Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/team-lotus-launch-their-2011-machine-the-t128/
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Team Lotus Launch Their 2011 Machine The T128
Team Lotus (the one who raced last year) have become the second team to officially pull the covers off their new 2011 car. The green and yellow liveried machine will start be raced by Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen this season under the name of Team Lotus as the management’s row with Group Lotus, now [...]
Michael Schumacher: “We just dialled the car into perfection”
A bouyant Michael Schumacher says he’s ready to fight for a win in Monaco on Sunday despite being demoted to sixth after qualifying on pole. The Mercedes ace stunned the pitlane by taking top spot for the first time since … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/26/michael-schumacher-we-just-dialled-the-car-into-perfection/
Photo of the Week: 2010 Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV & Girls
 |
After last week’s photo of the week, we’ve decided to step things up a bit with a set of shots which will simply blow your mind, taken by Thomas van Rooij in Madrid, Spain early last year.
Feel free to check out the full gallery over at his Flickr account, but for now we’re just focusing on the above picture and the dozen-odd other ones where a sexy model is showcased on, near and around this stunning supercar.
The individual picture in question was captured out the front of the Puerta da Alcalá in Madrid, and features some incredible light streaks from passing by cars, one of which was a Ferrari F430 coupe. Add to that the monument being lite up in an incredible shade of light blue and you have one of the very best shots of the Murcielago SV we’ve ever seen.
However, we didn’t feel that was enough for this week and also gathered all of the model & supercar pictures for you guys as we can never get enough of this combination.
Despite being a couple years old, the Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV is still the second most powerful Lamborghini production car ever produced, behind the Aventador, with its 6.5-liter V12 delivering 662HP which is enough to launch the supercar to 62 mph in just 3.2 seconds and onto a top speed nearing 210mph.
Photo of the Week: 2010 Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV & Girls originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 28 May 2012 14:00 EST.
Monday, 28 May 2012
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/
McLaren drivers out of title race
 Is it now a three-way battle for the title? |
“Focus and concentration will be of paramount importance and there is none stronger in this regard than Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.”The Guardian’s Oliver Owen thinks that it is Mark Webber’s title to lose now, and that this may be the Australian’s last realistic chance of winning the title.
“He has driven beautifully. Monaco and Silverstone spring to mind. He has been an uncompromising racer, not giving Vettel or Lewis Hamilton an inch in Turkey and Singapore respectively. Most importantly, he has largely avoided the bouts of brain fade that can wreck a season – his on-track hooning in Melbourne when racing Hamilton being the only exception. But there is a feeling that for Webber it is now or never, that a chance of a tilt at the title may never come again. He is certainly driving as if that is the case and that has been his strength.”According to The Mirror’s Byron Young, both McLaren drivers are now out of the title hunt after their fourth and fifth place finishes in Suzuka.
“McLaren's title hopes died yesterday in a weekend from Hell at Suzuka. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and fifth in a Japanese Grand Prix they had to win to have the remotest chance of keeping their title bid alive."The Sun’s Michael Spearman was of the same opinion, saying “Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button's title hopes were in tatters after a shocker in Japan.”
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/mclaren_drivers_out_of_title_r_1.php
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
2012 Formula 1 season – Time to get in the mood!
The 2012 Formula 1 season gets underway this month and here are some videos to get you in the mood. While you are here, why not check out which drivers are under pressure in 2012? Enjoy these videos! More to come! [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog [...]
Ferrari 126ck and 126c2 WIP
Gilles Villeneuve was one of my idols, when i was a kid. Here in the quebec province he was our heroe. I still remember that day of may 8th ,1982. I was 12 yrs old, washing my dad's car on a sunny saturday, then the music on the radio turned off to announce that Gilles had this terrible accident in zolder and died.....What a shock, i remember it like if it was yesterday.
So i'll be building Fujimi's 126ck and 126c2 in tribute to my younger days heroe. The 126ck was raced in 1981 and will be built with the cowling glued in place with only exterior details while 1982's 126c2 will be built on stands with the cowling and wheels off, with full detail.
I got the KA models FMD detail set for the 126c2 and the Hobby Design detail set for the 126ck
I had to remove the little areation wings on the side, the detail sets providing some photoetch one
here's the c2 removed
the c2 with photoetch
the ck with photoetch
Here's the dash and steering wheels
I used some fishing line to scratchbuild the fuel lines on the engine for the 126c2
I used k&s aluminum tubing to make more realistic exhaust tips on the c2, with the photoetched parts of the detail set
here's the exhausts painted in copper coated with a mixture of tamiya's clear, titanium silver and clear blue
the 1/1 car 126c2 has wire mesh "bulbs" while the kis'one are on plastic, i did not like it so t took them off to scratchbuild some with wiremesh from an airbrush filter
some other work on c2 's engine
here is an overview of all the parts with paint and some assembly
Thanks for looking
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1002878.aspx
Crane delays Porsche race
A bizarre situation has developed overnight at Monaco where a 60- ton crane is stuck at the Anthony Noghes corner just before the start finish straight with a seized axle. The Automobile Club de Monaco found a solution, but the start of the Porsche Supercup race was delayed by 15 minutes while the blockage was [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/potential-start-delay-at-monaco/
The right race in the wrong place?
