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The азбука of F1 History (09:50)

Monza Stewards (10:10)

Monza Facts (10:21)

Ferrari loaded (10:46)

Red Bull and Supermarkets (10:55)

Tweaks to the Monza circuit (11:12)

Ricciardo smile a cause of concern for Milton Keynes engineers (11:44)

2 tyre manufacturers for 2014 (15:07)

Netherlands are now in 2nd place (15:12)

McLaren 200/1 (15:25)

FIA Press Conference Personnel (16:07)

F1 and Football (USA residents read ‘soccer’) 16:19

Webber on Australian sport (16:35)

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The азбука of F1 History

Maybe Christian Horner has some Russian in him. I asked for what would be “ABC” in Russian, and was given the above. Why use 3 letters when 5 are available?

I digress. Some of the promised Russian booty is now flowing into the Swiss banks – well in fact it’s being moved from one Russian controlled coded account in Zurich, to another somewhere else. Sauber’s creditors have stopped threatening to burn the factory down (even though that would have been with eco friendly fuels of course and no carbon emissions)  and the latest F1 protégé is beginning his education.

Last week Sauber sent Sergey a large brief on Monza and it’s history. He apparently questioned why the banked turns were no longer used. Anyway, now young Serotkin has his Peter and Jane manual to his first GP circuit and he is swatting up on the statistics of the circuit.

It appear Frijns has been given the responsibility of mentoring Sergey and babysitting him as he attends his first F1 event this weekend with his new Swiss team – talk about a poisoned chalice. Yet Frijns is learning the harsh reality about F1. Its all about the money.

In a principled stand, Frijns turned down offers to join the Red Bull young driver programme not once but twice, but is now seeing his chance of a seat in F1 dwindle as the sports youngest ever driver to be begins to take to the stage.

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Monza Stewards

GARRY CONNELLY

DEPUTY PRESIDENT, FIA INSTITUTE; DIRECTOR, AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF MOTOR SPORT SAFETY; F1 AND WTCC STEWARD; FIA WORLD MOTOR SPORT COUNCIL MEMBER

Garry Connelly has been involved in motor sport since the late 1960s. A long-time rally competitor, Connelly was instrumental in bringing the World Rally Championship to Australia in 1988 and served as Chairman of the Organising Committee, Board member and Clerk of Course of Rally Australia until December 2002. He has been an FIA Steward and FIA Observer since 1989, covering the FIA’s World Rally Championship, World Touring Car Championship and Formula One Championship. He is a director of the Australian Institute of Motor Sport Safety and a member of the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

RADOVAN NOVAK

SEC. GENERAL OF THE ACCR (AUTOCLUB OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC); WORLD MOTOR SPORT COUNCIL MEMBER

Radovan Novak has been actively involved in motorsport since 1963 and rose to become Secretary General of the ACCR in 1990.Since 1991 he has held the role of President of the FIA Central Europe Zone and over the past two decades he has acted as a steward and observer in WRC and ERC rallies, EC autocross and rallycross events and WTCC and GT races. He has been a Formula One steward since 1994. From 1994 to 2006, he was a member of the FIA Off-road Commission and was made a member of the World Motor Sport Council in 1998. In 2000 he became a member of the Sport Commission at the Ministry of Sport of the Czech Republic. An avid racer and co-driver, Novak has won a number of Czech rallying events.

DANNY SULLIVAN

FORMER F1 DRIVER, INDIANAPOLIS 500 WINNER AND CART CHAMPION

US racer Danny Sullivan made his F1 debut with Tyrrell at the 1983 Brazilian Grand Prix. He raced just one season in F1, scoring a best result of fifth in Monaco. In 1984, Sullivan returned to the US where he resumed a successful Indy Car career. He is perhaps best known for his ‘spin and win’ victory at the 1985 Indianapolis 500, where he passed leader Mario Andretti, survived a 360 degree spin, and then caught and re-passed Andretti to claim the Borg-Warner Trophy. He won the Indy Car World Series title in 1988. After 17 victories from 170 Indy Car starts he drew a line under his open-wheel career in 1995. He finished third in the Le Mans 24 Hours in a Dauer Porsche 962 in 1994. He made four starts at Le Mans, the most recent being 2004. (Source: FIA)

So TJ13 readers, how do you think this lot will get on? I’m sure they’ll conspire to issue some inconsistent and completely inappropriate sanction. Anyway here is the famous spin at Indy in 1985.

