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Schumacher rejects Lotus – Only Nico Rosberg is sad
Not F1: Dario Franchitti has to call it quits.
Race Of Champions with a female touch
Another big name team joins Formula E
Kubica crashes out of Rally GB
Lewis gets a new chassis for Austin
Schumacher rejects Lotus – Only Nico Rosberg is sad
It was somewhat surreal that Lotus asked seven times world champion Michael Schumacher to come back out of retirement to stand in for Kimi Räikkönen. Granted, no other living being bar Rubens Barrichello beats the German in terms of experience, but there was only one potential winner in such an endeavour – Lotus. Did they really expect that Michael would come out of retirement to help Lotus beat the team that has given him five of his seven titles and the company that started his F1 career?
One has to keep in mind that it was Mercedes, who paid for Schumacher’s drive in the Jordan at the 1991 Belgian Grandprix and his love-affair with Ferrari is a fact of recent history. Did they really expect he’d step in to beat both of them? And that’s not even counting that Schumacher has no experience whatsoever with the 2013 Pirelli bubble-gum tyres. He would have had a whole lot to lose with nothing to gain.”
Fellow Germans Vettel and Sutil think that Schumacher made the right decision. “He’s done the right thing,” Vettel agrees with his close friend’s and ROC partner in crime’s decision. “The only ones to profit from it, would have been the guys at Lotus.”
“You can only lose in a stunt like that,” Sutil agrees. “Especially with the F1 format being as it is now.” There is precedent to this situation. Both Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fisichella fared badly when stepping in for the injured Felipe Massa in 2009 and Gerome D’Ambrosio, standing in for the banned Romain Grosjean in last year’s Italian Grandprix didn’t set the world ablaze either. With testing all but verboten stepping into a different car is likely to be a no-win scenario.
Only Nico Rosberg is sad about missing another chance to race Michael. “Too bad,” Schumachers last team mate says. “It would have been fun to race him again.” Rosberg explains in a somewhat dada-istic interview, why his duels with Hamilton are different, but in the end the same as his head-to-heads with Schumacher. “It’s so completely different. The challenge is similar. They both are hard opponents. But apart from that things are completely different – their strengths and weaknesses, how you can work with them. One of them likes Haribo gummy bears, the other is hell-bent on wearing a new pair of running shoes every day. It’s completely different.”
Not F1: Dario Franchitti has to call it quits.
After seventeen years in America’s premier openwheel racing category in CART and IndyCar, Scotsman Dario Franchitti has to hang up the helmet for good after the spine injuries sustained in the last lap crash in this year’s Indycar race at Houston, Texas.
Graduating through Britain’s junior formulae, Franchitti joined Giancarlo Fisichella in taking the detour via DTM. Driving for Mercedes, the scot earned himself a race victory in the second race at Mugello, Italy in 1995. Another victory followed at Suzuka in 1996. For the 1997 season, he went to America to join Hogan racing in the Champcar series.
Even though he was the Jaguar test driver in 2000, Franchitti never really got the chance to try his hand at F1, which in my opinion is a loss for F1. Concentrating on his work in the land of the free and the uncontrollable secret service, Franchitti scored 31 race wins – three of those being wins in the Indy 500 – and four championship titles.
Whatever you’ll be up to, Dario. Thank you for so many years of driving excellence.
Race Of Champions with a female touch
In the last six years the Race of Champions, the annual december show event organized by rallying amazon Michelle Mouton has been a somewhat F1-esque affair. Many nations fight for the title and in the end Schumacher and Vettel win. Although neither of the notorious serial kill…err… winners has ever won the drivers title at the event, Vettel and Schumacher have won the Nations Cup for Germany every year since 2007.
This year however, things are going to be different. For the first time ever, the event will not only have a female host, since Williams test driver Susie Wolff will line up with David Coulthard for Team Britain. Instead of the usual lineup of Andy Priaulx and Jason Plato it will be Susie and Crazy D, who will take on ze Germans this year. Go Susie!!!!
Alonso passes medical
Though he avoided all media duties on Thursday, Fernando Alonso attended the medical centre at COTA for final clearance to race this weekend. He didn’t speak to the media, though gave a thumbs up as walked to the car which would return him to his hotel.
Fernando told his twitter followers, “Happy to have the ‘ok’ from doctors and race this weekend, Last day to recover and do my best to help the team!” A Ferrari spokesperson revealed Alonso’s tests had “all proved positive”.
Alonso may have passed the medical, but appears far from fully recovered as the team decided he should rest rather than do his usual round of interviews. Pulling 5G in an F1 car will be a sterner test for Fernando than talking to out held microphones.
Sauber find some money
Speaking to Swiss broadcaster SRF1, Monisha Kaltenborn confirms the team have been able to pay some outstanding debts recently, but does not disclose the source of the funds. The electricity bill TJ13 reported a few days ago is now cleared and the unpaid Hulkenberg is now in credit too. “We talked about it with him and clarified the situation,” said Kaltenborn. “A payment was made.”
There are still 56 other writs for payment – circa 500,000 euro – pending against Sauber since the promised Russian money never materialised.
