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Legal or not – McLaren and Lotus innovative solutions (09:38)
Marussia to reveal car today (09:38) Updated (14:08)
McLaren employees killed in accident (12:01)
Schumacher to be woken form coma (12:15) Update (14:10)
New V6 most powerful! (12:30)
Live from Jerez – compare Ferrari vs Mercedes (14:40)
Live from Jerez – HD compilation of 2014 machinery (15:20)
Legal or not – McLaren and Lotus innovative solutions
Not since 2009 when Brawn GP unveiled their double diffuser have eyes been on car designs as much as this year. We have had the EBD and coanda effect exhausts but this year two teams in particular have designs that have been referred to the FIA for clarification.
Both Lotus and McLaren have come up with unique ways of getting airflow to and from the rear of the car. As TJ13 reported on Tuesday, the Lotus nose solution has already had the nod from the FIA (Whiting) and is considered legal.
McLaren’s rear suspension is the next point for debate. Using their rear suspension in a rather clever way they have created the same effect as what the now lost beam wing has done, creating a area of low pressure behind the diffuser. This provides more downforce at the rear meaning more power can be used. AMuS calls this an “ingenious trick” but as the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari has not gone down this path it remains to be seen if this is the feature to have.
As with most innovations, until it is better understood we can expect the big teams protesting or asking for clarification and Red Bull’s Newey have fired the first salvo saying he doubts the legality of McLaren’s solution.
“I have not seen the photos but as it is described, it sounds as though there are eight suspension elements, where only six are allowed. Moreover, there are clear rules for the width of the suspension.”
It appears McLaren have got that covered as well as AMuS reports they received a “green light“from the FIA last summer…
Let the war begin…
Marussia to reveal car today
After experiencing setbacks with their car and missing the first two days of testing Marussia is set to launch their car today. According to John Booth they had more trouble on their way to the circuit when the van broke down.
What to expect. After the previous launches very few people know what to expect but preparing for the worse seems like a safe option. However, Booth thinks they have a pretty car saying, “You will be amazed how pretty it [the car] is“.
All we know is they are at the circuit and we should see the car later today… gulp
Gulp indeed… not sure what is pretty but hey..
McLaren employees killed in accident
McLaren has lost two of their employees in a road car accident this morning. They were on their way to MTC when their Subaru Impreza collided with a Ford Transit Van, the latter’s driver being taken to hospital with serious injuries.
McLaren has confirmed the employees were working for the production car part of the business.
Schumacher to be woken form coma
Several French newspapers have reported that doctors at Grenoble have started the process of waking Michael Schumacher form his medical induced coma. L’Equipe reports the process started on Tuesday and initially he “responded positively“.
Although Grenoble neurosurgeon Stephan Chabardes confirmed this Schumacher’s manager have played this down and said it is just speculation. According to Bild Grenoble have issued a memo to staff requesting them not to disclose any information about Schumacher.
Yesterday marked a month since the 7 time world champion had his skiing accident.
Update:
It’s now official. Schumacher’s manager Sabine Kehm has now confirmed that the medical team in Grenoble have started the process of bringing Schumacher out of his induced coma.
“Michael’s sedation is being reduced in order to allow the start of the waking up process which may take long time. For the protection of the family, it was originally agreed by the interested parties to communicate this information only once this process was consolidated.
“Please note that no further updates will be given. The family of Michael Schumacher is again requesting to respect its privacy and the medical secret, and to not disturb the doctors treating Michael in their work. At the same time, the family wishes to express sincere appreciation for the worldwide sympathy.”
It is safe to say the world awaits further news.
New V6 most powerful!
Having set the fastest lap at yesterday’s test session Jenson Button spoke to reporters afterwards and said the new powertrian is the most powerful he has ever driven. “The power of the [Mercedes] engine is nice. It’s very torquey, it feels like the most powerful engine I’ve driven. It obviously isn’t in terms of outright power, but as a racing driver you feel the torque and power at the low speed and at 300 km/h you don’t really feel the difference.”
He continues, “It’s coming out of the corners when you have so much torque that it’s exciting. A lot to improve with the car in that area, but with so many tools at our disposal I know exactly how we can improve the car.”
