. And at Mercedes there is also a lot more freedom for a driver to do personal sponsorship deals.
The funding for Mercedes' F1 team comes entirely from external sponsors - and the budget is reputedly significantly less than enjoyed by Red Bull and Ferrari. But it is underwritten by the parent company so even if there is a sponsorship shortfall it doesn't affect the team.
Performance-wise, the team that is now Mercedes actually won the world title more recently than McLaren, when they were Brawn in 2009. Ironically, the man who won it was Button. His success - and what he interpreted as the team's ambivalence about him staying - led to him moving to McLaren.
Admittedly, Brawn's success in 2009 was tainted by the row over double-diffusers that clouded that season. Once everyone had them, the car was no longer as competitive as it had been.
Mercedes have certainly been under-performing since then, but that can at least partly be explained by the fact that Brawn, facing serious financial problems, slashed their staff by 40% in 2009. As Mercedes, they have been slowly building levels up again.
The pressure on the team to up their game is massive - hence the huge investment in terms of staffing and resources in the last 18 months or so.
And while they are a long way behind McLaren this season, they are on an upward trend, even if it is significantly slower than either the team or the Mercedes board would like.
Equally, few in F1 would disagree that Hamilton is one of the three best drivers in the world, alongside Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. Mercedes don't have any of them.
It's impossible to know how much faster the car would go in their hands than it has done so far in those of Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Some might argue not at all. But, that's not how Hamilton, who raced and beat Rosberg in their formative years, will look at it.
Add all that up, and the decision doesn't seem so easy after all.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/hamiltons_tough_decision.html
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/
Fernando Alonso: “We are fighting against Newey’s car…”
Fernando Alonso says his target for the Indian GP is to beat the McLarens put pressure on Red Bull. He also made it clear that it will be an uphill struggle against a car that is now clearly the class … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/10/27/fernando-alonso-we-are-fighting-against-neweys-car/
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 [...]
Vettel takes over at the top
As Sebastian Vettel put down his winner’s trophy after holding it up in celebration on the Korean Grand Prix podium, Fernando Alonso tapped him on the back and reached out to shake his hand. It was a symbolic reflection of the championship lead being handed from one to the other.
After three consecutive victories for Vettel and Red Bull, the last two of which have been utterly dominant, it does not look as though Alonso is going to be getting it back.
Alonso will push to the end, of course, and he made all the right noises after the race, talking about Ferrari “moving in the right direction” and only needing “a little step to compete with Red Bull”.
“Four beautiful races to come with good possibilities for us to fight for the championship,” he said, adding: “Now we need to score seven points more than Sebastian. That will be extremely tough but we believe we can do it.”
Sebastian Vettel won the Korean GP by finishing ahead of team-mate Mark Webber and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso (left). Photo: Reuters
Indeed, a couple of hours after the race, Alonso was quoting samurai warrior-philosophy again on his Twitter account, just as he had in Japan a week before.
"I've never been able to win from start to finish,” he wrote. “I only learned not to be left behind in any situation."
Fighting against the seemingly inevitable is his only option. The facts are that the Ferrari has been slower than the Red Bull in terms of outright pace all year, and there is no reason to suspect anything different in the final four races of the season.
Vettel’s victory in Korea was utterly crushing in the manner of so many of his 11 wins in his dominant 2011 season. The Red Bull has moved on to another level since Singapore and Vettel, as he always does in that position, has gone with it.
Up and down the pit lane, people are questioning how Red Bull have done it, and a lot of attention has fallen on the team’s new ‘double DRS’ system.
This takes an idea introduced in different form by Mercedes at the start the season and, typically of Red Bull’s design genius Adrian Newey, applies it in a more elegant and effective way.
It means that when the DRS overtaking aid is activated – and its use is free in practice and qualifying – the car benefits from a greater drag reduction, and therefore more straight-line speed than its rivals.
Vettel has been at pains to emphasise that this does not help Red Bull in the race, when they can only use the DRS in a specified zone when overtaking other cars. But that’s not the whole story.