Raikkonen surgery goes well
Finnish broadcaster MTV is reporting Kimi’s surgery has “gone well” and he can start, “can start light exercise in 4 to 6 weeks”. Kimi elected not to drive for Lotus in the season’s final 2 races, to ensure he has sufficient recovery time to start work with Ferrari in 2014.
Get well soon cards have been arriving by the post bag for the popular Finn, yet one paddock wag suggested he heard Boullier comment, “We have drawn up a posting schedule with Kimi’s management and talks are progressing. But we expect to send him a card by next Tuesday.”
In the mean time replacement driver Heikki Kovalainen is keen to fit into the team quickly, and he is seen below receiving instructions from Lotus’ trackside operations director Alan Parmane. Whilst our ‘listener’ didn’t catch all the conversation, the conclusion was clear.
Permane: “And when I say ‘move out the f***ing way’, you say how f***ing far!”
Isn’t this lovely though….Lotus issue a statement.
“As planned, Kimi Räikkönen underwent back surgery yesterday at The University Hospital of Strasbourg. Lotus F1 Team is happy to report that the operation was totally successful, according to Professor Afshin Gangi.
“Kimi will now rest for a few days and he will start his recovery process as early as next week. Everyone at the track and at Enstone wishes him a quick recovery.”
McLaren team in turmoil?
Have McLaren lost their way since Ron Dennis left the race team to focus on car building? This is a question I’m asked frequently. My response is usually, “they hadn’t done particularly well during Ron’s final years on the pitwall”.
Yet in the modern world of F1 where all the team principals like each other and ‘get on’, the McLaren racing team appears to have lost some of its bite when compared to the era of Dennis the pit bull
Yet Dennis is still clearly influential within the racing team, and is very much involved in driver selection, but criticism has been swift coming over the handling of the team’s decision to let Sergio Perez go.
Influential German F1 writer, Michael Schmidt, is scathing over McLaren’s handling of the matter. “Perez thanked McLaren as though they have done him a favour, and McLaren has praised Perez in a way that makes you wonder why in the world they’re separating. It’s dishonest,” says Schmidt.
“A bit more honesty would be appropriate. McLaren should say why his contract is not being renewed, and Perez should be allowed to say what he thinks about the late notice. If they’re both just singing each other’s praises, they treat us – the fans – like we’re stupid,” Schmidt adds.
It does beg the question, did McLaren choose the wrong guy for 2013, or was it a case that they didn’t get the best out of him?
2011 wasn’t Lewis’ finest year in motor sport and his ‘Ali G’ comment in Monaco is said to have enraged Dennis. Whilst Lewis start to the 2012 season was less volatile it appears the die was cast with the McLaren boss.
He went public in June over any possible contract renewal for Hamilton stating, “He is on the end of a contract which was signed a at a time when the economy was somewhat different. Now there has to be a balance”. Dennis added somewhat fatuously, “He’s very highly paid. He’s certainly paid more than I am.”
A few weeks later, Ron was on the offensive again, “I think people get the wrong impression though, as when I last looked at the contract I was paying him. It’s a question of whether we employ him, not the other way around.”
A bemused Hamilton was confronted with this quote and concluded. “It has nothing to do with me particularly, what he says,” adding “Martin is my boss.”
What isn’t clear, is how Simon Fuller’s XIX were behaving behind the scenes. Having signed up who they believed could be their next David Beckham, the agency clearly needed to get Lewis a better deal than his father had negotiated before them.
Of course the rest is history.
So did McLaren panic when they appointed Perez? Il Padrino had already stated that Sergio – a Ferrari junior driver – wasn’t ready for a drive with a top team. Was the Perez appointment meant to ‘stick it to the red team’?
There were safer bets at the time, and the most obvious was Nico Hulkenberg. The German was considered by many to have demonstrated his ability to be a top driver, yet he was overlooked to the surprise of many in the paddock as well as the fans.
McLaren of course have now appointed rookie Kevin Magnussen as Perez’s replacement, again overlooking Hulkenberg once again. He admits this weekend, “I’ve spoken regularly to Martin Whitmarsh. It’s hard to know why there was so little interest [in me]. I believe I have made all the right arguments on the track.”
The irony will be if McLaren’s latest protoge doesn’t make the grade and Ferrari sign Hulkenberg in either 2015 or 2016. If the Hulk then develop’s into the star almost everyone believes is possible, those making driver decisions in Woking will look very silly indeed.
I’ve heard it said that the Magnussen appointment may be in part a result of Helmut Marko’s taunts to the Red Bull opposition over their lack of trust in their young driver programmes.
Sam Michael is revealing when he spoke to SKY yesterday. “You have to remember that on all of our Young Driver Programmes, they are there to produce World Champions. They are not there to produce also-rans because, quite frankly, McLaren has the buying ability to go and buy anyone we want on the grid in that situation”.
Having backed Perez recently and commented on more than 1 occasion that recruiting rookies will be a “risk” in 2014, Jenson could do little else other than express surprise at his team’s decision. He told F1 writers in Austin, “It’s one of those positions where it could light up your career or put an end to your career very early if things don’t go well, It’s a massive risk to be put in the deep end, if you like, with a team that should be fighting for a title”.