“I think the positive thing is we have the ERS unit to fill in the gaps. I would say it’s a very drivable engine at this early stage. There are moments when you are part throttle through the corner and there’s all sorts going on. We’re used to revs, we’re used to downshifting but this is so, so different.”
Is it possible that this year may just be a year that suits Jenson’s driving style in a way that the 2009 Brawn suited him and could he be a real challenger for the championship this year? Perhaps being spurned on by the loss of his dad may make him a force to be reckoned with, that and the clever rear suspension of the MP4/29.
Live from Jerez – compare Ferrari vs Mercedes
While the guys back in the UK is working hard to bring you a compilation of videos I am taking here at Jerez enjoy this. Who do you think sounds the best?
Top
Live from Jerez – HD compilation of 2014 machinery
The first of many tJ13_TV HD compilations that we’ll be posting in the next few days. Be sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel and keep up to date.
Judge, it’s true tha Seb ate at Ferrari’s yesterday with Pedro Martínez de la Rosa and Charlie Whiting? I have read this in an italian newspaper. I wonder if was there even Kimi, I do not think that last year this would have been possible move with Alonso and Massa around.
Why was Whiting there?
good question.. But Alonso drives for Ferrari now and he knows it. Not sure there is as much ‘power’ in his hands now.
Or, could it be that Vettel was just hungry and wanted some Italian food? Austrian/English or Italian? I know where I’d have been eating lunch 🙂
Hmm..Kimi was spotted in Woking….
http://www.ristorantewoking.it/wordpress/ristorante/
ha ha! Maybe he does not like Italian? Mama Mia! 😛
With Ron back in charge at Mclaren, he has lost a major ‘possible’ move. Although stranger things happen at sea..
” … McLaren has lost two of their employees in a road car accident this morning. …. ”
Correction – the accident happened yesterday (Wed 29 January) just after noon (12.10pm)
details at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2548718/
Thank you
Is it just me – or do other peeps think that the SKY F1 coverage of testing is just downright poor ?
All you get is 20+ minutes of drivel …. virtually no pics of the cars and some presenter that makes Suzy Perry look talented …..
The Renualt engine guy was interesting – but Ted Kravits with a nasal hair clipper, a plant pot fan, a battery and something else as props to demonstrate how the powerunit functions ….. WTF !
And they want money for this ?
Think TJ needs to get his act together and bid for rights.. am sure he can do better!
Inspired thought, let’s do it!
Ain’t that the truth! As the saying goes, “you pays your money…”
Thankfully – I don’t 🙂
Yes I thought that great Q&A with Remmi Taffin was spoiled some what by Ted’s childish props. I mean hey, if sky can’t stretch the budget a bit, we are doomed and will always be left feeliing short changed.
I totally agree!!
The coverage is piss poor. We hardly get to see any of the cars on the track. All we get is verbal diarrhea, interviews with drivers who have nothing to say, and amateur ways to show how the engine works.
Pic of the new Marussia & live text updates on Day 3 from Jerez from BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25958166
Compared to the rest of the lot the Marussia is actually quite decent looking. They did a good job of hiding the dildo with clever use of paint. Shame on FI, TR and CT that they need the smallest team on the grid to show them how it is done.
Safe to say that RB is in deep shit. Maybe Adrian has packed stuff a little too tightly this time and that the Renault engine appears to be a big bag o’ balls doesn’t help either. Needless to say that we most likely see a different champion this year, although it’ll be sort of a hollow victory if the defending champion doesn’t have the tools to fight back. Even Senna in 1992 had more of a chance if the first test is any indication. On the other hand one shouldn’t count out RB. They’ve outdeveloped the lot four years on the trot and I even could see them strike an ‘exclusive’ deal with Cosworth the way McLaren have done with Honda for 2015.
Some sites are already reporting that Renault isn’t happy with the way Red Bull packed the electronics -too tightly to satisfy aerodynamics-, I wonder how much of that is true.
Something to ask later when the boss publish his daily report.
“Needless to say that we most likely see a different champion this year, although it’ll be sort of a hollow victory if the defending champion doesn’t have the tools to fight back.”
