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Previously on TheJudge13:
#TJ13 #F1 Courtroom Podcast: “Slightly Drunk Qualifying”
On This Day in #F1: 25th February 2005 – Ferrari deserves more money from F1!!
OTD Lite: 1944 – Cevert: A legendary name… but why?
Renault looking for more permanent fixture in F1
Italian media scathing of Mclaren’s ‘truth’
Fat Hippo’s Rant Lite: Just tell the truth, dammit!
The Usher’s Caption Competition
OTD Lite: 1944 – Cevert: A legendary name… but why?
I would hazard a guess that there have been thesis and books written about how certain stars who die young are immortalised forever. Film stars such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe remain icons – struck down in their respective primes and their image never grows old.
Music also has it’s share of legends who lost their lives such as Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley etc. But is it their body of work and untapped potential that raises them to immortality?
In motorsport, there have been many drivers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and inevitably they are all young and yet some remain fallen icons to this day whereas others are mere statistics. Who here for example remembers the name Helmuth Koinigg. He was killed at Watkins Glen in 1974 – merely a year after the fatal accident of Francois Cevert.
Today would have been Cevert’s 71st birthday – yet he remains one of the most celebrated talents lost to the sport. A promising talent with a single Grand Prix victory but what is it about his story that has raised his death above the forgotten memories of others…
The Grumpy Jackal
Renault looking for more permanent fixture in F1
Rumours have surfaced in Italy that Renault Sport is interested in purchasing a F1 team to keep an active presence in Formula One. With the threat of Red Bull looking to fund an engine of their own design – this could leave the French manufacturer with no teams at the pinnacle of motor-sport.
With the collapse of Caterham in 2014 and the financial difficulties being experienced by Lotus, Force India and Sauber – these teams have become unattractive to Renault who have cast their attention in the direction of Toro Rosso, apparently unwanted by Red Bull long term.
Cyril Abiteboul has made no secret of his ambitious plans but has one obstacle which he will need to overcome – Renault’s President Carlos Ghosn has no desire to see the Regie return as a manufacturer but to remain merely as suppliers of the power unit.
With consistent rumours sugesting a possible partnership between the Volkswagen Group with the Red Bull team via the Audi brand – the relationship between Viry-Chatillon and the Milton Keynes squad is proving difficult to say the least.for the two individual groups.
The French have not taken kindly to the imposition of Mario Illien as a consultant and his design work on the ‘head of the engine’ has been shelved as it has not produced the desired results. The Swiss engineer’s developments have been discarded whilst the Rob White headed group concentrate on solutions that were tried successfully in Barcelona in both the RB11 and STR10.
There is a far better relationship between the Faenza squad and their French partners than between Renault and Red bull. Allied to this is the team, led by Franz Tost, is currently restructuring the factory facilities to bring it in line with its competitors. With the fifth largest budget in F1, no debt and a factory that will be refurbished by the end of this year – it is easy to see why Renault are attracted to acquiring Toro Rosso.
Italian media scathing of Mclaren’s ‘truth’
Anyone who has had the pleasure of reading or watching Italian sports coverage will know they do not take prisoners. Despite Ferrari being an institution they are not spared from frequent scathing attacks from the national media.
Michael Schumacher once ‘conducted’ the Italian national anthem during a victory celebration. The following weeks found him to be vilified and with the press seeking his immediate resignation!
In similar fashion, last year following the Jules Bianchi crash, Italy proved to be the only copy – other than TJ13 – who questioned and attacked the FIA findings.
Once again, with reports of Fernando Alonso’s hospitalisation the Italian media have been dissecting all the known facts to date. He is known to be still suffering from headaches and severe pain in the shoulders and back despite diagnostic tests showing nothing untoward.
The Asturian’ manager Jose Luis Garcia Abad reported: “I cannot say if it will take a day , two or three. As to his presence in the next testing session? The most important tests are what the doctors are doing at the moment.”