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Monza Facts

1)     The Italian Grand Prix has featured on the calendar every year since the world championship’s inception in 1950. The race has been held at Monza each time, save for 1980 when the event was run at Imola as Monza was being refurbished.

2)     The 1980 race was won by Nelson Piquet for Brabham. The Brazilian thus became the first driver to win an Italian GP at two different venues since the pre-F1 era when Rudolf Caracciola won for Mercedes at Livorno in 1937, having also driven
a Mercedes to victory in 1934 in partnership with Luigi Fagioli.

3)     The most successful driver in F1 here is Michael Schumacher, with five wins. All of the seven-time champion’s Italian GP victories were at the wheel of a Ferrari, beginning in his first season with the team, 1996. He also stood on the podium’s top step in 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2006.

4)     Piquet is the next most successful driver, with four wins, in 1980, ’83, ’86 and 1987.

5)     Of the current drivers, just three have won at Monza. Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso are the only current multiple winners, with two apiece, while Lewis Hamilton won last year.

6)     Ferrari are by far the most successful constructor with 18 victories. McLaren have 10, while Williams have six.

7)     At the 2008 race, Sebastian Vettel, driving for Toro Rosso, became the sport’s youngest ever pole position man and followed it up by driving flawlessly in heavy rain to become F1’s youngest race winner at just 21 years of age. Previous record holder Fernando Alonso was 22 when he won the 2003 Hungarian GP.

8)     Vettel has, of course, gone on to win three world championship titles with Red Bull Racing. Monza, though, has been something of a ‘bogey’ circuit for the team. In 16 starts since its F1 debut in 2005, the team has recorded just one podium finish – Vettel’s 2011 win. Beyond that, the German’s fourth place in 2010 is the outfit’s next best result.

9)     Since 2000, the race has been won from pole 10 times from 13 events. Michael Schumacher won from second in 2006, while Rubens Barrichello won from fourth in 2002 and fifth in 2009.

10)   Only once has the race been won from further back than 10th on the grid. That was Peter Gethin’s famous 1971 win, when the top five finishers were separated by just 0.61 seconds.

11)   Heinz-Harald Frentzen took the last of his three career victories here, for Jordan in 1999. With three races remaining, the win put him firmly in contention for the ’99 drivers’ title, but his hopes were largely dashed at the very next round, the European GP, where after securing pole position electrical failure saw him exit the race after 32 laps, while in the lead

12)   Force India’s Adrian Sutil made the only front-row start of his career so far at Monza in 2009. The German qualified second behind Lewis Hamilton and raced to fourth. It’s his only top-10 Italian GP finish so far.

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Ferrari loaded

Just in, a Ferrari F138 loaded up and ready to make the 200km trip from Maranello to Monza. How do we know this is Felipe’s car?

source (Ferrari)

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Red Bull and Supermarkets

As in 2012, the Italian supermarket chain ‘Simply’ will be displayed prominently on the two Red Bull cars and on the drivers’ overalls. The face of advertising/marketing in F1 is changing with a number of these 1 off race deals becoming more common. McLaren used GSK Indian product ‘Boost’ on the rear wing in India.

The sharp eyed amongst you may wonder whether Red Bull are developing a shopping theme because in Germany this year, they had a one off race deal with Kaufland whose chain of 1000 stores are found in Germany, the Czech Republic, SIovakia, Poland, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.

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Tweaks to the Monza circuit

Most circuits are altered slightly from year to year as lessons are learned from the previous years GP. The most famous was the ‘Massa turn’ in India, so named by the Indian Marshall’s following Massa’s spectacular launch across it in 2011. It was modified for the 2012 race in an attempt to ensure the suspension was not destroyed if a car took the ‘Massa line’.

Here are Monza’s tweaks.