Right, which of course makes Prost’s ’93 victory hollow, and Hakkinen’s in ’98, and Button’s in ’09.
Prosts ’93 title was utterly useless. He basically didn’t have any opposition. It was like taking candy from a baby. Same goes for Hill’s 96 title. Schumacher had removed himself to a (at that time) still useless Ferrari, so suffice to say there was not much of an achievement in Hill beating Schumacher that year. In fact it is rather embarassing that he actually managed to lose three races against Schu.
A lot of noises were made about it all being the car for Vettel’s titles. If anything it will be this year where it is all down to the car, because if the first test is any indication, you’re pretty much fucked if the latter part of your team’s name doesn’t say ‘Mercedes’. As a German I would take pride in our folk showing the world how it is done properly, but from a sporting perspective it is a desaster as with tech freeze and testing ban, half the field is out of luck before the season has begun. In the olden days Renault and Ferrari would have tested the raw crap out of it and come up with a solution, something that isn’t possible anymore. Anything that doesn’t get sorted until Melbourne won’t get sorted at all, which adds to the ridiculous state F1 is in.
“Prosts ’93 title was utterly useless. He basically didn’t have any opposition.”
Which would make Vettel’s ’11 and ’13 titles useless.
“Same goes for Hill’s 96 title. Schumacher had removed himself to a (at that time) still useless Ferrari, so suffice to say there was not much of an achievement in Hill beating Schumacher that year. In fact it is rather embarassing that he actually managed to lose three races against Schu.”
Which would make Vettel’s ’10 and ’12 titles useless too. Where Schu, read Alonso.
That’s not quite true. In fact that Alonso didn’t win in 2010 is to blame on his team and Alonso himself. Vettel went into the last race 3rd in the championship, drove a flawless race, while Alonso and Webber got stuck behind a Russian paydriver in a souped up Clio, because their teams mucked up the strategy. That means you don’t know what you’re talking about at all.
The ’11 title was easy, but Ferrari and McLaren were not far behind. The only reason why they couldn’t catch up is, because they weren’t allowed to test and that they started each year from scratch didn’t help either. Vettel had it easy, but he didn’t win against cars that were helpless. The Fezza and the McLaren were equaly if not more reliable and had engines that were every bit as good as the Renault.
The ’12 title was rightfully McLaren’s. Their car was the class of the field for most of the year, but they chose to fuck up by appalling strategy calls and pitstops that would have made Andrea Sassetti of Andrea Moda fame proud.
The ’13 title was basically handed to RB by the opposition and FIA. McLaren had the best car in 2012, but instead of working on improvements to their pitlane and strategy performance they scrapped a good car and built a pub. Ferrari tried to fight back. They brought a massive update at or after barcelona and it didn’t work, so they just gave up halfway into the season.
In fact the end of last season is a pretty good preview of what we might see this season. If Ferrari and Renault don’t come up with a really good idea until Melbourne, Merc and/or McLaren will run away with it. The respective fanbases will be delighted , but everyone else will just have swapped Pest for Cholera.
It all boils down to one thing. The testing restrictions have to go, because the current situation basically determines the balance of power at the start of the season with no chance to change it.
” As a German I would take pride in our folk showing the world how it is done properly ”
And which part of Germany is Brixworth in Danilo ?
The factory is in Brixworth, which is in Blighty, but the last time I checked it was owned and run by a Company called Mercedes-Benz, which upon further inspection you will find to be quite German.
I think the term here in Blighty is ‘clutching at straws’ 😉
You’ll have to explain that to me. The Toyota factory was in Germany, yet that didn’t make the Toyota cars German, they were still Japanese, weren’t they? The Honda factory was in Blighty. Did that make them an English manufacturer all of a sudden? VW builds cars in Ciudad Juarez and Chattanooga, are they suddenly Mexican or ‘murrican because of it?
” VW builds cars in Ciudad Juarez and Chattanooga, are they suddenly Mexican or ‘murrican because of it? ”
YES
So you’re saying VW is a Mexican manufacturer because they have a factory in Mexico. Well that’s news. I unwittingly worked for a Mexican company for months. 😮
No Danilo
I’m saying the cars produced in Mexico are Mexican – in the USA American – in China Chinese – in Britain British etc. etc. etc.