As to Mclaren’s statement which seeks to portray the view ‘there’s nothing out of the ordinary here – move on’, Omnicorse and several other Italian publications made no secret of their opinion in regards to Mclaren’s position.
With Mclaren blaming a gust of wind for the crash, the Italian website concluded: “It was a beautiful excuse which followed a well established pattern – lets blame the driver. “ Alonso, of course was not accepting the theory and as the article continued: “it was hardly the best way to start a relationship with the Spaniard.”
From statements made by the Samurai, he hit the wall sideways and although the impact speed was slow – the car’s deformable area didn’t protect the driver and Fred’s body would have taken the brunt of the forces generated.
The Hans collar that is worn by the drivers is designed to minimise frontal whiplash injuries but proves less effective when the impact is side on. Omnicorse had spoken to the neurosurgeon who attended Fernando and states he suffered various injuries due to the sideways movement which would have resulted in vomiting and a ‘shock’ to the spine’.
As hard-hitting as ever, the publication offered their firm opinion in that they didn’t believe the ‘gust of wind’ as the cause of the accident and then offered advice to Jenson Button to seek reassurances about potential cross winds affecting his MP4/30.
Fat Hippo’s Rant Lite: Just tell the truth, dammit!
Hippo Rant Lite articles are comments made by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the TJ13 staff as a whole
Many fans complain about the conspiracy theories that have surfaced following Fernando Alonso’s freak accident. They gathered momentum as McLaren remained silent and now are still circulating the interweb. While some perhaps are closer to fiction than the truth, McLaren have nobody else to blame but themselves for their continued existence. The Woking team’s dissemination of information policy puts Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, better known as Baghdad Bob or Comical Ali, truly to shame.
Since I was covering the test for TJ13 at the time, I quite vividly recall how piss-poor the information politic at Barcelona was at the time. Although a photo clearly shows that monitors seven, eight and nine in the Circuit de Catalunya’s control room show the corner in question, the only pictures so far available of how the accident happened, are a few grainy snaps made with mobile phones and published on Twitter.
What else is one to believe other than that something is amiss? The team took twenty-eight hours to release an official statement and then chose to cloak it with words that would make even the most gullible grandmother suspicious.
It’s worth looking at the situation with more than forty-eight hours having now passed.
Alonso’s transfer, together with Sebastian Vettel taking his place at Ferrari, was the transfer of the winter. So a team of McLaren’s experience should know that each of the fifteen remaining Formula One fans would be keen to know how the double world champion would get on in his new office; particularly given that Honda had provided a somewhat humiliating public demonstration in the preceding days of their parts quality assurance processes.
The morning prior to Alonso’s accident had seen large gusts of wind upsetting the cars’ handling in several corners, including the one at which Alonso crashed. Yet during the entire day only one other driver – a rookie – was caught out by this. But we are supposed to believe, that the man, whom most regard as the best of his generation, is sent into a violent crash by a gust of wind.
While that is not completely impossible – even with all his talent – Fernando has to bend the knees when taking a dump… like any other mere mortal, ie. he isn’t infallible. But with the amount of telemetry data, the team would have been able to determine and publish the exact trajectory of the car within the hour.
Instead they said nothing for over a day, letting wild speculations take on a dynamic of their own. Then perhaps most tellingly was McLaren’s announcement that they would not comment on the accident until they had a verdict from the hospital. Is there a more obvious way to say: “We’ll grudgingly admit what happened, if Fernando is badly injured, but if he’s okay we want to leave ourselves the option of selling you a nice bullcrap story”?
But Fernando isn’t okay. While Badgdad Bob Eric Boullier still maintains that Fernando is merely kept for observation, he’s now spent his third night in the intensive care unit. Bicycle riders, like Jens Voigt of Germany have face-planted the asphalt at 80kph on a downhill run in the Alps, leaving half their skin behind, yet they were released from hospital within 24 hours. However we are being told that an allegedly uninjured world class athlete is required to stay under intense supervision for half a week?