Yet in life and F1, risks at times must be taken; and McLaren are prepared to take this huge risk because they believe Magnussen is the next Lewis Hamilton. Sam Michael notes, “Normally you search for many years to have just one young driver, just as McLaren did with Lewis Hamilton”. Michael goes on to make the case that McLaren now actually have 2 young drivers of that calibre.
Potential is one thing, getting sufficient time to develop is another. Magnussen and any rookie driver in F1 today, have a huge disadvantage when compared to Lewis’ rookie year as the Brit had racked up over 10,000 miles in an F1 car testing before he raced one in anger.
McLaren may have acted in haste over Perez following the panic following Lewis’ departure. The appointment of Magnussen though is quite different, it is a measured and reasoned calculated risk. The management in Woking are nailing their colours to the mast that this kid is the one to rival Vettel.
All they need to do now is build a car capable of rivaling Newey’s.
Another big name team joins Formula E
Formula E have announced the 7th team to join the new series – and it’s a name that will make many sit up and take notice. The outfit, from Germany’s Allgäu region, will race under the name of Audi Sport ABT Formula E Team, based on the name used in its successful commitment as an Audi factory team in the popular international touring car series DTM.
They join IndyCar outfits Andretti Autosport and Dragon Racing, Asia’s China Racing and Super Aguri and fellow European squads Drayson Racing and e.dams.
Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich commented: “We’ve been watching this new project of the FIA with great interest and are delighted that ABT Sportsline as one of our close and long-standing partners will be involved right from the beginning. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for the squad on tackling this new challenge and are planning to support its commitment with drivers from our factory line-up if required.”
With five titles to its credit in the DTM alone ABT Sportsline is one of the most successful German teams, which has achieved victories and titles in GT and endurance racing as well. The commitment in Formula racing now also marks a return to the outfit’s early days. At the beginning of the 1990s, ABT scored its initial successes in Formel ADAC and Formula Three. One of the drivers back then was the subsequent Formula One and DTM star Ralf Schumacher
Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E Holdings commented, “We’re delighted to welcome the Audi Sport ABT Formula E Team into the championship, our seventh of 10 teams and the third European outfit. Formula E is very much an open championship and a platform for teams to showcase their own fully-electric cars, so to have one of the most successful German motorsport teams with the support of a big manufacturer on board is a fantastic addition to the series. I’m sure German racing fans will also be particularly pleased as they now have a home team to support during the Berlin Formula E race.”
Valsecchi blows his top
GP2 champion and Lotus’ reserve driver, Davide Valsecchi, did not mince his works when speaking to his native Italian journalists. Valsecchi has attended each GP weekend this year as with Lotus and reveals he was telephoned on Wednesday by team boss Eric Boullier and given the news Kovalainen would be replacing Kimi.
Davide was informed that Heikki’s greater race experience in F1 and his recent Friday practice experience with Caterham tipped the scales in his favour. He reacted emotionally stating, “It’s a huge blow to me,“ adding, “from the sporting point of view it’s a tragedy. It makes me angry to have lost the battle with Kovalainen who is not a great champion, not even an active driver; his last results were five years ago.
If they had taken Hulkenberg I could have understood, even Maldonado, but this…!
I was sure that from the point of view of motivation and desire to achieve, the team would have taken me and I would have been right up there.
Perhaps I lack experience but what chance do you have to gain any? Nevertheless, things change quickly in F1, so I won’t give up and I will be ready if they need me in Brazil.”
Valsecchi may have a point. Kovalainen’s F1 record is hardly stellar and Nico Hulkneberg felt it was a ‘risk’ to drive the Lotus E21 with no time to familiarise himself with the E21, despite having competed in a 2013 car all season.
Speaking to SKY during FP1 in Austin, Davide admits, “My career is not in a fantastic way, not easy to recover from this position”
How the Lotus team management will react to such forthright views from the Italian reserve driver is as yet unclear, though some will feel this is a more honest response than the McLaren love in over the sacking of Perez.
What is not clear is which chassis Heikki will get. Unlike Grosjean, Kimi was favouring the short wheel base version of the E21 and it is probable that it is this version which will be assembled for the Finn for the weekend.
Kubica crashes out of Rally GB
Having won the WRC2 title this year, Robert Kubica steps up to the big boys’ cars in the Rally GP. He finished the first day of the rally in seventh place, but after climbing out of his car following the final night stage he admitted: “I have a lot of things to learn”.
Unfortunately, on day 2 stage 4 Kubica rolled his Citroen DS3 and was out of the stage. Both Robert and his co-driver were unharmed.
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The knives are out for Checo
Former McLaren team manager – Jo Ramirez – says that Perez has only himself to blame for being sacked by McLaren. In his column for the Mexican publication ‘Cancha’, Ramirez makes an interesting claim about McLaren’s expectations when they recruited Perez.
“McLaren needed a better driver than Jenson Button, they didn’t need an equal, but Checo wasn’t up to the challenge, except on a few occasions.”
Following what appears to be a rather bold claim, Ramirez continues his attack on Checo. “Sergio will probably be uncomfortable reading this, because sometimes the truth is not nice. He had a golden opportunity, one that only comes once in a lifetime. His problem was never integrating with the team. The syndrome of becoming an F1 driver went to his head very fast. He always complained about the British press, but they were the same press that wrote: ‘Checo, a good driver’, but why is he so arrogant?”