No one thinks that a Bentley is German – nor a Skoda is German – nor a SEAT is German – nor a Lamboughini is German – nor a Bugatti is German.
They aren’t – they are produced by a German company – BIG difference.
Cars produced by VW in countries outside Germany aren’t counted in Germany’s GDP – they’re counted in whichever relevant country’s GDP.
QED = NOT German …… !
I love you to bits Danilo – but on the point of German Uber Alles in F1 powertrains – you just talking shite.
I beg to differ, manky. If anything, it’s the British who are having a ‘ruler of the seas’ moment in that regard. Somehow they feel they’re the only ones, who know how stuff works in F1 and try to declare everything British, because nobody else could know.
Fact of the matter is, that even if the plant is in Brixworth, the engine is still designed, built and financed by a German company, so it is a German product.
BTW, Skodas and Seats are definitely German cars as they’re all designed in Wolfsburg. I’ve seen that first hand as I’ve been one of the programmers, who worked on VW’s distributed construction documents system. 😉 The Lambo’s are mainly designed in Italy as no German is crazy enough to come up with something like the Reventon, so they are Italian. The Bentleys are hybrids. The styling and manufacturing is quitessentially british, but all the mechanical bits (engine, suspension etc) are as German as they get. The engine in the Bentley Continental GT is basically the W12 from the Phaeton with more turbocharging nailed to them.
I’m guessing here DS, but Toyota built a motorsport facility in Germany to run their WRC effort. This was expanded to run their F1 program. It still remains owned by the Japanese company.
Honda have a factory in England, as does Nissan and various other manufacturers but all of them are assembly plants essentially. This is also true of BMW building cars in an American facility as does VW in various geographical locations.
The Brixworth centre was built for Ilmor engines back in 1991, when they designed and built Formula One engines for Leyton House March. By 1993 they were supplying engines to Sauber – who previously ran the official Mercedes Group C entries.
The 1993 Ilmor engine had engine covers that read “Concept by Mercedes Benz”. This was to protect the company’s image. By 1994, this had changed to “Powered by Mercedes Benz”
Ilmor continued to build and design the engines and it was only when the co-founder Paul Morgan was killed in a plane crash that Mercedes bought 55% of the company, named Mercedes-Ilmor.
By 2005, Mercedes had bought the whole company and renamed it Mercedes Benz High Performance Engines.
The company may be German owned, but the engineers and staff are predominantly British.
It will come as a shock to you, but the staff in VW’s Juarez plant is predominantly Mexican, but the cars are still mainly designed in Germany.
Brixworth started out as Illmor, but has practically nothing to do with Illmor anymore as they’ve bought out Mario Illien, who went to re-found his company somewhere else. The Brixworth plant is run by AMG, which has been Mercedes’ de-facto motorsports division for ages. They are a German company, which makes the Merc engine a German product for all intents and purposes. That they use mainly british staff sort of comes logically. You wouldn’t staff a plant in England with Spaniards or Germans, would you? But declaring the Merc engine British is ridiculous. There are people from many countries involved in it, but it is still run, planned and fincanced by ze Germans, so it is German. I would severely doubt that Merc is like ‘meh, just let the British do it’. I would hazard a guess there is enough German engineering in it to warrant the name. I’ve worked for German companies all my life. Germans are control freaks when it comes to economic things, so rest assured that Brixworth is firmly enough in German hands 😉
This whole ‘concept by Mercedes-Benz’ malarkey was done for exactly that reason. Merc had no real engineering input and no control over the design process, which is why they refused to call it a Mercedes-Benz engine outright.
Today Danilo, I agree with you 100%, let’s see what 2moro brings………more RedBull woes if we’re lucky (joke-not)
Vettel winning the title in 2010 was because Ferrari got their strategy wrong. The following year nobody was near the Vettel/ RBR combo. In 2012 he won again after Grosjean took Alonso out at Spa and he fortuitously didn’t incur more damage spinning at Interlagos – when have you ever seen a driver spin in the pack and not have a wheel removed?