And while nobody – least of all Fernando – can be forced to release medical information, after all doctor-patient confidentiality exists for a reason, this isn’t Fernando having contracted a case of Chlamydia on a sex safari to Phuket.
This is a driver, who following an accident where no one wishes to release footage of – was airlifted to hospital before the eyes of the world. The last driver, who was airlifted away – or at least was supposed to – is still fighting for his life. In this case a less North-Korean approach would have prevented the tin-foil hat brigade from hyperventilating.
We live in an age, where a driver after a mild contact gets told within two laps how much downforce he has lost due to leaving his front-wind endplate stuck in the rear-wheel tyre of a Sauber. Similarly he can be told exactly where he can find another two nanoseconds by breaking a microsecond later before a certain corner.
Modern technology allows the teams to remotely see exactly what the driver is doing at any point in time, and this is why there could have been an exact analysis within two hours.
Instead McLaren releases a statement that doesn’t square up with what eyewitnesses, including a four-time world champion, say. Forgive me for not believing them for a minute.
And now we have an eye witness photographer claiming Alonso never touched the astro turf on the outside of the turn – whilst Flavio Briatore asserts, Fernando has no recollection of the incident.
The Usher’s Caption Competition
for an alternative view on F1, follow TJ13’s Usher
regarding Alonso, again the plot thickens
according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, he made some noises and moans in the radio and after that, collapsed, remaining silent
also, the aforementioned Dr Gary is intrigued too and raising some questions
there must be something quite strange, way out of the pattern, to keep them hiding the facts, and now it isn’t a case of conspiracy theory thrown away
I think things are starting to look bad, seriously bad, for McLaren and Alonso. Going from bad to worse, and worse still.
Mr Todt’s merry men don’t seem too concerned?
and they’re probably hiding the situation for some reason, espcially if there’s a physical issue with Alonso, the blow will be huge in every single area of the team, even the commercial part will be shaken, not to mention the emotional
That said, it’s more important for Alonso to fully recover. McLaren have drivers sticking out of their ears; they could easily run Button-Magnussen for as long as is needed.
The other important thing is if the car is the problem – at that point, McLaren’s bluster about not needing a title sponsor will be tested should a car/Honda problem leads to that relationship souring.
already souring if you consider that the responsible for bringing Honda back, was ousted
I agree, and I don’t believe lying and basically saying it was Alonso’s fault for the accident is the kind of thing that will keep Alonso happy with a team he already had problems with.
What problems does Fred have with the team now Juan?
Now being 2015 and aside from the unimportant matter that the car don’t go?
Caption:
“Appears to be a dog eating a fish. Spin the umbrella to watch it turn to poop”.
Re: Alonso. I’m confident and hopefull, he has the best care.
Caption comp…..
“Hey Luca, is the godfather awake or sleeping?”
Even Martin Brundle is starting to get suspicious, this is what he tweeted…..
“McLaren say Alonso downshifting while applying full brakes in accident.Unusual to pull for downshifts if you’ve lost control of a racing car”
What if you keep pressure on the paddle? Is that one downshift, or maybe more?
Still only 1 downshift
If you’ve *almost* lost control of the car (e.g. going astray onto the grass), the first instinctive thing a racing driver shall do would be to attempt to decrease the velocity, hence: (1) downshifting and/or (2) applying the brakes.
From the info from the team, the tire marks and the damage sustained by the car, Alonso looks like he didn’t lose it completely, and avoided a full-fledged pirouette or head-on impact into the wall (cf Perez/Vettel in Hungary 2014). From the trajectory of the car, Fred apparently managed to recover just enough to get the car sliding along the wall, as witnessed by the little damage the car actually sustained. From the trajectory of the skid marks, he was on course to make the corner onto the grass, only just. I can absolutely see a racing driver attempt to downshift and brake in this instance, especially as he was on the tarmac.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QWmopRJfxE0/VOrx0jLfsNI/AAAAAAAARzg/ts–XVXFwXo/s1600/10995266_770718769682924_294684024_n.jpg
For those who missed it, here’s Perez again in an astroturf copycat incident in Hungary 2014, applying the brakes hard *once* he completely lost control of the car:
Except that Jordi Vidal, the photographer, who made the only clear picture of the accident, says that Alonso never touched the Astroturf and that he was called to the McLaren pits to present his pictures.
