Archive for November, 2006
The testing period for the 2007 season has kicked off, with all but the SpykerF1 team taking part in the three day test session at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.
With Bridgestone having become the sole tire supplier for 2007, the testing period is especially critical for last year’s Michelin-shod teams - the likes of Renault, McLaren and Honda - as they make the switch to new rubber.
Not surprisingly, the Ferraris topped the timesheets, with Felipe Massa leading the way at 1:17.160, and test driver Luca Badoer coming in third with a time of 1:17.555. Pedro de la Rosa split the two with a time of 1:17.455, nearly three tenths of a second of Massa’s pace.
GP2 front runners Lewis Hamilton and Nelson Piquet Jr. were also present in their new roles for McLaren and Renault, respectively, with Hamilton lapping at a best of 1:18.239 for sixth and Piquet Jr. at tenth with a time of 1:18.852.
Testing continues until November 30, after which the teams are expected to run at Jerez for a further two weeks of testing.
November 28th, 2006
Many a signorina would be disappointed with F1’s double world champion Fernando Alonso reportedly marrying his pop singer girlfriend Raquel del Rosario in the Maldives.
The couple is expected to settle down in Switzerland..
Damn, it’s the Indian Ocean … had I only known!!
November 28th, 2006
Some clever clogs placed bets on Lewis Hamilton to win races in Formula 1 several years ago. With the announcement that Hamilton is to partner Alonso, the bookies who took these bets are beginning to regret their eagerness.
“In the last five years we have taken hundreds of bets on Lewis Hamilton to win a Grand Prix at some fancy odds, and I fear we will be paying out in the forthcoming season. In June 2003 I actually took a bet of £100 at 100/1 that Hamilton would win the F1 title in or before 2013, which will pay the Kent customer £10,000 if it comes off.” said William Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe.
Considering McLaren signed Hamilton over 8 years ago as his talent was apparent even then, that 100/1 was a bet well worth taking. Now if only we could find a bookie who would take bets on a certain John Edwards or a Chris van der Drift 
November 24th, 2006
From Reuters
Briton Jenson Button will miss next week’s first Formula One tests since the end of the season after suffering two hairline cracks to his ribs while go-karting, his Honda team said on Friday.
Appropriate off season activities for F1 drivers would be tiddlywinks, pillow fighting and watching “Friends” on TV.
November 24th, 2006
There’s a fascinating interview with Max Mosley and Professor Burkhard Göschel to be found in an unlikely spot here. The interview talks about the future developments for Formula 1 technology, how it is being aligned with roadcar development and also has some background as to how the FIA/GPMA dispute came to be resolved.
Some quotes:
In the longer term we are looking at the possibility of a completely new F1 engine reflecting the industry tendency which is to have a downsized, turbo-charged engine.
Max pointed out those areas and I also want to point out another area we have to look at: is the education of our engineers. It is interesting to make an engine capable of 22,000 rpm but there is no interest within the car industry to have such an engine. So in the end our young engineers are operating in the wrong area. For us at BMW and at other car manufacturers F1 is an area to train our engineers to take decisions and in developing future technologies. It will keep car manufacturers in F1 if F1 is focused on future technology for the car industry. If F1 takes this route then there is a future for each manufacturer in F1.
MM: You can see from that, when we are all accused of trying to dumb-down F1 when we froze the engine, in fact it, is the exact reverse because making the engine go faster and faster is completely pointless as Professor Göschel has just said. Whereas the sort of technologies we are talking about – energy recovery, heat recovery, re-use and fuel efficiency, bio fuels and so on – all of those are directly relevant to the industry. They are also the latest high technologies as opposed to the technologies of the past.
MM: It’s also true to say that there is a complete understanding from the manufacturers that we need to keep the independent teams going. For example, in 2009 anyone who wants can fit the device which recovers the energy from braking and uses it again for acceleration. But an independent team, or indeed a manufacturer, does not have to develop that technology. There will be a set price for which those who have developed the technology are obliged to sell it to another team. So manufacturer ‘A’ might decide not to spend the money on developing the device. But they will have to buy it from Manufacturer ‘B’. That happens in the real world between manufacturers anyway. But if I’ve got an independent team, I can go along to whichever manufacturer has developed the most successful system and buy it ready made. The manufacturer is actually pleased to sell it because it shows his technology is the best.
mmm not sure about that last quote..
November 20th, 2006
Remember Mika Hakkinens playboy image when he wasn’t in his car? Wild parties, supermodels, police picking him up from a ditch at 6am whilst out cold? No? Neither do I, I don’t think I ever heard a single story about Mika getting up to anything outside of F1.
Raikkonen appears to be well on his way to fixing that reputation amongst Finns for dourness however. I wonder though in the ultra professional environment of Ferrari whether that image of being a bit of playboy will count against him.
Ross Brawn had nothing to say on the subject
“We have to wait and see how that all evolves at Ferrari,” Brawn told Racer magazine when asked about the Finn’s ‘playboy image’.
He added: “Let’s wait and see what happens - I might dig myself into a hole if I say anything.”
Edit - forgot the obligatory Youtube linkÂ
November 20th, 2006
Villagers living next to a McLaren test track at Elvington airfield near York in the UK have won a battle to limit the number of days that F1 cars can test there.