As to 2013, the tyre change certainly helped his championship quest.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the guy, not keen on the Red Bull ethos but then again I wasn’t enamored by the Ferrari one when Todt was there. Luck or circumstances could have had two Ferrari championships in the last four years, completely against the run of play. If Renault have screwed up, or Newey has pushed the boundaries too far this time bothers me not at all because whoever emerges champion will still have beaten some brilliant competition.
Regards Newey, he didn’t exactly design winners in 1994 or 1995 and the period between 2000 and 2008 is probably best forgotten..
But it wasnt a hollow victory for Vettel each time he won the championship, when he had by far the better car, and a No2 driver who wasnt allowed to compete? Nice to see you are as unbiased as ever over your favourite driver. 😉
Nice you can still twist my words to something I didn’t actually say 😉 First of all, Mark was quite allowed to compete in 2010 if memory serves me right. That RB put all their eggs in the Vettel basket afterwards, well, if you’ve got one driver, who mucked up and one who got the job done against the odds, which one would you bet on?
Vettel never won against helpless cars. He had a car that was half a second quicker (although only in his hands, his team mate still got beaten by everyone and his dog), but as things look now, we might talk about seconds in difference.
And if you’ve red the rest of my inane ramblings, you might have noticed that I blame FIA for making it so easy for RB and Vettel, as Ferrari, McLaren and Merc were prevented from catching up due to testing bans and engine freeze. The same thing will happen this year for the Renault (and to some degree) the Ferrari teams. Only that as an added bonus they all look like a hairy scrotum on top of it.
Sorry Danilo, but I had to make the comment. We all know how totally unbiased you are.
By the way, there is only 1 race in UK, so why are most the teams based here? Surely they would be better based in Germany, Italy and France.
I agree, the lack of real testing, and a chance to make modifications can only harm the sport. But whenever have the people in charge ever thought things through properly?
Most factories are in Britain, because they already were there. Red Bull for instance started out as Steward GP (British) Steward -> Jaguar -> Red Bull. Merc is a reincarnation of Tyrell (British Tyrell -> BAR -> Honda -> Brawn -> Merc. Force India once was Jordan (British/Irish) Jordan -> Midland -> Spyker -> Force India. Those who started from scratch, usually build their factories at home. BMW was headquartered in Germany, Sauber is in Switzerland, Toro Rosso (who started out as Minardi) and Ferrari are in Italy. Toyota was in Germany, because their preferred tuner TRD already had a factory in Cologne.
Most factories are in Britain, because they are hand-me-downs from teams that were British.
“They did a good job of hiding the dildo… ”
Unintentional (?) innuendo of the day !
Intentional. Seriously, the American pr0n industry would have a field day with this year’s lot…
Four things Danilo,
1) After three days of winter testing you state, “Needless to say that we most likely see a different champion this year…” For perspective, remember that last year, after early winter testing runs, some were predicting McLaren to be 2013 WCC…
2) Your analysis includes, “Safe to say that RB is in deep shit.” Perhaps your hysteria is getting the better of you today. A more thoughtful analysis might note that RB is a team that succeeds in part by methodically improving their performance all season long. One can easily argue that their rate of mid-season improvement is unmatched by their competition.
3) Furthermore, you stated “I even could see them strike an ‘exclusive’ deal with Cosworth…” One of the reasons that Newey fled McLaren / Mercedes to Red Bull was because of the flexibility of Renault in better integrating their motor to the overall package of the car. If one believes that Renault is a weak point of Red Bull, then you hold a massive misunderstanding why Red Bull are four times WCC.
4) A couple of days ago you wrote, “I won’t watch F1 this year… I have demoted myself from contributor to occasional reader here. I’ll take my interest to WEC and DTM. F1 has gone too far and I’ve walked out.” I was a bit disturbed about that because I think you add much to this space when you share perspectives you’ve seen in the German language press, and with your insights on German social contexts regarding F1.