Having been something of a mentor to Sergio in his younger days, the clue to Ramirez opinions may be found in the next portion of his diatribe.
“Checo grew a lot as a driver during the last three years in F1, but unfortunately he didn’t grow as a person at the same rate. Today the drivers are arriving in F1 at a very young age without knowing how to behave. In most cases they have a manager that coaches them. Sergio tried to do it alone and failed.”
There may be the spectre of a grudge in Ramirez perspective, but fellow Latin American F1 writer – Livio Oricchio – also criticises Sergio Perez attitude today in his column in Estado de S.Paulo. “The relationship between the Mexican and McLaren never got going.
Formula one is not just about commitment, its more than that, Its interaction, working together, two sides Committed to the same goals. Winning and losing together. Perez is not the kind of man who does that.”
Oricchio claims his sources at McLaren and Sauber confirm that Sergio “has an arrogant attitude” which many dislike. He adds, “I’ve Interviewed him a few times, even this year. He does not look in your eyes and wants it to be over. In his work relationships it is no different”.
Why the knives are out for Checo in such a way is unclear, and on his first day at the MTC he was clearly anything but arrogant.
Sergio marvelled to SKY Sports, “As soon as you walk through these doors, you see these great cars and there is so much history with this team that you immediately feel great. It’s a dream come true to drive for this team
I’m here to give everything I can, to do my very best in every single race, inside and outside of the car, and to work with this great family at McLaren”. Turning to his team mate, Perez is equally respectful, “Jenson is a very fast driver and one of the best in the world. It’s a guarantee he will be fast and competitive. I will have to make my own space, but I think I will be able to work with Jenson. I’ve got a lot to learn from him but at the same time I want to beat him.”
Sergio believed his time at McLaren would improve him as a driver. “Being here at McLaren will help me improve in many areas. It will be much more intense than I have been used to. I think once the season starts will look again at where we can improve, but first of all we have to go to testing and Jenson and I will have to do everything we can to make sure we have a competitive car”.
Such was the overwhelming experience of being in the McLaren team, Martin Whitmarsh had to encourage their young driver to ‘get his elbows out’ which he promptly did upsetting Button at the next race in Bahrain.
It would be easy for Oricchio to mistake a lack of self confidence for arrogance as he cites the Mexican’s inability to ‘look in your eyes’ when being interviewed.
A loss of confidence would not be an unreasonable state of mind for Checo to have found himself in as his senior world champion team mate has regularly been at a loss for words after racing the pig of the MP4-28 which the team created for their drivers.
COTA 1 hour to FP1
..and with 11 minutes to the start of the session – FP1 is delayed as this is still the visibility.
Ecclestone losing his marbles
If you think Bernie Ecclestone’s faculties have recently deteriorated – as evidenced with the never ending revolving door and the ‘I don’t remember stuff from 3 days ago’ comments – think again.
On this day in 2008….
Bernie Ecclestone, under fire after dismissing racial abuse of Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona earlier in the year as “a bit of a joke”, called for anyone found guilty of the offence to be banned from the sport for life. “I want you to know that I’m not a racist,’ Ecclestone told the Mail on Sunday.”It came out wrong. I was having a shave when the radio station rang me, it was early in the morning, and I wasn’t really concentrating. No excuses, but I was careless in my choice of words. I mucked up. I rang Lewis and his dad to apologise and they accepted it immediately. They know I’m not a racist.’
When asked if he would call for anyone who blackens their face at a grand prix, or makes monkey noises, to be evicted in future and banned for life, he replied: “OK, I will. That’s what should happen, and I am happy for you to say that I want it to happen.”
Lewis gets a new chassis for Austin
It appears Lewis Hamilton was unfairly handicapped in the Abu Dhabi race with a cracked chassis. “Lewis’s results in Abu Dhabi were not what we expected, particularly compared to Nico,” said Ross Brawn to Formula1.com.”Nico did a great job, but what was puzzling was that some of the behaviour of Lewis’ car wasn’t consistent with what we saw with Nico,”
The team subsequently examined the chassis and found significant damage. Though before Hamilton fans claim Lewis ‘was robbed’ by mechanical failure, Brawn reminds us, “We knew Lewis had had some excursions over kerbs and things, but when we actually got here and started to strip everything down, the damage was pretty significant, It may even be at a level that was affecting the handling of the car. At what point the cracks became significant is difficult to say, but certainly they were not good.”
Filled with the power of hope and optimism, Hamilton commented, “I’m hoping this weekend to put myself in a better position – I feel positive – The problem I’ve had recently is that I’ve been stuck in a lot of traffic and haven’t been able to go past, so it definitely doesn’t make the performance seem so good”.
We are likely to see a skinnier wing and lower drag setup from Mercedes this weekend, so when the inevitable pole position goes Vettel’s way, at least the Silver Arrows will have a shot at overtaking during the race.
Lewis is clearly not superstitious about his weekend as his race helmet celebrates the Michael Jackson song, “Smooth Criminal” – from the album BAD.
Caption Competition
While the Williams team wait for the fog to life…. idle banter passes amongst the team members 😉
As an Americano, I’m sad that Dario is hanging up his helmet.