Why would McLaren need pictures, or in fact even Vettel’s recollection, which they also got, if they have all the telemetry in the world that can provide a much more precise analysis, including GPS data of where the car was at any time?
Looks more like they wanted to cook up a story that isn’t immediately exposed as bullcrap by Vidal’s pictures.
Also worth noting that in two weeks time Honda will present their hybrid NSX supercar at the Geneva Automobilsalon. News of your star F1 driver getting electro-shocked or fume-poisoned ba a hybrid system of yours isn’t exactly the news they could use in that regard. And that’s not even counting the shitstorm that they would get in Spain, where Alonso is a demi-god.
There’s no way he got electrocuted. Is everyone forgetting there’s four huge insulating rubber tyres on each corner of the car!!!!
battery fumes is another possibility. They were working on the MGU-K all night. All it takes is shoddy work from one tired mechanic
Maybe something he ate did not agree with his stomach and he farted.. The stench caused him to pass out? 😜
That’d be the “wet one from hell”
I’m not so sure. Not 100% about this but aren’t the batteries in F1 cars lithium-ion? Lithium-ion batteries are fairly benign and contain very little toxic material.
As interesting as all the conspiracies are I think it’s just a good old fashioned case of the driver losing control and maybe McLaren aren’t lying. It’s fairly standard I think for them to be cagey about it. Mainly through embarrassment that their star driver got injured before a wheel has been turned in anger in racing conditions!!
Oh no tommo. That can’t be. Alonso who crashes? Bollocks. .. 😂
You’re joking, right?
Besides the fact the word “electrocution” implies Fred’s dead, tyres only save you in a specific circumstance.
If I put a genset on the back of a truck, I’d dare you to stand on the tray and put your tongue on an active phase while I put the neutral or earth in your earhole (AC). For DC, you can try it at home yourself – sit yourself in the engine bay of your car, wet your hands and grab your the battery terminals. Maybe touch the electrode & earth clamp on a stick welder.
Electric shocks come from current that flows when you are part of the circuit. Tyres acting as insulators only applies if they prevent your body closing a circuit – the lightning test thing you probably saw on Top Gear or Mythbusters.
One thing all the ‘electrocution’ conspiracy theorists ignore is that the driver is wearing a very thick Nomex driving suit, Nomex underwear, thick driving gloves, driving shoes, and a helmet. How is contact with some wire or whatever made? The driver is very well insulated and could pick up a bare charged wire with no problem.
And please don’t start going on about the conductivity of carbon fiber materials; I’m an ex aircraft composites person and know that wires have had to be imbedded in carbon composite nosecones to aid in dissipation of lightning strikes. Yes, carbon fiber can conduct electricity, but not well.
Another point about the ‘electrocution’ theory is that not only does the driver have to contact a wire (or whatever) but he must also be grounded in some way for current to flow. Again, he’s wearing a heavy driving suit. Really, apply a little Occam and take a rest.
For those who haven’t seen the photos, they are here:
https://imgur.com/a/BJfWo
Sorry, I don’t know how to post links without them becoming embedded!
The link above was https://imgur.com then append /a/BJfWo
In these pics and judging by the skidmarks Alonso actually steered in to the wall voluntarily. Not to mention only the inside wheel locking tells me that something happened to Alonso and he instinctively pushed the brakes and put it in the wall. It was reported he was already feeling uncomfortable the entire morning so I’d say he was about to pass out (not because of battery fumes or an electric shock).
The first photo, this does not look like a car sliding or oversteering. Curioser and curioser.
