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More trouble for Mr E 21:21
Not one but two busses… err Russians 12:00
The battle for F1 journalistic control 12:00
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The dark clouds of justice that was gathering in Germany for Ecclestone has now made it to Britain. The Financial Times reported Formula One Group and owners CVC were ordered by a London court to release hundreds of documents relating to the sale of the motor racing series seven years ago… German media group Constantin Medien is claiming damages of at least $171m due to Formula 1 being sold below value.
The noose is starting to tighten me thinks…
Not one but two busses… err Russians
You know that feeling when you stand at a bus stop, waiting for the bus which is running late. Then not one but two busses rocks up…
We may find ourselves with two Russians on the grid in 2014. Apart from young 18 year old Sergey Sirotkin pushing to come into F1 Vitaly Petrov has now raised his voice and claims he is busy putting something together to be on the grid in 2014.
In an interview with Russian news agency Ria Novosti Petrov said that the organisers of the Sochi Grand Prix are helping him find his way back to F1. Petrov said, “Even the race track itself, they are helping quite a lot because they are talking with people. We are working together to find a seat for next year,“.
A case of the blind leading the blind? TJ13 reported late last week that the organisers have missed the application deadline due to ‘disagreements’ between the Russian Automobile Society and the organisers.
Anyway, they are now helping Petrov find his way back with Williams F1 and Marussia being two teams that could be possible partners.
Montezemolo’s weekend of wars – Pirelli tyre test
It has been a busy weekend for our Ferrari president. Having rebuked Alonso this weekend (again) he also took a swipe at Mercedes saying their win was a result of the secret tyre test they carried out. He rightly observes, “before then [the test], it [Mercedes] had not won a single grand prix, then after the test it won three out of five“.
Obviously Ferrari had the opportunity to test, under the same constraints, new compounds at Silverstone during the ‘young drivers test’ and during this test could rake up more than 1000km in testing. This was not enough to make the Ferrari a true challenger.
Now Montezemolo seem to be in luck.
Pirelli’s Paul Hembery said this weekend that they are planning another 1000km test. According to Hembery the test with Mercedes was, “the best we’ve ever done” and “That’s why we want more of it”
Hembery goes on to say that the tests may be in both 2011 and 2013 cars and that they will make the specifications for next year’s tyres available in October. Tyres are rumoured to be wider and made of more conservative compound as the criticism was “too much” this year.
Mark Webber beats Sebastian Vettel … on the Top Gear Track.(BBC)
Every country that has access to the British series Top Gear knows that Formula 1 drivers put a lot of importance in their “lap with a reasonably priced car’, a Suzuki Liana.
In the last episode of series 20, Mark Webber took to the Top Gear track in an attempt to beat everyone, including his soon to be ex teammate, Sebastian Vettel. Well Mark was unsuccessful in beating Lewis Hamilton’s time of 1m42.9 however, he did manage to beat Vettel’s time of 1m44.0 in a time of 1m43.1. Maybe he has made the right decision to go to sports cars after all.
The programme should be live in the link above for those viewers who can access it on BBC iPlayer.
Lewis doesn’t like snorers
Lewis Hamilton shared this picture of Roscoe this morning with the description ,”Yo, I used to wake up to the most beautiful woman in the world & now look what I wake up to…..balls all out Roscoe snoring hard!!” Although according to The Telegraph, this could all be about to change.
The latest twist in the saga that is the Hamilton-Scherzinger relationship, is that two looking to reconcile following their respective difficulties from being apart from each other. A source has said, “they both know this is the final chance to make it work.” Scherzinger is currently in the UK filming the latest series of the reality TV show, X-Factor. At the very least, this will give Lewis a couple of weeks to spend with his former long-term partner.
Before anyone starts going on about the spelling of busses/buses, just to say that both are correct, it’s just that ‘busses’ has been out of favour for nearly a century.
thought I was feeling a bit old today McLaren78… thought it was the weather but obviously I am getting on in years :p
OED concurs.
Where is the article about journalist control? The link goes to Hamilton’s dog; also, did you want Mark’s Top Gear time to be 1:43.1, not 1:33.1?
From now on, Roscoe will be conducting all Hamilton’s interviews ?
Mmm. References to ‘shit’ may then be strangely reduced.
Does it reall matter if it was a 1:43 or a 1:33. The whole TG episode was a “Britain, Britain über alles” fan wank, so they needed Mark to beat ze German 😉 I think ever since Lewis’ first visit all F1 star times are staged and scripted or do you really think that Mark and Lewis would beat Kimi by 2 seconds in the same car? 😉
Thank you Danilo. Well it does matter for me… if anything my pride has taken a knock. I am normally good at spotting the mistakes… obviously not this time 🙂
TG was a bit Britain “über alles” but hey… what more can you expect from Clarkson et al. The point is, Webber beat Vettel and Hamilton is till the fastest over one lap… in the Liana of course 🙂
I’ve never given too much importance on the Liana thing. It’s a bit of lighthearted entertainment. 🙂 First of all, for a true measurement, they would need to run on the same day. Then there’s the fact that there isn’t THE Liana, there’re actually at least two. Third thing is, I’m pretty sure the Liana was completely rebuilt (new breaks etc.) before Lewis’s lap, because TG wanted a British lead time. So basically, it’s all just entertainment rather than a serious comparison. That’s what TG has always been good at – it’s the best entertainment, but anything but serious 😉
To also add Danilo, Vettel said he wanted to keep practicing but they told him they had to get on with the show. From what remember Hamilton didn’t even do his interview on the same day.