As you’ve rightly point out, we’ve been fortunate to have him here on this side of the pond. He helped keep the bar raised high during the lean years in what passes for a top-tier open wheel series over here.
I was just thinking… I stopped following Indy Cars about the time that Greg Moore died… in part because I was at the track in the stands when Greg died and had to watch that drama unfold before me. I rated Greg highly, his talents, and his futures.
Anyway, I had noticed that Franchitti signed off his letter with a quote from Greg Moore. Dario is a class guy. And I feel for him.
I was at the track when Alex Zanardi was split in half at the Eurospeedway in 2001, so I can identify with your trouble to reconnect with the series. Thankfully for me Alex came back which made it seasier for me to keep the spirit up.
I’m glad you mentioned your experience at the EuroSpeedway.
Two years ago I was at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway one weekend to help provide strategy for some friends of mine racing for a 12 hour kart endurance race on one of the many tracks at that facility.
Our race was on Saturday, (noon to midnight). Meanwhile, over on the big oval, the Indy Car circus was in town that same weekend to hold a big race on Sunday.
The kart racers received free (or heavily discounted, I forget) tickets for the Indy Car race the next day.
As I mentioned previously, some years prior I had watched Greg Moore die on a high speed oval. After reading about the lay-out of the Vegas oval track with it’s relatively high banks, and other problems, I had no interest in watching that event in person, or even television, so I left town. A few of the kart drivers stayed to watch.
Anyway, that race happened to be when Dan Wheldon was killed.
You recently suggested that F1 should incorporate an oval race in their calendar. I didn’t say anything then, but my reaction should now be fairly predictable… I think it would be too dangerous, and is likely to never happen because of that danger. But that’s just one guy’s opinion. 🙂
I was competing in one of the support races to a Formula Three event in 1991. Franchitti was driving at the time in Formula Vauxhall Junior. I sat and chatted with him for some time as we waited for the days program, wonderful fella.
I ran into him again at a 1994 F3 meeting at Silverstone when he was teamed with Jan Magnussen at Stewart F3.
Magnussen was painted as the new Senna as he won 14 races that year, Dario merely one but I always felt it unjust, I considered Dario a far better driver than the record books would have us believe.
I guess, in 2013, the record books show what desire and application can achieve.
I met Dan Wheldon at the 1999 Autosport International trade day.
I’ll be honest, a trade day and karting arena were never going to be over populated with people, but I chatted to him for around 45 minutes about his ambitions.
This man had competed against Jenson Button in karts but he felt that any funding from the UK was being directed in the direction of Button. There was no resigned attitude to his fate, he was already investigating his options in America which at the time was seen as a stepping stone to Formula One.
Zanardi had dominated and had been signed by Williams, and Montoya was to race for Ganassi that year, but was a long term prospect for a Williams return.
I wished him the best of luck and followed his career until his fatal accident.
I wish Dario a speedy recovery and thanks for the memories.
Thanks for that Carlo… Those personal stories are great to hear…
Just watched a news report from the day of the crash and the journalists had reviewed Franchitti’s Twitter feed from the horrible Daytona (oval) NASCAR (??) crash earlier in the year, and he’d lamented the use of catch fencing and implored the promoters and sanctioning body to work together to devise a safer, more effective alternative. What a terrible irony.
I’m sure it was obvious to everyone and their mother that its the poles in the crash fencing that is causing the issues. But buying a whole new crash fencing is another matter, when it sounds like the series is struggling to get by. Now we have another huge career ending accident with one where driver and fans were lucky to walk away. I can’t help but think that if the New Jersey F1 race doesn’t go ahead that there’s a perfect set of F1 crash fencing now there that they could be buying (asking price €5m).
The Vegas race capped off what appeared to be a misconstrued effort to highlight the series once more, one of a series of season long hash-ups. Here we have another one, and we are left wondering if the series can improve. I want IndyCar to do well, but it seems to be doing worse as time passes.
Lol. Haribo gummy bears.
Is that shumi or Lulu?
Schoe is the one who likes Haribo’s 😉
Jerome d’Ambrosio did have an issue with his car (too busy to check what it was but I know it was either no KERS or DRS), so his performance at the Italian Grand Prix wasn’t that bad. He didn’t leave the track with any less dignity than he had before, and I’m sure that the Lotus mechanics would have seen it as a refreshing change from having to repair or replace expensive bits of carbon fibre at too many races!
He was rather ordinary in qualifying though, too. Thing is, whithout any testing possible, stepping into a car you don’t know is a losing battle.
as I recall, it was a near race-long KERS failure. not extraordinary, but I feel he should be proud of his performance and way less happy with that cluster of scumbags he works for.
“Concentrating on his work in the land of the free and the uncontrollable secret service…” = intelligence service(s), but you’re right, and the put-down of the Surveillance State is much appreciated. It’s horrible living under this regime, and more disheartening still is realization that soooo many American Sheeple aren’t even clued-in to what NSA and other gov’t agencies are doing or they don’t care. America is a great country; USGOVT is an evil, neo-totalitarian regime in many respects.
Well, at least DF got out alive…. He didn’t really have much left to accomplish in the joke that IndyCar has devolved into anyway…. Good luck to him. Perhaps we’ll see him driving along side his brother in sports cars one day.