First photo looks like car is understeering to the turf… Note how close he is to the turf, and the steering wheel.
Mr. Hippo, the TJ13 CRO (Chief Ranting Officer) said:
“Jordi Vidal, the photographer, who made the only clear picture of the accident, says that Alonso never touched the Astroturf and that he was called to the McLaren pits to present his pictures…”
Here is a picture that Jordi Vidal posted very recently on his instagram, https://instagram.com/p/ziaDCkw2jE
This appears to have been taken on a prior lap since the background and angles are different. Note the location of the car in relation to the inside and outside edges of the track.
Here is Jordi’s famous picture of Alonso in the same turn on the lap that he crashed (980 x 653 pixels version):
http://estaticos02.marca.com/albumes/2015/02/22/el_accidente_de_alonso_en_montmelo_2015/1424608698_extras_albumes_0_980.jpg
On the lap when Alonso crashed, we see his line is very high, a few centimeters from the turf. In addition, he appears to be fighting understeer judging from the steering wheel.
If we combine what we learned from McLaren with Jordi’s photos, it appears Alonso is manipulating the car to prevent it from moving on to the turf (unsuccessfully).
Regarding Jordi, in his own words, “…soy un humilde trabajador con la fotografia como hobby por ahora”, (I’m a humble worker with photography as a hobby for now).
It’s not clear why he states that Alonso’s wheels did not touch the turf.
Having photographed a few karting events with full track access, I know that a motorsports photog is focusing on two things at once, 1) getting the next good shot, and 2) the action on track that I’m trying to capture. Because one’s focus is always split between those two tasks, some of the action on track is overlooked or not seen.
Why did Jordi not shoot Alonso’s car during the important seconds between this shot and his next one (after Alonso had already skated all the way across the track, and popped the wall hard)? Did Alonso’s crash interupt him while he was looking at his camera to review the image he just shot, or as he prepared to shoot the approaching Vettel (who had just rolled back out from the pits)?
It’s worth noting that this is the first F1 event that Jordi was working as a shooter. As he himself declares, he is no expert.
Excellent points.
Alonso was clearly on the verge of the astroturf immediately prior to his off (on the outside of the corner, and on the right lap, as proven by Vettel’s Ferrari in the background). He was clearly fighting understeer, and wrestling the car to the right to avoid going onto the astroturf. This is mostly consistent with McLaren’s statements.
“motorsports photog is focusing on two things at once”
Exactly. It is hard to focus your attention on one single car, at those speeds, even if you’re simply watching the event (do you look at Alonso, or at Vettel, at any given instant?).
A photographer significantly splits their attention between the action itself and taking photos. I’ve tried taking photos once of whales and dolphins, and one thing I’ve learned very quickly is that I was either trying to focus on getting the next shot, *or* following the action. But not both! When I realized that I was missing all the fun, after an hour or so, I put down the camera and started enjoying the show.
Same will apply to taking photos at an F1 event. The considerable mental lag when switching from taking a photo to watching what is actually happening on the track, will make the brain process information more slowly and at times simply drop information. Think of it as driving while writing an SMS on your phone: before you stop tapping and notice the pylon in front of you and realize that you need to react in some way, the brain simply doesn’t switch quickly enough and that’s the moment when you next feel the punch of the airbag.
So divided attention is a bitch, and casts doubt on the photographer as a reliable witness. One thing that is strange, as VM points out, is that you have only one photo of Alonso on the tarmac, and then a quick succession of photos with Alonso gliding along the wall. There is a considerable gap in between, which can no doubt be explained by divided attention at the crucial moment.
From this photo, you can also see that Vettel’s Ferrari was miles away from the McLaren, and under an unhelpful angle. He couldn’t have seen much, if anything, in detail. He too must have had divided attention, focusing more on corner turn-in that following Alonso…
Interesting.. in the later pics we can see how Sainz Jr spun to the outside of the corner? However here there is only one line to the wall – only one tyre locked?