On the other hand, your rants are long-winded, intellectually weak, and scatter-brained. Many of the comments you’ve made here today (for example) are also tangential, and use excessive space that we have to scroll past. Sharing your emotional outbursts may be soothing, but like diarrhea the results linger upon this blog… Given how much you’ve improved this blog in the past, I do hope to see more of your thoughtful side.
Glad you’re still hanging in, Hippo, and I can see from further down the page, still in good, if a tad one-eyed, form.
I’d like to think your Cosworth comment was more then a throw-away line 🙂
i like the crunch in the Mercedes but also the tone of the Ferrari. tough call but to me it’s a tie.
…as they approach the corner and you listen the turbo and engine revving down, it’s as if you listen to Star Wars spacecraft, X-wing or TIE fighters? Don’t know, don’t know, tough call, they do sound awesome though, no more moaning about the sound…
They remind me of the 80’s turbos, can’t wait to feel the earth rumble once more.
I hope you have a very good & loud surround sound system at home to enjoy it fully 😉
Oh I have and will def turn up the volume tonight 🙂
Let’s just say I have had complaints from neighboring postcodes, 😉
Give ’em hell mate 😉
Excellent Carlo 🙂
What do you have ?
Pioneer LX5090 Plasma with SC-LX82 amp powering the KEF 3005 SE surround speaker system with Playstation 3 and Panasonic BD HDD recorder. Usual volume level is around -25 to -30db but if I want scary sound, then I raise it to between 0 to -5db. I took it into the positive range a few times and blew one of the speaker drivers which needed replacing!
About five years old now but still f***ing awesome. I’ll probably update the speakers in the future but to this day haven’t seen a better display and the amp is still mind-blowing.
Nice 🙂
I’ve got a Yamaha A1 with an 8.1 setup.
Pioneer effects speakers – Yamaha centre speakers – custom 4 way main speakers with 15″ bass 8″ low mid 5″ high mid and tweeter
Like you I usually run around -30dB.
My speakers will take full power – but the windows don’t like it …..
On the subject of beauty, I have to say the FIA need to reduce the wheelbase of F1 cars. Many are just too long and thin, the proportions are all wrong (the maruissia being the worst) and most of the space between the roll-hoop and rear wing is empty space due to the advances in packaging. Shorter wheelbases would also help induce twitchy oversteer which fans want to see. Rear impact structures could still exist with a few inches taken out, so why let the teams persist with the long stable designs we have seen over the past 10-15 years?
” … the proportions are all wrong … ”
And what proportions are right ?
The Golden Ratio ?
Or something else ?
The mid-2000s cars had the right proportions (minus all the aerodynamic clutter though). The current cars have too narrow rear wíngs courtesy of the 2009 rule change.
I think they should go back to the looks of 1991-1992. Those cars had low noses and were nice to look at. The 1991 Jordan is still the best looking car ever.
A car designed with the Golden Ratio would undoubtedly be pretty!
There’s no denying 1998’s rule changes were a step in the wrong direction. The racing was close and overtaking plentiful in 1997, along with the cars looking better. I concur with the assessment of the Jordan 191!
I think there are a few scenarios we can plot out here: If Ferrari have the best engine, then it could be like Senna-Prost 1988, a big intra-team battle. If McLaren have the best car and engine, it could be like Prost-Hill 1993, with Button favourite over the rookie Magnussen (who could still win some races). But, if it’s down to Mercedes engines and McLaren and Mercedes are roughly equal (as they should be given their spends), then we have a 4 way battle, with Hamilton and Button/Rosberg the title favourites. Here I can only think of the Renault engines being best in 1995, with Williams/Benetton duking it out, and Ferrari taking an occasional win.
All 4 of those Renault drivers won races that year (with some coming after the leading two took each other out..). Two were WDCs, Schumi and Hill, while one had a long and successful career with about ten wins, DC, while Herbert was lucky to recover his career and notch up 3 wins (some think Magnussen is lucky to get the McLaren drive, but he does have that talent to be top class on merit, like Herbert without his accident). The parallels with Hamilton, Button, Rosberg and Magnussen are interesting.. maybe Vettel and Hulk would have to be Hakkinen/Barrichello in this context.. with Felix da Costa taking the place of Jan.. maybe Grosjean can be Panis!
