Regardless of who or what you believe in, Merry Christmas everyone.
Or, if you wish, Happy Hanukkah, Ramadan, Tet, Kwanzaa, Shichi-Go-San, Guy Fawkes Day, Saint Lucia day and Guadalupe day.
For those of you who don’t believe, have a fantabulous day off.
1 comment December 21st, 2006
Max Mosley has been making some surprisingly forthright comments about the increasing noise from the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) to do with safety. In his latest comments as reported by Autosport, he has essentially told them to back off, and that safety is the FIA’s technical experts responsibilities only.
“We will always listen to drivers, but the decisions must be ours. And if we have to lose a race or two or a few licences to make a point, we will. It will be better for the sport in the long run.”
Threatening to remove a licence is hardly the most conciliatory statement he’s ever made. He does have a point though, and the GPDA, either through bad PR or through design have become increasingly hard edged with their comments on the safety of certain circuits. There’s only a handful of drivers on the current grid that you could say were guaranteed a drive come what may, it’ll be interesting to see whether the other drivers have the bottle to challenge Max after this.
3 comments December 19th, 2006
In what may rank as the most boring thing I’ve ever posted (and there’s been some candidates), this will come tops. What I’ve made available here (part 1 1mb pdf) and here (part 2 1mb also) are the details from a case that was pursued against, amongst others, former F1 driver Eddie Irvine relating to part of his business dealings in a well known Dublin pub (Cocoon). Most of it is incomprehensible to normal people, but to people like me with a financial and legal background I love reading this sort of stuff. The fact that it relates to Mr. EI makes it even better 
He knew Mr EI very well and stated that Mr EI was quite hot headed.
From a Formula 1 point of view, what I find interesting is that a lot of the arguing and fighting that went on as part of this took place whilst Irvine was still driving - surely distractions he could have done without!
To get some background to the case look here.
3 comments December 15th, 2006
My first computer was a ZX Spectrum. 48k of power, complete with rubber keys. I remember I choose the 48k Spectrum over its 16k sibling because it “was more futureproof”. I spent endless hours playing a superb F1 simulator, which came complete with spectacular graphics
Spectrum F1 goodness
I remember loading up Grand Prix 2 on my first PC and nearly falling over at the start of my first race. The graphics now might look primitive, but the whole experience, the authentic tracks, the cars handling all added up to an immersive experience that has never really been surpassed for me (except maybe the EF2000 flight sim).
And so to today…and Sony. Ah Sony, the company that deliberately infected its customers with a virus and is notorious for producing rubbishy gadgets with so much DRM in them that I have to wonder whether they refer to us as customers or potential thieves. Did I mention I don’t like Sony?
In the interests of those of you who will be rushing out to buy the massively overpriced Playstation 3, I thought you might like to know about one of the Formula 1 titles that are being released.
There is a small preview over here.
Though it’s going for a more arcade-y experience than past F1 games, F1: Championship Edition is still going to be a simulation of the sport of F1. The game is based on the 2006 season, containing all of the events, drivers, and teams of the real sport. Developer SCE Liverpool is promoting a “F1 for everyone” type of experience, mainly because F1 games haven’t done that well in the US market
Doesn’t that sound wonderful - a more arcade-y experience. That probably means cars will hit 400 miles per hour on the straight at “Sony Fantasy Circuit #3″ and you will be able to steer the car, without damage, by driving on the side of the walls. It’s good that they have created a dumbed down version of a game to target the US market, it can be seen as revenge for them sending us Forest Gump.
There’s a promo video on Youtube that follows. If you look at the accident towards the end of the video coming into the first corner at Brazil, you’ll notice that the AI appears to be a bit rubbish.
After this post I feel a need to have a shower.
2 comments December 12th, 2006
Pitpass is reporting that Max Mosley wants to introduce a “relegation scheme” whereby persistantly slow teams are booted out to make room for other teams. There’s more than that, one of the suggestions is that a team consistently running at the back may be forced to drop one of its cars. In an even wackier version of this plan, the team could be “relegated” to GP2.
I haven’t seen this reported elsewhere, and because it is second hand from the News of the World (English tabloid), it’s hard to say how accurate it is. On the face of it there does seem to be some wacky ideas expressed. What’s wrong with the traditional way whereby the sports authorities slowly strangle the financial lifeline of any private team they don’t like where they wish to make way for a new advertising billboard of a team?