And don’t forget McLaren F1 cars have a history of locking their front tyres though.
I’ve been to Barcelona literally scores of times and never seen – or seen of – anyone hitting that inside wall.
In the imgur gallery posted above showing Jordi Vidal’s photos we can clearly see at least two other sets of (older) skid marks going off on to the inside grass as Alonso’s car bounces along the wall.
It’s certainly not unusual to have cars spin off to the inside after the apex of a corner.
May I say that many of us are hoping that you’re not going to dust off your tin-foil hat…
@Judge
Sure, but could you have said the exact same thing about the last turn at Hungaroring, prior to Hungary 2014 and Perez/Vettel offs? Or about the last turn at Hockenheim, when Sutil spun innocuously in 2014, in copycat fashion?
I think we’ve seen sufficient instances with these throttly power units of drivers getting generous wheelspin and then spinning the car, in very awkward and unusual places, to explain Alonso’s loss of car control in Barcelona. Add in possibly misbehaving tires, a gust of strong wind, and Charlie’s astroturf… and no need for tinfoil hats…
It appears to be the unloaded inside rear tire was locking based upon trajectory of the mark and the marks on the wall.
I think front right tyre is likely, Mark and I always try to mimic Hamilton by drawing a ‘J’ with the locked front right when trailing the brakes to the apex, well I can do it in the 67’s at any rate 😛 the mods might be different!
Re: Alonso.
I believe the car may have had a battery leak and Fernando may have inhaled the fumes. Which would explain how the car crashed in a bizarre fashion, and Fernando might have been fighting to control the car before he passed out. An extended stay in hospital would be mandatory to detoxify him. No wonder McLaren is spouting shady truths, they are somehow protecting Honda’s, or their own, reputation. I think Fernando will be out of action until they get the toxins he inhaled out of his system.
Caption:
Don’t look now, but that’s a really big booger hanging from his nose!
“The French have not taken kindly to the imposition of Mario Illien as a consultant and his design work on the ‘head of the engine’ has been shelved as it has not produced the desired results.”
Source?
Omnicorse.it 👍
I was looking for it too, thanks for the link. How reliable is that source? Renault announced they were working with Illien to improve the engine just days ago, looks strange that they stopped already.
I wonder if he had a mild heart attack or something similar?
More likely a seizure of sorts or TIA. Would also explain why he downshifted at such a strange time
Perhaps aliens from outer space zapped him with a ray gun?
Caption:
“Hey Luca, did he just ask you to pull his finger?”
@Grumpy Jackal……
Will there be a continuation of the OTD article?….Would be kinda crude to leave it like that
Hmmm, I’ll give it some thought..
“the good…. the bad… and the ugly…..”
take your pick which
How does Hippo know Alonso doesn’t need to bend his knees?
he DOES need to. Learn to read, student
Hence the question mark…you make the assertion he passes without the rotation of the joint. Insider knowledge you have or merely an assumption based on other humans?
I, as a student, clearly would not possess the know how of correct anal excavation.
Now that bothers the mind. Digging around in there…..Huh?
Excellent OTD – Cevert was the nominated successor to JYS and was noted to following his team leader home without pressing too hard, which JYS has said he thought there were times when he could have overtaken and won. But he was honorable and respectful of the team number one and world champion.
On that note I think Stewart or Cevert would have had an excellent chance to win the 1974 WDC. What year is the video of JYS driving the Tyrrell around Brands Hatch? Post-P34?
JYS was quitting after the U.S. GP but retired early following Cevert’s accident. Covert was going to replace Jackie as team leader, and was good enough to have won lots of races and championships.
Manor F1 have named Will Stevens as their first driver….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/31625706
@Grumpy Jackal. I remember of Helmuth well. I was merely 1 turn away. I took a break from the Glen after being there in ’73 and ’74.
I call BS on all the conspiracy propaganda towards leaking batteries and Alonso inhaling the fumes…..