Just curious, what’s happened in IndyCar to make it a joke? I don’t follow that series so don’t know what you’re referring to. Can you summarize for me (us)? Thanks…
never mind…
ROC is a great and entertaining format and I’ll look forward to seeing Suzie Wolff compete, but forgive me, my mind is a blank as to which championship she has won? Lovely girl, bright and entertaining as an interviewee, but a champion driver?? How?
She could have won a theoretical women’s karting championship, in fact that would be great (I can think of a top 5 straight away). Maybe Visser would win that currently? Would it promote women in Motorsport (maybe that separation would make progression worse)? Judit Polgar never bothered with a women’s world chess championship when she was in the top 5/10 in the world rankings.
On ROC- I wonder if they are missing a trick. DC/Susie for Team Scotland and two more top drivers for Team England. Plays to the independence vote as well! But maybe impossible to execute as racing licences are UK based. I didn’t know Michelle Mouton was behind the ROC though. It’s a great idea to compare champions’ adaptability thusly.
License’ country of origin wouldn’t prevent that – and I think its a great idea – would love to see DC slavering over Susie while Toto’s not looking…..
re. Lewis’s car, Autosport are reporting that
” …..Lewis Hamilton will have a new chassis for the United States Grand Prix, after Mercedes found two large cracks in his car during preparations for the Austin Formula 1 race.
Mercedes had been baffled as to why Hamilton’s form in recent races – and especially at the Abu Dhabi GP – had not been as strong as team-mate Nico Rosberg’s.
Finding an answer to that question was also made more difficult by Hamilton’s car performance being inconsistent with what the team was finding with Rosberg’s at Yas Marina.
In a bid to get to the bottom of the matter, Mercedes conducted a strip down and detailed analysis of Hamilton’s chassis at Austin this week, and it found damage that it thinks was significant enough to affect the handling.
….
Brawn said that two large cracks had appeared in the chassis, but they had only been picked up during a detailed strip down ahead of this weekend’s race.
Although Hamilton had several excursions in Abu Dhabi, Brawn said Mercedes could not say for definite when the damage had been caused. … “
We did hear Lewis say over the pit radio that he “didn’t know what was wrong with the car” and “i just got no grip.” Perhaps these cracks were allowing the chassis to twist in an unexpected way under cornering forces and upsetting the car. I would explain a bit of the problem. It’s well documented the Lewis is good at setting up a car to be quick from when Jenson had to use his setup data, so for Lewis to complain as he did about the car the way he did, particularly during the last GP, would point to a hidden/undiagnosed, fault/failure on the car. Should do Hamilton’s confidence good to hear this too as he has been very hard on himself these last few races.
Or maybe a reminder to Lewis not to damage his car by driving over kerbs and other off track excursions ?
Something broke in qually at Abu Dhabi and we all thought he’s spun, but he was never quite his usual speed after, perhaps it broke then, as part of, or due to that, and whilst they fixed the obvious damage for the race, the crack was still there?
Thanks for the piece on Dario, and his horrifying exit from the sport. Certainly a potential loss for F1, thanks to Jaguar – it seems…
…and who was in charge at Jaguar?
That elderly Mercedes fan lol
hmmm. good question! was it Bobby Rahal??
“Good Girls love Bad Boys”
According to ESPN F1, Bernie and wife Fabiana Flosi arriving in the paddock at Austin:
http://f1.imgci.com/PICTURES/CMS/21700/21751.jpg
The first thing that Sergio Perez should have learnt when he joined McLaren was that Whitmarsh (and Button too) is a Masters of Politically Correct English, as explained here:
http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2012/01/what-the-british-say-and-what-they-really-mean/
He would then have known, listening to Whitmarsh three months ago that his contract was over.
..love that piece from BBC America
It was in all the papers at the same time, and the Telegraph gave credit to
http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=5672 but then said
“Duncan Green, a strategic adviser for Oxfam who posted it online, described it as “a handy guide for our fellow Europeans and others trying to fathom weaselly Brit-speak”.
Mr Green said: “Sadly, I didn’t write it. It’s just one of those great things that is being passed around on the internet.”
Although the author of the table is unconfirmed, it is thought it may have originally been drawn up by a Dutch company as an attempt to help employees working in the UK”
…”drawn up by a Dutch company as an attempt to help employees working in the UK”…
if that’s true it is utterly brilliant
Agree. Sent it on to some American friends and they thought it was both amusing and useful!
I wouldn’t put much stock in McLaren’s young driver programme, I still think that they wasted Lewis’ talent by not keeping him in check and making him learn his craft from a double WDC (Alonso) for a year before letting him off the leash. He suffers to this day from being a driver who relies a bit too much on his skill and not enough on his craft. And all because Dennis shot his load over the prospect of having a British WDC in his final year at the helm, thus torpedo-ing the practically guaranteed outcome of a Spanish WDC in the same car. What was that you were saying about McLaren “not having done particularly well during Ron’s final years on the pitwall”?
Re: McLaren / Checo
I think one of the telling factors is McLaren’s loss of Vodafone, does this mean Checo’s money/connections to Slim/Telmex has dried up? Or does it mean that someone else (Saxobank) have come along with more money and just happen to have a Danish driver in mind for the other seat. We all know how much money talks and I have a feeling that this situation has something to do with that rather than just talent.
