Michael Schumacher is arguably the most successful Formula One driver ever, and is undoubtedly one of its biggest ambassadors. As the veteran of a decade and a half ponders over retirement, the entire motorsporting world comes to a stand still. Will HE or Wont HE, they ask.
Continue Reading 2 comments April 30th, 2006
In the biggest non-surprise in a while the FIA have announced that David Richards’ Prodive outfit has been granted the 12th spot on the grid for 2008.
It was clearly the one of the best of the entries and DR has been an outspoken fan of Mosely, so is just the sort of entry he’d pick.
Add comment April 28th, 2006
There’s an interesting discussion in the forums about last Sundays race:
Question from Tito
Why On the lap he pitted, he did a lap of 1:25.7 – where his average speed in the ten previous laps, was 1:27.4.
Weltmeister’s opinion
This is one of those questions I can’t outright answer, because the answer isn’t really a black and white case. As Don said, the Bridgestones did have some graining issues, so that very well could have been something, but MS said in his interview that there was something else, that something just went off on the car and it was never the same again. There are a couple of schools of thought on that point too.
1. Alonso closed the gap rapidly, and some suggested that MS slowed down even more so than he needed to for whatever was wrong with the car and the tyres, he did this to try and force Renault into stopping earlier, in essence trying to trick them into thinking he could go farther than they thought, it did play out that way, and Renault pitted Alonso too early and ended up costing him the race, but I doubt this excuse, since Renault would have no doubt payed close attention to how long the fuel rig was engaged in the Ferrari, and exactly what the situation was, but anyway it was one theory floating around.
2. MS did have plumes of brake dust coming off the car at some corners, and Jean Todt did say how they thought and needed it to be cooler than it was, it was nearly 20 degrees warmer than they thought. Most people assumed that he was referring to the graining issues on the tyres, but it could well have been brake related. It’s possible Ferrari had too small of cooling vents on the brakes, and they ran into temperature problems early on. It did look as if MS was driving smoothly, braking early, floating through the corner and getting an excellent run out of the corner to keep FA at bay. It would back up the idea that there were some brake issues and they needed to be conservative to make sure they finished. It’s another thought.
In the end we probably will never know, but there was definately some sort of issue, I accept that there was a tyre issue, the graining was there in practice all weekend and it was much warmer than the tyres were designed for, so that could have been an issue, but MS went from doing laps in the 1:24s on old tyres, to running in the 1:26s and 1:27s on new tyres on both his second and third stints, which indicates strongly, that it was not so much a tyre issue as some other problem or strategy.
1 comment April 26th, 2006
Those of you who frequent the forums will be aware of this, but for a number of years on Linksheaven we have been closely following the career of a young American driver, John (Michael) Edwards. John was the youngest ever holder of an FIA racing pass.
He first came to our attention at the beginning of 2004 when he was the youngest driver ever to compete in the Skip Barber Race Series. John and his Dad came upon that thread and became regular contributors updating us on John’s progress.
And what a progress that has been! From Skip Barber he went on to compete in the 2004 Red Bull USA driver search. Up against a group of more experienced and older drivers, the 13 year old went on to win the competition. He turned 14 shortly after he moved to Italy to take his first steps in European racing.
John & his father regularly keep us updated on his progress in this thread and on his website. The pressure is on now as he is thrown in amongst some of best young drivers from all over the world.
“Our long-term plan is to have one or more drivers among our talent search programs being able one day to be among the best four drivers in the world. The effort to find such a driver is quite big. Can it be Klien? (Scott) Speed? (Vitantonio) Liuzzi?”
“Perhaps it is too early to tell. Then we have (Michael) Ammermueller, (John) Edwards and (Neel) Jani. Sebastian Vettel is on loan to BMW for two years.”
Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz
Add comment April 23rd, 2006
From Don on the forum:
Honda were woeful. Do they use a magic 8 ball for their strategy?
Well I thought it was funny 
Add comment April 23rd, 2006
The First Post which is a UK based online magazine are offering a prize of a “behind the scenes day” with Midland F1 at a Silverstone test day.
Looks like an interesting prize, but you’ll need to enter quickly as the competition closes soon.
4 comments April 21st, 2006
This one has us all stumped. Anyone else have any ideas?
Which Grand Prix driver used the name of his hometown football team as a pseudonym so that his parents wouldn’t know he was racing?
Must supply Name, Year, Car and what he did to it.
We have this as a hint:
Even if you know the driver (and you all do) and the club (Hint; starts with the letter R) it’s very hard to find anything on the web and it’s generally only in the drivers’ native tongue (another hint).
The forum thread is here.
Add comment April 19th, 2006
It’s a bit early for the silly season transfer speculation to start :), but this year I anticipate it will be Michael Schumachers plans which will determine all other seat moves.