6 comments December 11th, 2006
From Sports Illustrated
Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson broke his left wrist when he fell off a golf cart during a celebrity tournament, his team said Sunday.
This video is purported to be Kimi Raikkonen doing something similar - kindred spirits? 
2 comments December 11th, 2006
Kimi Raikonnen made his first public appearance with Ferrari on Thursday, joining the team for the second day of tests at Jerez. Although he is yet to be released by McLaren, Kimi took the opportunity to get to know the members of his new team, even sitting down for a chat with new team mate Felipe Massa.
Meanwhile, McLaren has been pushing for Fernando Alonso’s release from Renault, hoping that the Spaniard can join them for a drive at next week’s tests at Jerez. Kinda silly, if you ask me, given that they have been likewise holding on to Kimi (despite the visit to Ferrari) until the year’s end.
The way things stand at the moment, both drivers will be unable to drive for their new teams until next year’s mid-January tests at Valencia.
Also on Thursday, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap of testing with a time of 1:18.684. This marks the first time in testing that teams were able to lap faster than the day’s leading Ferrari, with five teams setting faster times than Massa’s best of 1:20.046.
Stay tuned for more as the teams continue to run at Jerez until the 15th of December.
3 comments December 8th, 2006
According to Autosport.com, Jenson Button will be sitting out this week’s tests at Jerez, and quite possibly next week as well, as doctors are taking the necessary precautions to ensure that Jenson is healthy and ready for 2007. This also puts his Race of Champions entry in doubt. He will, however, likely be around the team during testing to monitor progress and obtain feedback from test drivers Rossiter and Klein.
Despite the break from the rib injury, it’s been a rather busy and present-filled start to the holidays for Jenson, doing PR work for Honda and being honoured three times in the past two weeks, collecting the BRDC’s coveted Graham Hill trophy, Autosport Award’s British Competition Driver of the Year and F1 Racing magazine’s F1 Drive of the Year.
That’s one way to keep an F1 driver busy during the holidays, I suppose.
2 comments December 6th, 2006
You might remember that Renault’s “mass damper” system was banned by FIA during the year (what’s a mass damper?)
At the time the discussions on our forum and the reports from F1 news sites indicated that there would be little performance penalty, and while the rumour mill was claiming it was all just another episode of FIA favouritism, we dismissed it as costing only a tenth or two of a second off of performance.
Pat Symonds was interviewed by Autosport, and gives some interesting insights into the procedures that Renault followed to attempt to get the decision overturned. What most interested me was his comments about the team spending two weeks, that could have been better employed, preparing documents and reports to justify their components to the FIA. Whilst we were focussed on the removal of the device, the real impact for Renault was the two week distraction of precious engineering team resources at what was a critical juncture in the season.
4 comments December 5th, 2006
F1racing magazine has an article on youtube this month. I thought I’d share some of my favourites from that article.
To add to our previous discussion on greatest overtaking moves, how about this one from Nelson Piquet on Senna?
Tyrrell P34 (6 wheeler) around Monaco with commentary from Patrick Depailler
Long Beach - Depailler again
For those of you looking to improve your Grand Prix legends driving style, how about an onboard with Jim Clark?
Piquet says hello to Salazar
David Coulthard, Formula 1 driver
1 comment December 3rd, 2006
For a day, a Finn was back in the McLaren seat. No, we’re not talking about Kimi (who despite still being under contract with McLaren for the remainder of the year won’t be taking part in testing). We’re talking about former two-time world champion Mika Häkkinen, back in action for the first time since 2001. Häkkinen completed 79 laps at the Catalunya circuit yesterday, running an evaluation program for the team. Despite being some 3 seconds off the pace, it was nice to see the former world champion back on track. You can read more on Mika’s drive at F1Racing.net, and view pictures at the official Formula One website’s gallery.
Meanwhile, Toyota wrapped up this week’s testing runs at Barcelona on Friday. Having started a day later than the other teams, Toyota race drivers Jarno Tulli and Ralf Schumacher were the only ones able to take to the track. Both drivers were able to lap considerably faster, setting the only sub-1:16.000 laps of the testing period. Must’ve been nice for the team to have the circuit all to themselves.
Anyway, testing moves on to Jerez for the next two weeks, where we can all expect more action as we count down to the start of the 2007 season.
2 comments December 2nd, 2006
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