The other interesting thing is that although we clearly saw Checo’s talents at the wheel of the C31, this was likely as a result of that car’s ability over others to manage the 2012 tyres (look at the improvement of the C32 since the switch back). What we don’t have access to is the data that McLaren have from Simulator work and moreover the data from Magnussen’s tests…
Perez is a talented driver no doubt but I’m left wondering if the lack of Simulator at Hinwil meant the Mexican fell behind when it came to assisting the team ‘in-loop’. (Although I don’t know if he had access to Ferrari’s sim whilst with Sauber)
As always, agree with much of what you have to say Matt, but I argue strongly here McLaren’s next title sponsor decision will be nothing to do with drivers…
http://thejudge13.com/2013/11/12/daily-f1-news-and-comment-tuesday-12th-november-2013/
As always, I concede to your knowledge (accepting that my field is more skewed to the technical side) I would however say it would make more sense for McLaren to align with P&G and have access to many sponsor lines (like their current allegiance with GSK) rather than just one of P&G’s companies (Gillette). The P&G group of course has companies under it’s umbrella that have been active in F1 sponsorship before…
(Duracell could be a good fit with F1 entering another era in terms of ERS 😉 )
‘Duracell’ – like it….
The problem is the team is called….
‘Marlboro McLaren’
Vodafone McLaren’
so using multiple brands a year would be a significant departure from the nor.
I suppose it could be the GSK McLaren – and run ‘Boost’ in India (oops no longer there) …etc…
The argument for Gillete is they have hundreds of millions to burn on the brand globally each year and McLaren are likely to be looking for something North of $70m a year this time….
Kudos and sincere compliments for today’s article on Sergio Perez. It is one of the better articles that has been published on this site.
The nuanced analysis of state of mind, of a new guy’s lack of confidence versus, (or perhaps in addition to) his perceived arrogance is well done.
I have high respect for Jo Ramirez, and so I rate his opinion highly. I don’t know of the relationship between Jo Ramirez, Adrian Fernandez, and Perez family, but there is perhaps much more known by him than is being said.
Some rudimentary research reveals that Adrian Fernandez, (a professional Mexican racer who experienced good success and strong popularity in Indy Car, and later in endurance racing) became Sergio’s manager for ~1 year. He started in the fall of 2012 and negotiated the deal with McLaren for Checo. Then Checo let him go earlier this fall.
Who was Sergio’s manager prior to Fernandez?
Who is Sergio’s manager now?
– – –
Re: Carlos Slim / Mexican money
Let me highlight that America Movil, (the company that owns Telmex) is the fourth largest mobile company in the world, but it’s footprint is almost exclusively the Western Hemisphere. To gain entrance to Europe, it purchased 30% of KPN of The Netherlands with plans to buy it outright to give a good platform to expand across Europe. The Dutch blocked that deal a few weeks ago in September. America Movil consequently has very little business activity in Europe.
Without a toe-hold in Europe, for America Movil, the dollar value of being a primary sponsor of an F1 team, as measured by potential market addressed, would be lower to Telmex (market = Mexico, and it’s nearly a monopoly), and Claro (market = South, Central America), versus the dollar value of F1 sponsorship by a brand marketed worldwide such as Gillette, for example.
McLaren spoke primarily of Sergio Perez’ performance during both his hiring and firing. I recall Sam Michael mentioning a year ago that they had evaluated Sergio’s race performance versus other candidates, and Sergio rated higher. (It’s worth going back in time to find that.)
Wasn’t there also mention by McLaren of commercial deals a year ago? Then that KPN deal collapsed a few weeks ago…
If you watched the drivers press conference I posit – my suggestion is clearly evident….
I was aware of the KPN deal but haven’t had time to write it up… This would affect ‘Telmex’ desire to be title sponsor of McLaren, but as I said a few days ago – the title sponsor will be completely independent of the sponsor deal.
FP1 – What a farce.
Is this really in Austin, Texas in the great old US of A, the world’s richest nation?
i can picture the fuss that would have been made by the press if this lack of the medical helicopter had happened in India.
World’s richest nation? Not any longer I believe.
They have more people on welfare than there are working. They had to close down national museums and national parks recently because the government didn’t have the money required to pay the federal wages and I believe in the last couple of weeks, China has moved to have the dollar removed as the de facto world currency and replace it with the Chinese equivalent.
When reports state countries in Europe such as Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, Britain and Belgium having serious debts, they are measured at between 1 and 2 trillion dollars.
The U.S economy has a debt of around 17 trillion.
I may well have been reading the wrong business reports and in fact the U.S is still the powerhouse of the world, I guess it also depends if you are listening to conspiracy theorists about the New World Order, Illuminati and other such esoteric nonsense. Everyone to their own, but as one tabard at a recent G8 summit read:
“The world is $47 Trillion in debt – In debt to who?”
“World’s richest nation? Not any longer I believe.” – It depends on which measure you use. Here are four (among others):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_current_account_balance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt
Where did you get those links to wikipedia??? I´m in Mexico right now and that is not what you get by looking for “List of countries by GDP (PPP)”. Is wikipedia also used by goverment in the USA for internal propaganda?