1 comment April 17th, 2006
Red Bull boss and Austria’s only billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz has said that Toro Rosso plan to keep the V10 engine in the 2007 season aswell. Now I’ve been a supporter of the plan for them to keep the V10 for this season. I’ve argued that a contract is a contract and that even when they are battling for points finishes, they are only doing what the letter and spirit of the temporary rule dictated i.e. that they be competitive, not backmarkers. If you want someone to give out about then that should be the FIA. I have argued that it is not fair to change the goalposts so fundamentally once a season has got underway. To now call for them to be excluded from the WCC (which is a way of guaranteeing revenue from the FIA for next season remember) or for them to incur phenomenal expense by retrofitting a physically different engine into a chassis designed around a V10 would in my opinion go beyond even Max Mosley’s limitless boundaries of unfair play.
But I’m not sure I would be in favour, at this early stage, of Mateschitz committing STR to ‘designing yet another’ (sic) chassis around the V10. They would have had plenty of time to conform to the regular ‘07 regulations and the resources needed, unlike this year, would not be anything out of the ordinary. And it’s not like they can just nick the ‘06 Red Bull, because of course it has been designed for the V8 powerplant. So unless they plan on saving money by once again re-using the ‘05 Red Bull … err sorry I meant the ‘06 STR …. yeah a completely different car … honest …. then they will be committing new money to a new chassis. There is the other very real possibility that if the choose to use the same V10 powerplant and the same ‘05 Re…. oh whatever they want to call it …. then the equivalency formula will just need to be tweaked so that the ‘05 V10 is once again X% slower than the ‘07 V8 engine - presumably upping the performance of the STR by merely tweaking an air intake (for want of a simple description). This would be a hugely cheap and efficient way of getting a car onto the grid but it would surely make all other teams go insane for 2 different reasons - the big teams will be jealous of the minimal financial outlay required to remain competitive and the small teams will be jealous that their best efforts are not good enough to stay up with them on track.
Now of course STR still have ‘the law’ on their side. The contract for the V10 is signed until the end of ‘07, but I believe 2 things here. Firstly I believe that the FIA would be far more inclined to change their stance to this exemption between the end of 1 season and the start of another than they would be to change in the middle of a season - and rightly so. Changing mid-way is too messy, be it legally or technically. But I also believe that the Red Bull boss is posturing here. I actually think he might be playing a little game. Make no mistake, he wants to get to the top, and he knows that while the STR runs a V10 it will never be allowed NEAR the top whether it be to win or to help (god forbid) his senior team. I believe he wants to run V8’s and I see the following quote as being quite interesting when talking about the current V10 contract - “If we alter that into a V8 contract, we have to make sure with Cosworth boss Kevin Kalkhoven that we would get equal treatment to Williams.”. A man like Mateschitz chooses his words very carefully and I believe this is him paving the way for a V8 in the STR next season albeit clearly under his terms.
So, ostensibly, it looks like Red Bull are annoying their fellow F1 fraternity by coming out and saying they are not only staying with V10 this season but also next season, however I think this is not the case and I think they are angling to get the best deal they can out of their current Cosworth suppliers i.e. the same as Williams. It also suggests they have no plans of adopting the customer deal their parent team Red Bull currently enjoy from Ferrari. One thing is for sure though - as much as I think it is STR posturing, I am also under no illusion that if he does NOT get things done his way, he will have no qualms of staying with the V10 and sticking 2 proverbials up to anyone who thinks it unfair.
Bealzbob
Add comment April 12th, 2006
Good news for F1 fans of this historic circuit, as the Council of Lombardy reveals that the 2006 event will go ahead!
Continue Reading 1 comment April 12th, 2006
Subject: Linksheaven Newsletter: Issue 1 - Power Rankings & more
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 18:48:17 -0400
From: Linksheaven
To:
Hi folks, welcome to the (restarted) Linksheaven mailing list.
In this issue:
- Welcome back
- New stuff & updates
- Power Rankings
- Stuff
- Post of the Month
: WELCOME BACK
Well it’s been about 3 years since Linksheaven last put out a mailing
list. We’re going to officially declare this as a monthly mailing,
although depending on work, holidays, alignment of the planets or
simple laziness don’t expect this mailing list to be anything other
than on an irregular schedule.
: POWER RANKINGS
One of our forum regulars took it upon himself to organise a set of
power rankings after each race. He canvasses the views of the admins
& moderators on the forum, and then publishes the list for everyone
to comment on.
A snippet:
1. Fernando Alonso
2. Kimi Räikkönen
3. Giancarlo Fisichella
4. Jenson Button
5. Juan Pablo Montoya
6. Michael Schumacher
7. Nick Heidfeld
You can find the complete list here:
http://www.linksheaven.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5840
: NEW STUFF & UPDATES
- The Formula 1 blog
Yes, after nearly 10 years of ranting and raving in private
(Linksheaven was started in 1997!), we’ve decided to post our views
and opinions on our Formula 1 blog. Contributing to the blog are the
administrators of Linksheaven, a number of excellent posters we’ve
noticed on our travels around the web and one or two posters who
can’t give away their identity because they work in motorsport.