Sebastian Vettel gave this already fascinating Formula 1 world championship another huge twist at the Bahrain Grand Prix with his first victory of the season.
What looked for a while like it might turn into a carbon-copy of so many of the Red Bull driver's wins on his way to the title last year - pole, blitz the start, consolidate lead - turned into a fascinating battle with the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen.
The Finn showed all his old skill and consistency as he climbed from 11th place on the grid to take second place. In so doing, Raikkonen finally delivered on the potential of a car that has looked capable of this sort of result since the start of the season and proved he has lost nothing in his two years away in rallying.
The result, and a nightmare race for McLaren, leaves the championship finely poised going into a three-week break before the Spanish Grand Prix, with Vettel leapfrogging from fifth overall to first and only a handful of points covering all the top five.
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All of this, though, has been completely overshadowed by the situation outside the track, and the controversy over F1's decision to return to Bahrain despite ongoing civil unrest in the Gulf state.
The race has dominated the news agenda over the weekend and, for those involved in the sport, it has not been pretty.
Most people could see the situation F1 has found itself in this weekend coming from miles away, but if the sport's bosses did, they are doing a good job of hiding it.
Last year's Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled following the violent suppression of protests which were part of the Arab Spring that swept across much of the Middle East.
Troubles have continued, despite promises by the ruling royal family to instigate reform following a critical independent report last November, which detailed human rights abuses, including wrongful arrests and torture. Amnesty International says the situation in Bahrain is "not much different" from a year ago.
Yet F1 chose to return, FIA president Jean Todt and commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone believing the claims of the authorities that the situation was much improved and that they could guarantee security.
It did not take long for that last claim to be exposed. Returning from the track on Wednesday evening, down the main highway into the capital Manama, four Force India mechanics were caught between protestors on one side of the road and riot police on the other.
The protestors were throwing petrol bombs at the police, who were responding with tear gas. Petrol bombs flew over the car, and one landed worryingly close.
The whole incident lasted no more than two or three minutes, but it clearly spooked those involved - and the rest of their team, who subsequently chose to skip second practice on Friday so they could return to their hotels before dark. A decision made despite an intervention by Ecclestone.
Most F1 personnel encountered no trouble. But the unrest continued throughout the weekend, and on Friday night a protestor was killed.
Vettel, who had described the controversy over the race as "hype" when he arrived on Thursday, was forced to think again. "It's always dreadful when someone dies," he said after qualifying on pole position.
For all the protestations from Todt and Ecclestone about sport staying apart from politics, the grand prix has become part of the argument in Bahrain.
The protests are not specifically directed at the race, but it is seen as a legitimate target because it is so closely identified with the ruling Sunni royal family, who set it up as a global promotional tool for the country and by extension their regime.
The race organisers - effectively the royal family themselves - have overtly politicised the event by promoting it with posters using the F1 logo in the middle of the slogan "UniF1ed", in a country that is clearly anything but.
Protests have targeted Formula 1 both inside Bahrain and across the world. Photo: Getty
Ecclestone's and Todt's responses to this - that they cannot control how people promote their races (Ecclestone) or that the slogan can be interpreted in lots of ways (Todt) - are debatable at best. Some have called it sophistry.
If F1's bosses thought they could go to Bahrain, pick up the huge pay cheque for the race, and get out without any damage to their or the sport's reputation, they have been disabused of that notion in the starkest terms.
On Saturday, Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn - who, behind the scenes, has been one of the senior figures most opposed to holding the Bahrain race - said F1 "with proper judgement of what happened and what we saw needed to come to a conclusion".
I am told by senior insiders that the many of the sport's bosses have been staggered by the extent to which the sport's name has been dragged through the mud this weekend, as well as the focus on it by major global news organisations.
Quite apart from the obvious moral and personal safety issues involved, this is clearly a commercial concern. F1 is selling a dream and an aspiration. But the dream has this weekend become a nightmare - and there has been nothing aspirational about the image the sport has presented to the world.
F1 being what it is, if anything will make them wake up to the potential consequences of racing in Bahrain, that will be it.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/the_right_race_in_the_wrong_pl.html
Webber gives Red Bull third straight Monaco win | 2012 Monaco Grand Prix review
Webber gives Red Bull third straight Monaco win is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Mark Webber won a tense Monaco Grand Prix, crossing the finishing line with three cars within 1.3 seconds of him.
Webber gives Red Bull third straight Monaco win 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/~3/86zg3SKgJ3A/
'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
Webber ‘will threaten’ Vettel in 2012
Bernie Ecclestone has stated his belief that Mark Webber could be Sebastian Vettel’s biggest rival for the title this year. Check out our review of Red Bull in 2011! Webber failed to win a race last year of course, but Ecclestone is convinced that the Australian will improve, threatening his Red Bull team-mate along the [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/WvCtgq-iUMQ/webber-will-threaten-vettel-in-2012
Sunday, 27 May 2012
2012 Monaco Grand Prix in pictures | F1 pictures
2012 Monaco Grand Prix in pictures is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Pictures from the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix, won by Mark Webber.
2012 Monaco Grand Prix in pictures 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/yfndoyBGoOI/
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
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