If Schumacher does it they will probably just give him one practice lap:)
Like everything on the show, the SIARPC segment is used for the purposes of the show. For instance back when the Liana was still used by regular guests as well, Ellen McArthur wound up the fastest guest and during the interview it transpired that she had practically ran all day until she was fastest. That was clearly done because Clarkson is an admirer of hers. Also with not real ‘live timing’ the times could just as well be fictional.
I usually skip the SIARPC, although there have been a few memorable guests, like Trevor Eve or the two visits of Michael Gambon. Gambon made me wet myself in laughter in his second visit. That interview was downright hillarious 😀
Honestly Danilo, you’re incredible, all times are fictional? I really wonder whether you would have said the same things had Vettel remained the fastest man
Did you by any chance misplace your reading glasses MC? I said without live timing the time COULD be fictional, I never said they are. And I don’t give a rat’s tail about Vettel’s position on the board as I’ve written before – the times are not representative as they are driven in different cars under different conditions. Did you even read my comments or were you just keen to get a nasty dig in?
Aha, okie doks, I stand corrected. Apologies
You are so funny, “I’m pretty sure the Liana was completely rebuilt (new breaks etc.) before Lewis’s lap, because TG wanted a British lead time”….Supposition.
We know Vettel got the new front wing at Silverstone 2011. And if anyone suggests Webber ever got inferior equipment you would be the first to object about unfounded supposition.
You can’t really compare F1 to an entertainment show, but it’s an open secret that the show’s makers do everything to have British drivers and cars on top of the leader boards.
For instance when the Ascari car was reviewed, they didn’t do a lap time because it was wet, so they waited for a dry day to get it on top of the leaderboard. That’s also why Lewis was the first F1 driver to come back a second time and why they didn’t run him on the same day as the interview. They wanted Vettel off the top spot and you can bet, somewhere in the future they’ll have Vettel on again, too. It’s just TG’s sort of humour.
Before I forget. I don’t want that to be understood as criticism. German TopGear counterpart D-Motors was the same, they always tried to let German cars/drivers look better than foreign makes. That’s just part of the game and you have to applaud TG for never trying to mask it. So were Lewis and Mark put in an advantegous situation over Vettel? You bet. But does it matter? Not even slightly. It’s just a fun ride in an entertainment show that has no relevance to the people’s real talent, else Damon Hill’s rather modest lap time in the Liana would mean he’s the worlds most useless driver 😉
” TG was a bit Britain “über alles” but hey… what more can you expect from Clarkson et al. ”
Shame that the BRITISH car industry is actually German or Japanese or American or Indian or Chinese – in fact, not in the least bit British at all …. with the exception of a few small manufacturers !
Personally, I thought it was the worst TG ever ……… with the exception of MW.
However ….
Did anyone watch the Das Auto programme that was on immediately after Top Gear on BBC 2 ?
Thoroughly enjoyable 🙂
As far as I know, Mark Webber is Australian, not British!
The time Webber set the first time on the show was set when they were almost expecting Noah’s Ark, it was that wet.
It was just a bit of light hearted fun to show that in similar conditions to Vettel’s run, that Webber could beat him. No team orders on Top Gear!
It seems you dont have a sense of humour, and get upset easily when a German driver gets beaten. 😉 😛
no comment, really *facepalm*
MW is an Aussie, but has lived in England for many years and pays taxes. Name one other F1 driver who pays British tax.
Will also point out Ferrari had their own “private” test with Pirelli prior to Barcelona, which they won convincingly, so pot meet kettle.
The fact that subsequently Ferrari’s performance has gone downhill (relative to Mercedes whose performance has continued to improve) indicates to me Ferrari’s improvement for the one race was directly related to the Pirelli test, whereas the Merc’s continued results demonstrates that their improvement comes not just from the test but also from having gotten their development right, IMO.
It’s little wonder that Ferrari are having problems developing their car, if the team boss doesn’t understand that correlation does not equal causation.
There are indeed questions in Maranello over their team boss. He was in the cross hairs last year and was given 1 more year to prove his management of the team.
Just a fun fact about another driver’s dog.
Jules Bianchi’s favourite driver is Michael Schumacher, and he named his German shepherd ” Ralf ” 😉
BTW, everyone, who cannot watch TopGear on iPlayer can go to http://www.finaslgear.com and download torrent versions of the show. Normally I wouldn’t promote pirated material, but it has been known for years that Andy Willman, the shows producer regularly reads the site’s forum and knows about the torrents, so it stands to reason that BCC and TopGear tolerate it.
typo: it’s http://www.finalgear.com