On a daily basis we feature a mix of everything that is best in
formula 1, from in depth technical discussion to views on on-track
maneuvers (successful or otherwise) to views on the more esoteric
aspects of F1.
Some of our favourite posts over the past few months have included:
- Does Formula 1 need Ferrari?
http://www.linksheaven.com/?p=184
- Save Monza - The famed Autodromo Nazionale might never host an F1
race again..
http://www.linksheaven.com/?p=177
- Still not happy with qualifying ? Why not ?
http://www.linksheaven.com/?p=150
- Former drivers as team owners: Good Idea? (2 parts)
http://http//www.linksheaven.com/?p=132
- Forums
http://www.linksheaven.com/forums/
The forums are humming along nicely with nearly 1300 members. If you
want something a bit more than the 12 years olds hurling insults at
each other you find on several other sites, why not check out our
forums?
: STUFF
Check out the Season Previews written by Patrick
http://www.linksheaven.com/?author=6
BBC are doing Formula 1 podcasts. Any good?
http://www.linksheaven.com/?p=197
: POST OF THE MONTH
In a purely arbitrary manner, I’ve selected the following post
(reproduced in full) as the best post on either the blog or forum
since the last newsletter. Till next time…
- http://www.linksheaven.com/?p=119
- Who wants standard ECU’s in Formula 1 ?
ITV are reporting that the introduction of standard ECU’s into
Formula One has come 1 step closer to reality. Max Mosley’s
dream of removing driver aids or ‘gizmos’ from F1 cars
has got the ball rolling. The FIA have now put the creation of
standard F1 ECU’s out to tender - meaning any company who can
convince the FIA that they can do the job and for a reasonable fee
will get the job of providing every F1 team with the
‘brain’ of the car that controls everything electronic.
Now I am torn between 2 lovers here. That’s usually a good
thing if there’s whipped cream and jelly involved but when
it’s the future of the world’s premier motorsport series
I really can’t decide.
On one hand we have to understand that the raison d’etre of F1
is as a showcase for technological advancement in the automotive
industry. Get your car going as fast as you possibly can. It is not a
charity where the poor get helped out. It is and always was a cut
throat industry. Bernie Ecclestone himself has often been heard
saying that anyone who can’t stand the heat should get out of
the kitchen.
On the other hand though, technology or rather its progress has led
to the driver becoming the weakest link in the car’s
performance. Missing gears, getting timing wrong, too much throttle,
yadda yadda. Technology was brought in to remove the mistakes, and it
has - but at the expense of the show. And if you don’t have fans
you don’t have advertisement revenue and you ultimately
can’t sustain the series, so there IS a need to remove the
driver aids and make it primarily a DRIVER racing a fast car once
again - rather than a fast car taking a driver for a spin. The
Machiavellian nature of motorsport, as I’m sure Weltmeister
will attest to, is that you can not trust anyone to abide by the
rules. Any advantage that can be got will be got, and will be covered
up expertly by leaders in their respective fields. Memory metals, code
that deletes upon execution, fuel tanks within fuel tanks, it has all
been done. The point being that the ONLY way for the FIA to guarantee
to the fans that no-one is cheating is to remove the ability for them
to create their own controls.
My quandry is that I realise my position can not be totally
satisifed. I want the fastest cars with the best technology but I
want the driver doing all his own work. So based on the premise that
this can never be achieved, I have to pick a compromise that I think
best suits F1. My problem with standard ECU’s is that it is too
drastic - it is making F1 dangerously close to a single-make series.
OK they’ll design their own chassis’, bodywork and have
their own engine, but without the ability to control the engine the
way they want, how can they optimise their package ? I am sure there
are answers to some of my questions because how could you create a
single ECU that will optimise all system on 11 different teams in an
equal way.
How and ever, the question still needs to be answered by the powers
that be, and until it is, I will be against it. As it stands, I would
rather the driver be helped by those technologies that can not be
‘policed’ by the FIA rather than dilute F1 to the point
where it is merely A1GP on steroids.
1 comment April 11th, 2006
A sad time for F1, as Foster’s, the title sponsor for many a grand prix bids adieu to Formula One after twenty years of association. Looks like the pitbabes will be running short of costume.. er.. Foster’s costume
Continue Reading 7 comments April 11th, 2006
Linksheaven is getting thousands of visitors a day. Thanks to you all for making this site a success 
Next year we intend taking over a small country and calling in linksheavenistan.
4 comments April 9th, 2006
I notice that BBC Radio 5 are doing formula 1 podcasts. I haven’t listened to any yet, but they’re available here.
If you do download them, maybe you could come back here and let us know whether they’re any good.
5 comments April 9th, 2006
To get the answer, go here
This person was Sennas team mate in F1 and was the youngest (19 at the time) world motorcycle world champion in a class that no longer exists.
What was his name, nationality, bike world champion year, F1 team and F1 year?
2 comments April 6th, 2006
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