The greater drag reduction in qualifying means that the team can run the car with more downforce than they would otherwise be able to – because the ‘double DRS’ means they do not suffer the normal straight-line speed deficit of doing so.
That means the car’s overall lap time is quicker, whether in race or qualifying. So although the Red Bull drivers can’t use the ‘double DRS’ as a lap-time aid in the actual grands prix, they are still benefiting from having it on the car.
And they are not at risk on straights in the race because the extra overall pace, from the greater downforce, means they are far enough ahead of their rivals for them not to be able to challenge them, let alone overtake them. As long as they qualify at the front, anyway.
It’s not all down to the ‘double DRS’, though. McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe said in Korea: “They appear to have made a good step on their car. I doubt that is all down to that system. I doubt if a lot of it is down to that system, actually. You’ll probably find it’s just general development.”
BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson will go into more details on this in his column on Monday. Whatever the reasons for it, though, Red Bull’s rediscovered dominant form means Alonso is in trouble.
While Red Bull have been adding great chunks of performance to their car, Ferrari have been fiddling around with rear-wing design, a relatively small factor in overall car performance.
They have admitted they are struggling with inconsistency between the results they are getting in testing new parts in their wind tunnel and their performance on the track, so it is hard to see how they will close the gap on a Red Bull team still working flat out on their own updates.
The Ferrari has proved adaptable and consistent, delivering strong performances at every race since a major upgrade after the first four grands prix of the year.
But the only time Alonso has had definitively the quickest car is when it has been raining. It is in the wet that he took one of his three wins, and both his poles.
But he cannot realistically expect it to rain in the next three races in Delhi, Abu Dhabi and Austin, Texas. And after that only Brazil remains. So Alonso is effectively hoping for Vettel to hit problems, as he more or less admitted himself on Sunday.
How he must be ruing the bad breaks of those first-corner retirements in Belgium and Japan – even if they did effectively only cancel out Vettel’s two alternator failures in Valencia and Monza.
If anyone had reason on Sunday to regret what might have been, though, it was Lewis Hamilton, who has driven fantastically well all season only to be let down by his McLaren team in one way or another.
Hamilton, his title hopes over, wasted no time in pointing out after the race in Korea that the broken anti-roll bar that dropped him from fourth to 10th was the second suspension failure in as many races, and a broken gearbox robbed him of victory at the previous race in Singapore.
Operational problems in the early races of the season also cost him a big chunk of points.
Hamilton wears his heart on his sleeve, and in one off-the-cuff remark to Finnish television after the race, he revealed a great deal about why he has decided to move to Mercedes next year.
“It’s a day to forget,” Hamilton said. “A year to forget as well. I’m looking forward to a fresh start next year.”
In other words, I’ve had enough of four years of not being good enough, for various reasons, and I might as well try my luck elsewhere.
There was another post-race comment from Hamilton, too, that said an awful lot. “I hope Fernando keeps pushing,” he said.
Hamilton did not reply when asked directly whether that meant he wanted Alonso to win the title. But you can be sure that remark is a reflection of Hamilton’s belief that he is better than Vettel, that only Alonso is his equal.
Whether that is a correct interpretation of the standing of the three best drivers in the world, it will take more than this season to tell.
In the meantime, if Alonso and Ferrari are not to be mistaken in their belief that they still have a chance, “keeping pushing” is exactly what they must do. Like never before.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/10/as_sebastian_vettel_put_down.html
Robert Kubica Could Be Ruled Out For At Least A Year Following Accident
Polish racing driver Robert Kubica will spend at least one whole year recovering from a rally crash he suffered this morning, according to his surgeon. Kubica, who races for Renault Lotus crashed the Skoda Fabia rally car this morning and was airlifted to hospital suffering serious injuries. He has spent many hours in surgery, with [...]
Saturday 27 October 2012
Vettel remains on top in India | 2012 Indian Grand Prix third practice
Vettel remains on top in India is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Sebastian Vettel was the fastest driver for the third session in a row in practice for the Indian Grand Prix.
Vettel remains on top in India is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
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