During the summer hearing, resident Timothy Vicary claimed the “horrendous and outrageous” noise from vehicle testing was ruining the life of him and his wife. He said the noise of the testing of Formula One racing cars and motorcycle events made them depressed, irritated and angry.
Another resident, Denise Howard, compared the noise of the squeal of tyres on tarmac during testing to “howling banshees whipping through the house”.
It was just as well it wasn’t the first McLaren engine from 1966, which was described as:
Bruce admitted that the engine’s greatest success was in being by far the noisiest thing running round Monte Carlo, and the raucous echoes it set up between the cake-icing buildings of the old town threatened not only the occupants’ eardrums but their window panes.
The court was told that McLaren’s test team could quit Britain altogether if the case was lost.
November 20th, 2006
JPM has qualified 29th in his NASCAR Nextel series debut in the Florida Ford 400 this weekend. I’m new to NASCAR terminology, but from watching a few races this year I believe the 400 refers to the number of advertising breaks during the race.
Nerves aside, Boyer, a team engineer who’s been leading Montoya’s Nextel Cup exploration this fall, said Montoya’s very psyche might be one of his best weapons.
“He was pretty calm, actually,” Boyer said of Montoya’s reaction after he took the checkered flag. “He did a really good job picking up on the second lap and if he wouldn’t have, we would have been in trouble — but Juan did a great job.
Is this really the same JPM who left F1? This isn’t his Nascar debut of course, to date he has been racing in the Busch series and doing reasonably well.
November 18th, 2006
Jacques Villeneuve and his wife Johanna have apparently had a new baby boy, Jules.
Our reporter on the spot has taken this exclusive photograph of Jacques leaving the hospital
November 16th, 2006
As reported in the Financial Times today, it looks like a Concorde Agreement mark two is on the verge of signing. The GPMA teams have agreed to sign up to the package. No details have been released, and if it’s anything like the previous agreement we’ll spend the next 10 years speculating about what it contains.
The FT said that in the future, discussions about F1’s rules would take place with manufacturers at main board level.
I wonder how this squares with Max’s ambition to make F1 more friendly for privateers?
November 15th, 2006
Name a list of the top 10 corners in F1, and 2 of those corners (at a minimum) will probably be located at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit - the infamous Eau Rouge and the Bus Stop chicane being my choice. In real life the bus stop chicane is like it says on the tin - a bus stop. Cars come off the back straight (err more like curve) at 200mph and are required to stand on the brakes to make it around the ultra tight left, right, right left combination.
It looks ungainly because it is. The manufactured F1 tracks of recent years are all flowing corners and the obligatory long straight leading into a hairpin. Most of the circuits are perfectly forgettable. The bus stop chicane stands out as an oddity - there is no designer in their right mind who would make a series of corners like it, and as the scene of so many incidents over the years it has earned its place amongst the great corners of motor racing.
Sadly it is no more.
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone signed a promotional deal with the circuit last week and, with commercial terms agreed, work is now about to begin on bringing the track up to standard.
Revisions to the Bus Stop chicane, which will now become a right-left chicane, as well as a new paddock and pits complex, will begin on November 6th and will be finished ahead of next September’s race date.
Oh good, a right left chicane, we haven’t enough of them in F1 these days. All this is being done to facilitate a revised pit layout, presumably so that the corporate entertainment types won’t have to put up with a cluttered environment full of cars and mechanics whilst they eat their prawn sandwiches and compare photographs of their yachts.
November 13th, 2006
You would think that an F1 race on its own would be enough to fill seats at the Australian Grand Prix, but the news media has been full of reports over the past few months as to whether or not the V8 Supercars will or will not be racing as part of the package. As of right now they’re off the agenda, and you would think that the event is now in difficulty because of this. I realise that the V8s are hugely popular down under, but what’s the real problem here?
The Australian Formula One grand prix will rely more heavily than ever on its showpiece cars next year after failing to land a big-name support event to replace the V8 Supercars.
The V8s will not race at Albert Park this year because of scheduling issues - another blow to an event trying to claw back a loss of $21 million this year as well as a 15 per cent drop in crowd numbers.
November 13th, 2006
Bernie has been talking up a Grand Prix in India for 2010, and I suppose it was only a matter of time before the F1 circus visited there. With a billion people (give or take a few hundred million), India is the next great untapped market after Turkey and China. If our statistics are anything to go by, there’s already a massive F1 fanbase in India - it is the 9th most popular country for visitors to this site.
Shagatom Swaagat Swaagatam Banni Yo Lasa-kusa Aasantu Pe kher ragle Sushri akal Enna vishayam Suswaagatam Balle Khush amaadiid!
November 9th, 2006
Interesting speculation on the Full Throttle blog over Nascar’s tentative look into the concept of franchising teams. Their problem is that as costs to enter Nascar are relatively low, and as the audience is enormous, more and more companies are looking to enter the series leading to increased track congestion.
November 6th, 2006
Is anyone planning to watch the Race of Champions this year?
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I saw it in 2004 when Heikki Kovalainen won. I was really impressed with him. I hope he can deliver at Renault in 2007.
I like the format, same cars, same track and drivers just trying to beat each other. Hopefully Kubica or some other young driver will show their stuff.
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I don’t know if you guys know a lot about Sebastian Bourdais or not, but he’s brilliant. A French driver of his calibre should really be in F1. Bourdais was there in 2004 and 2005 but he didn’t make to the final round.
November 5th, 2006
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