1 – Batteries in F1 cars are sealed units so as not to leak, with what is likely to be advanced gels rather than liquids contained within – I fitted a “solid race battery” in my old Saab as it allowed me to position it on its side and not leak, to allow shorter pipework routing for the turbo…. sorry, I digress
2 – Batteries in F1 cars are installed inside the fuel cell – which themselves are sealed
3 – Batteries in F1 cars are BEHIND the driver – even the meager amount of airflow through the cockpit would surely be sufficient to not allow the unlikely build-up of gases in the cockpit
4 – First rule of PR – “Lies will out”. Mclaren know this only too well. They have had their fingers considerably burnt in the past, and will know only too well the negative image to be drawn from covering up any vehicle failure, if that’s really what this was
All this BS that is being banded about is symptomatic of the “NOW NOW NEED TO KNOW NOW” attitude of keyboard warriors and Twatterers, coupled with the ability of people who do not know any better due to lack of technical knowledge and information, thinking theirs is a valid opinion on a matter, spouting forth for all to read on forums and social media
The battery fume thing is, as you say, highly doubtful.
The only circumstances I’m aware of in which a Li ion battery will give off toxic fumes if when it undergoes thermal runaway or outright combustion. As it’s inside the fuel cell, this is not something which would happen without being dramatically obvious.
Interestingly, the FIA is to conduct its own inquiry (BBC Sport has learned that governing body the FIA is to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the accident to ensure its causes and consequences are fully understood….), so don’t expect the conspiracy theories to stop overnight.
The FIA investigate all serious crashes though don’t they? Don’t think anything untoward can be obtained from that release to be honest. Safety of the cars is at least something the powers that be are fairly active about. It seems fairly obvious more needs to be done with regards side impacts after Alonso’s incident.
Absolutely – I’m not suggesting otherwise.
Just pointing out that the conspiracy theorists will point to this as a sign of something amiss, until the FIA actually publish.
Hey, don’t spoil the bashing party by bringing up facts!
Thank you G.
If you’d seen what I’ve seen in the garage – you wouldn’t be so clinical in your assessment.
Even with the old KERS – a guy would remove it from the car in something like an MBC suit – cordon off an area of the garage – and announce it was time for the KERS Disco.
No one was allowed inside the cordoned off area until the designated mechanic declared it safe.
Oh dear! Clinical assessments!
So… are you saying gases in the cockpit then?
(Where is my tin-foil hat… may be these theories will seem more logical if I wear it.)
Did you see the burn through with the melted wires Judge?
It’s being talked of elsewhere, allusions to photos too. Haven’t been able to find those but. Tried to press on but scurrilous twaddle was overwhelming……
So Fred is out of the hospital and on his way home. He will be replaced by Kmag and McLaren have stated that they will use its own MGU-K parts. This really doesn’t look good on Honda….
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2015/2/16837.html
The other manufacturers apparently had similar issues with the seals on the MGU-K last season, it’s not an easy thing to fix either. I have an open mind about the causes of Alonso’s crash. McLaren fixing the issue smacks of a pragmatic decision rather than Honda hitting a brick wall trying to fix the issue over and over again. All Pun’s intended.
Just saying is all Fortis…..I don’t see anything in that link that makes the jump you have re the MGU-K.
Completely agree with taperoo’s comment following, which is why I asked a question re THAT seal a couple of days back…..
I didn’t post the link to the MGU-K story because it was on Autosport.com and I’ve used up all the freeviews that I was given. You can check it out for yourself.
The uk.eurosport.yahoo.com site carries the autosport stories for free, (story text only though).
https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/formula-1/archive/1.html
Just seen this on Autosport
AUTOSPORT understands the team will revert to using Honda’s MGU-K unit in the MP4-30 for this week’s final pre-season test, but with a McLaren seal fitted.
Why in gods name did they not do that in the 1st place if McLaren had an ‘in house’ seal that would work all along?