Seriously, the USA is NOT the richest country in the world, it hasn’t been for some time. The only list in which it´s first these days is the list of countries with the biggest external debts. It only keeps its place in world economy for political reasons… by now.
” …. I´m in Mexico right now and that is not what you get by looking for “List of countries by GDP (PPP)”. … ”
Why not give me the link you find in Mexico then?
The USA has the largest debt because the lenders KNOW it is the richest. (Try asking your bank for a loan – the richer you are the more they will lend you; at least that is how it works here in the UK). 😉
I left a comment earlier in the week that a lot of problems were had with tickets and ticket delivery, including allegations that the printer had not been paid by the track. One shouldn’t confuse a poorly run facility with an entire nation in crisis. Not saying there aren’t many issues, but the problems the track has aren’t really related to the amount of US debt, they’re more related to the fact that the people running the track don’t know much about running a track, or apparently a business for that matter.
Ivenot heard anything about those troubles…
LOL, that’s why you should always read my comments. Even a broken clock….
http://jalopnik.com/what-the-hell-is-going-on-with-tickets-for-the-us-grand-1460723650
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=736928442988370&set=a.161638520517368.39180.157330087614878&type=1
Saw the Jalopnik article first and followed the links. Read the comments especially. Also a link to the official state report on last year’s race with lots of numbers for all the budding economists that frequent the site.
Replied to you with links to original article, got stuck in moderation for some reason.
Will try again with shortened url’s:
LOL, that’s why you should always read my comments. Even a broken clock….
http://goo.gl/mzSZdN
http://goo.gl/rvy5S6
Saw the Jalopnik article first and followed the links. Read the comments especially. Also a link to the official state report on last year’s race with lots of numbers for all the budding economists that frequent the site
Completely agree. And further, the fact race control started the session unaware of the situation is a disgrace.
Caption competition: No, it REALLY doesn’t smell like roses, Pastor!
Or… Grin away Pastor. You’ve only got 4 cylinders this weekend…
“No, it REALLY doesn’t smell like roses, Pastor!”
Well done Mattpt55! That had me giggling.
Just read this. Funny that we both came to the conclusion that Pastor farted.
Great minds…
Re: McLaren/Perez…
I do sometimes wonder, when I can be bothered, like now, it seems, who these people think they are who believe they are “entitled” to be told whatever private information they wish to know.
Any individual, group and/or company is surely entitled to conduct private matters in private, and to keep them private if that is what they desire…
Of course, the likes of ‘experienced’, ‘influential’, journos, or anybody else, like ‘us’, is allowed to be interested, and to ask questions, and, if necessary, to speculate…
But nobody is entitled to think they have a right to be told…
I think the world is becoming excessively arrogant…! or I would, if I could be bothered, like now, it seems, to think… 😉
“I sent them my contract on the Monday -all signed- and on Friday I was told that I was no longer in the picture (…) and I didn´t have the chance to talk with Martin personally.” – Sergio Perez.
That´s at least disrespectful from Withmarsh and McLaren.
Juan what’s your source for that please? Can you link it? thx.
Official Formula 1 website.
never mind i found it thanks! 🙂
Caption Competition:
http://i.imgur.com/ewwcTTJ.jpg
Caption comp-
Mal- you lot are shit, you just don’t have a clue, I’m off to somwhere they know what they’re doing.
Mechanic- sod off back to Venezuela and close the door on ya way out, we don’t want you anyway!
Looks like a great atmosphere in the Williams garage……
Captioncompetition
‘Who is the smooth criminal?’
a bunch of random thoughts:
Austin seems to be a reasonably kewl track if one totally ignores the massive paved run-off areas. grass, gravel and trees works fine for me…
some TV shots today looked like a real win re: fans. others looked pretty pathetic. anybody have some hard info of Fri attendance? or expected attendance for Sun or the entire W/E VS last year??
to this point, I am very surprised at the pace Kovi has found… makes Caterham look as truly pathetic as they REALLY are!!
speaking of pathetic, is Marussia REALLY looking to get excluded via the 107% rule???
I am VERY pissed off about how Lotus has done biz and screwed the pooch regarding Kimi, Davide, and Jerome… Hulk did the right thing by staying clear of these clusterfuck dipwads 🙂 made Kovi look like the whore he is but I do not blame him…
as TJ13 has intimated, Ferrari is looking EXACTLY like they really and truly are, have always been, and will always be – except for a few good years with Shumi, Ross, Todt, Rori, etc… hmmm – 2 elderly, wounded soldiers with baggage to compete in F1 for the titles??? hmmm…
I am happy Dario had the opportunity to define his future after his horrific accident into what I believe was an improved FIA approved catch fence…
I LOVE watching the big dawgs and their near perfection even if it is Seb and what he may yet add to the record books. I also enjoy watching the minor successes of the others and the newbies.
holy crap! Daniil was pretty much on fire in P1. put the damned kid in the race! start him in the last position or even pit lane, but put his butt on track in Austin and Brazil, learn his strong and weak points and have the Winter to help work it all out. we may have witnessed a superstar in the making – how damned kewl is that!!
watch yer back, Daniel…