The leading edges of the kerbs at the apex of Turn 1 and 4 will be longer, to avoid the possibility of a car being launched when crossing them.
The kerb at the exit of Turn 6 will be extended by 20m in order to prevent damage to the grass verge.
At the exit of Turn 10, the kerb and artificial grass will be extended by 50m.
The section of guardrail just before the opening on the driver’s left at Turn 1 will be replaced by a wall.

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Ricciardo smile a cause of concern for Milton Keynes engineers

Following Sunday night’s news that Daniel Ricciardo is to replace Mark Webber at Red Bull next season, sources within the team’s Milton Keynes factory have expressed concern that their new signing ‘literally cannot stop smiling’.

‘It’s a real problem,’ confessed one insider. ‘I mean, we knew he was quite a smiley sort of bloke and originally we thought that was because he was excited to be in F1. But come on, he’s been doing it for almost three years now. You’d think the excitement would have worn off. But no, and if anything signing for a top flight team has just made things worse.’

Red Bull engineers are already expressing concerns about the aerodynamic implications of Ricciardo’s inability to stop beaming away like a bit of a simpleton. ‘We have to make the helmet slightly wider to accommodate his over-developed jaw muscles,’ admitted an anonymous engineer. ‘Not only that, but we also have to make it deeper too because all the smiling makes his chin lower than normal. Basically, we’ll have to dig out the helmet we used for Coulthard.’

However, Ricciardo’s perma-smiling isn’t all bad news for the British team, as one senior insider revealed. ‘Whenever he smiles, which is always, he opens his mouth quite a bit,’ he admitted. ‘So we’ll probably take advantage of that and pop a couple of sponsors’ logos on his teeth. Do you have a number for Colgate?’

(Source: Sniff Petrol)

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2 tyre manufacturers for 2014

TJ13 is hearing today that delegates from the FIA World Motor Sport Council are being asked to consider changing the rules to allow more than one tyre manufacturer to supply tyres in 2014. This would allow Michelin to enter the sport and depending on Pirelli’s response they would have either a small number of teams with which to work, or should Pirelli throw in the towel, the entire field would be clear.

TJ13 asked Paul Hembery on the internet press conference phone in before the summer whether they would consider being involved in F1 were there to be competition amongst the tyre manufacturers. Hembery replied they would not rule it out, but the sporting regulations would have to be changed first.

This would see an end to degrading tyres and a return to the days where the tyre manufacturer’s spent fortunes on developing eternal lasting shoes for their clients flying machines. The anti degrading tyre lobby would be delighted, yet will this really simplify the racing?

Firstly, the number of pit stops would be reduced to a minimum, but then another variable is introduced which makes different cars and drivers using different tyres difficult to compare. This will already be a complex matter due to the introduction of the new engines.

Apparently Jean Todt does not want to become the centre of attention and offer the contract exclusively to Michelin, particularly when his old adversary Mr. E is about to take centre stage in a Munich court. So allowing tyre competition may see off Pirelli and at worst gives Michelin a foothold into F1 for the following years.

The FIA will claim that it will be useful for this cohabitation to take place for just one year allowing them to return to the matter again as the 2014 season progresses. The evaluation the FIA would then be able to make would allow them to consider which tyres are best for the sport following the introduction of the new more ‘torquey’ engines.

This is politically astute from Jean Todt and with Ecclestone’s attention being elsewhere it will be presented as a plausable and reasonable solution to what to date has been an intractable dispute between the commercial rights holder and the FIA.

Yet Michelin may not have it all their own way as Pirelli have already suggested that the new engines and reduced fuel limits will occupy the majority of the teams’ attention and jokingly added that they would build ‘bullet proof tyres’ for 2014′ and have a much quieter life.

More as we get it…..

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Netherlands are now in 2nd place

Wow. Before I left for my self imposed exile, we had an influx of new blood from the beautiful land of the windmills, tulips and dykes. I just checked the site statistics for the last 30 days and you folk are the second most represented nationality who visit TJ13. This has long been the USA who have occupied this slot miles ahead of everyone else.

The Dutch empire is growing and now represents more than half the size of the UK readership – AMAZING

Glad you’re enjoying TJ13 – and now  I get ViezeFrans joyous outburst from earlier today…