According to that Autosport article
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117811
“… McLaren installed an old MGU-K unit in order to allow Alonso to recover some lost mileage on the final day of the test, … ”
Could that in any way have contributed to Alonso’s crash?
Autosport also reporting that FIA is to open investigation in to Alonso crash.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117820
Fcuking Autosport, Christ I detest them.
Never a daily read read yet click the link and get hit with ‘You have only #X free reads left, subscribe now’, crap.
And that’s why I was unable to post the link to the story, I had already used up my allowance
> ‘You have only #X free reads left, subscribe now’, crap. >
Just delete their cookies.
Use a selective tool such as the free version
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
to keep cookies of your choice and delete otehrs.
The story says little – other than the FIA will investigate
£49 a year… Hardly a bank breaker.
Don’t suppose you’ll be buying any Rolex anytime soon.
I know Fortis can’t afford one – that would come out of his budget for new keyboards. He goes through them like wildfire.
It’s a lightweight outfit, as reflected in the price.
Gave up my subscription shortly after they morphed from Atlas…..
There’s always one smart a$$ in the bunch….
Comment of the week @AE 😉
Autosport stories here for free:
https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/formula-1/archive/1.html
You can use Tor Browser. You can easily start a new session and thus swap IP addresses and wipe out all cookies, giving you a fresh start of the 15 free stories. Not very ethical, but works.
I don’t get this… Put together the money I pay for Sky JUST to watch the races live without dealing with EJ (£500), then for the tv licence to watch live broadcast (£150).
£50 a year to see more of Gary Anderson’s opinion – Bargain.
Heres a question suggestion for the Podcast –
Which of F1’s sponsors have you ever bought a product from? If so – what; and if not – what might you realistically buy?
“£50 a year to see more of Gary Anderson’s opinion – Bargain.”
For me it’s partly a question of principle: after the sycophantic rants that Autosport issued in favor of Kolles (while he was strangling Caterham) or Ecclestone (while he was strangling all teams, fans, promoters, and assorted stakeholders), I’m no longer terribly interested in their opinion.
Autosport is more often than not merely a mouthpiece for the party line, and I have no intention to pay for that. These days I’m simply checking their “free” pieces for factual data, when needed, but not much more. And I’m gladly paying for individual, one-shot access to their premium features like, say, on income distribution, again for factual tidbits. But I’m not giving them the satisfaction of a yearly subscription…
“Which of F1’s sponsors have you ever bought a product from? If so – what; and if not – what might you realistically buy?”
Excellent podcast question.
Caption: First the old one dies, then I make the young one jump by embarrassing them with a german car, and when they are destroyed, I will ride the cavallino forever.
Quote ” whilst Flavio Briatore Briatore asserts, Fernando has no recollection of the incident”. So Mclaren are liars and you believe Flavio “race fixing” Briatore…amazing.
McLaren’s official statement didn’t say anything about Fernando’s memory…or lack thereof…I’m sure if he was in a condition requiring “sedation” to be transferred to hospital then it is most likely he has no memory of what actually happened in the accident…
Just seen the BBC ‘Question of Sport’ F1 special with Christian Horner, David Coulthard, KMag and Suzi Perry.
What a slime that Horner is…
But the interesting point that came out in one of the questions was that Williams have won one more Constructors Championship than McLaren. My son found that fascinating – his recollection is more recent (he is 13 years old).
Was made more salient by DC’s quip earlier in the show to KMag re about Macca only having one reliable car!…
“With McLaren blaming a gust of wind for the crash…”
To be clear, McLaren actually said, “…the accident was caused by the unpredictably gusty winds”.
The strong gusty winds were evident in the video from the turn 1 grandstands immediately prior to the incident.
In addition, the pictures and the videos show the hills immediately surrounding the circuit, (there is even a significant hill on the inside of T3), which could cause gusts to swirl or be unpredictable.
Congrats, dear Hippers, for the first time in your ranting career I agree 100% with your viewpoint 😉