Hill wasn’t a WDC in 1995 😉 He had to wait until Schumacher buggered off to Ferrari to actually win something.
True.. people would say Button had to wait until Honda did the legwork for 2009 as well.. but Button was very quick in 2000, 2002-2004 etc. before getting to McLaren for a Hill-Williams like period, so he’s like a Hill that started F1 early (and not car racing at 21 like Hill did, which is more Bruno Senna). 1996 is like 2011 with Button beating Hamilton..
Danilo Schöneberg, Tuesday 28th January:
“F1 has gone too far and I’ve walked out”
“I may reconsider, but for the time being, I’m done with this lot.”
Danilo Schöneberg, Thursday 30th January:
“I’m baaaaaa-aaaack! (and I still love Seb above all else)” [paraphrased]
A whole two days, huh? Oh Danny Boy………………. 🙂 😀
I never said I’d stop commenting. I merely retired as a contributor to this blog, as I can’t realistically write articles about something that I didn’t watch on TV myself or spend the time researching.
I still read this blog and motorsport-total and probably provide the odd translation here or there, but I’m not going to spend a sizeable portion of my spare time on providing F1 articles as I’ve done in the past months. I want to add my absence to hopefully dwindling viewership numbers, so that the powers that be realize that they have to fix the broken looks of the cars and the broken rules.
It sounds like Merc have the wick turned up more than Ferrari, just sounded like the merc could accelerate a bit harder, perhaps this is because Merc are more confident in reliability?
I like the Ferrari sound, it sounds like it’s got some clever shit going on and a bit raspy.
The best thing is, they still sound like race cars, which is good news indeed.
I did pick up on something on the Renault F1 website and Ted K mentioned it last night, that Renault are the only EM to bring up ‘turbo knock’ and that it can destroy the engine should it occur. This seems to be something they are quite concerned about as why else tell the public about it?
Interestingly CV – Gary Anderson says
” In fact, the paddock grapevine has it that Mercedes is running at a maximum of 13,000rpm and Ferrari just a little higher than that. ”
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/formula-1-gary-anderson-red-bull-39-s-123029797–f1.html
Ted Kravits said that the difference in sound was because the Ferrari has a larger bore exhaust.
More info tomorrow on SkyF1 apparently.
Meanwhile, back at Enstone…
It was reported a portion of the Lotus F1 team, estimated to be 10%, has been sold off to the owners of Yota (a Russian mobile phone manucturer and services provider).
If true, that leaves Genii with 88% ownership of the Enstone based F1 team, (2% owned by Andrew Ruhan).
I’ve found no word on the value of this deal…
Apparently, USM Holdings owns Yota, and USM Holdings is owned by the oligarch Alisher Usmanov. Is it likely that Usmanov may purchase Lotus F1 outright from Genii?
Info posted on 27th Jan
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/formula-1-lotus-sells-stake-russian-backer-175758538–f1.html
Well, those are some deep pockets that could keep Lotus F1 afloat. Currently the richest man in Britain.. he also owns a position in Arsenal. Any link to Russian Time, who once ran under the Lotus sponsorship banner?
Really disappointed by how Schumacher’s “people” have been handling the release of information on his condition.
People are too polite to say it, I guess, but his management has basically just been caught lying outright about what was going on, and then, rather than take responsibility for lying, they’re falling back on the pseudo-emotional_blackmail about “respecting the family’s privacy”…well newsflash, Sabine, the reason the media is pushing so hard on this is b/c you’ve been caught LYING about his condition, what – at least twice now, right?
rewrite:
> “It’s now official. Schumacher’s manager Sabine Kehm has now [admitted lying] and confirmed that the medical team in Grenoble have started the process of bringing Schumacher out of his induced coma.” <
Is it possible that this year may just be a year that suits Jenson’s driving style in a way that the 2009 Brawn suited him and could he be a real challenger for the championship this year? < < < < < This would be GREAT!!
Sorry that he'd be pulling x-tra motivation from passing of his father, but I would LOVE to see JB winning races again – winning a lot of races again! He's a genuinely inspiring performer when he's "on"!!