Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez still unfinished
On the 25th August this year, Federico Gonzalez, managing director of Mexican GP promoter CIE reported: “We are on schedule, We have completed the first level of pavement around the track and expect to have the other two completed within the next three weeks. We are also working on the last stages of the final grandstand complex. Altogether, we are expecting everything will be completed and ready by September.”
The FIA set a deadline for works to be completed on Saturday 3rd October when the first lap of the revised circuit was filmed.
Clearly there is some work yet to be completed before the cars take to the track in just 19 days.
Kimi’s ‘move’ on Bottas
Kimi Raikkonen was given a 30 second penalty post race for his ill advised ‘dive bomb’ attempt to overtake Valtteri Bottas on the last lap of the 2015 Russian GP.
Bottas who ended up in the wall, queried with the team, “what the fuck did he do?”
Kimi suggested in post race interviews that he thought Veltteri, “maybe didn’t see me”, and that the matter should be treated as a racing incident.
“I don’t think it was something completely stupid that I tried. We made a call and it was only two cars, but there are many ways of looking at the incident. I was there, but did he know that I was there? The fortunate thing is that it wasn’t a bad accident but it is part of racing and it happened.”
It could have been much worse for Raikkonen, given he has already received 2 reprimands from the stewards this year and a third would have seen him take a 10 place grid penalty in Austin.
Kimi apparently has previous form for this sort of thing and Juan Pablo Montoya shares his thoughts on the ‘Iceman’ here
Ironically, Raikkonen’s penalty also meant more points for Red Bull who are William’s closest challengers for P3 in the constructors’ race.
Post Race Press Conference Hijacked
The 2015 Russian GP was attended by less than a handful of reporters, though the drivers found a way of having fun.
and this is what the drivers were faced with for the entire press conference
Bernie Ecclestone answers the tough questions facing F1
On Red Bull’s engine predicament for 2016: “At the moment it would appear they don’t [have one], but I think we have nothing to worry about”. SKY F1
F1 safety in ‘the dock’ again
Carlos Sainz will be counting his lucky stars he has escaped from Russia with little more than a sore back and some bruising.
Having suffered a crash in FP3 described by his team mate as he passed the scene as ‘a big one’, the Spaniard was cleared to race a day later. He eventually retired from the race with brake problems but made an astonishing admission in his post race interviews.
“Being fully honest, in the first 10 laps, behind the safety car, doing so many ‘esses’ I was feeling a bit dizzy.
“I don’t know if it was just mental because I was thinking about the accident, or if I was just feeling dizzy.
“But after lap 10 it went off and I could push normally without problems.”
Carlos also admitted to feeling dizzy before the race began. He revealed the solution to curing his dizziness was, “I opened up my visor and it improved.”
Whether a racing driver who suffered a 46g impact should be allowed to get in the car within 24 hours, is a serious question the FIA medical representatives should be challenged to address.
Why the absence of media? Was it like this throughout the paddock and all weekend?
They all nodded off during the “race” and missed the presser 😉
As a Mexican let me tell you, that is typically Mexico. I can practically guarantee they will finish on the Saturday of the race weekend.
re Carlos Sainz & safety- also what about that marshal that ran onto an active racetrack with nothing more than a single waved yellow flag? Vettel almost hit him.
Both warrant investigation by FIA. So nothing will happen.
Why were they waving Vettel off when he made comment re: the girls hahaha
I also noticed that in the clip. I was wondering who the person was off screen and what he was trying to accomplish. What was he/she/it (gender’s not a thing nowadays) trying to moderate in Vettel’s performance? He grabbed his arm I think.
Curious.
Lol at the he/she/IT!
I guess they can’t talk without being asked. As if they were going to waste a lot of the reporters’ time (if they were pressed for time and oh there were a lot of reporters there *wink wink*). In no way did I see Vettel’s joke as hinting that the room was empty. I wouldn’t even get that idea until I saw the picture. I think it was for the latter, even sky paid no mention of the empty room but they did show the girls, albeit from a different angle (not showing the empty chairs)
Apparently, party crashing is normal in Russia. Putin post race makes me cringe.
But was Hamilton mocking him? I just read this week something about ‘paying millions of dollars to host a race only to see your precious throphy be thrown in the air’…
Can’t remember wher I read it.
I’m waiting for one of the scribblers to have the cajones ask Hamiton if he feels for the fans yet.
I’d love one of them to present Lewis with his past quotes regarding dominance – the ones you mentioned somewhere recently – and push for a “please explain…”
That’d make for good television.
Yeah, but I’m sure he’s not the only driver afflicted by extreme entitlement issues amplified by a propensity for public expression of self-serving cognitive dissonance.
His every utterance is breathlessly reported by the English-speaking media (me being solidly one-lingual) – drowning out those with perhaps more considered things to say.
He’s actually pretty well trained when it comes to media, leaving aside a celebrated faux pas or two. But the ceaseless demand for his opinion on anything and everything F1 means he’s bound to say stupid sh!t eventually – someone ought to call him on it though.
Good point.
I suppose if we ask a dog to bark, and it barks, we don’t stand there collectively, point and shout, “the dog barked!”
To that end, all we’ve picked up on is a top level, self-serving, narcissistic athlete saying contradictory, self-serving and narcissistic things.
The difference is, unlike with the dog, we’ve asked him questions and we’re subsequently standing there metaphorically pointing and shouting, “look, the athelete’s self-serving and contradictory in his career-long rhetoric!”
Well… Duh.
Thanks. Good chat. +1
PS: Dog is God spelled backwards… Illuminati confirmed.
there is no Dog 🙂
Ah, but not in Frawnch: chien, and neihc.
Re Grosjean’s accident: If the entire track was dusted with gravel everyone would agree that it was unsafe to race on and there would be no running until it was swept clear. Why does Formula 1 tolerate tyres that coat the track with dangerous debris over the course of a race?
Make the tyres hard. REALLY hard. Make them last the entire race. No/minimal marbles, drivers can push for a larger percentage of a race, longer braking distances = more overtaking, decreased cost of consumables and freight…Why DOES F1 have chewing gum for tyres?
Because that’s more fun…
But those marbles were mainly from the supporting races.
What kind of troubles would Sainz Jr. have gotten into would he have blacked out at the start or whatever? This kind of stuff is beyond me. You feel dizzy, you don’t drive @ 200mph. It’s that simple, right?
I don’t think it was something completely stupid…
If not completely, then pretty damn close.
Good that Hamilton paid tribute to Brawn:
http://m.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/121294/brawn-part-of-team-glory-hamilton
It seems he’s the only one paying tribute to Brawn consistently since Brawn left/was pushed out.
Hardly anyone else from this team ever mentions Brawn.
Another perspective
Bottas complaining Kimi hit him on the last lap, as if the race was over. Sounded to me as if Bottas was smelling the barn, maybe working on his podium interview wording, and failed to see Kimi closing in on him.
Another perspective
Kimi overtaking did not work to get him third but it did stop Bottas from overtaking him in drivers points.
Bottas complaining Kimi hit him on the last lap, as if the race was over.
Bottles race was over – after Raikkonen t-boned him.
That could only count as leaving the door open if you were to include the doorframe and half the wall in your definition of door.
Did ricciardo get a penalty/hated for pulling off a similar move on rosberg in hungary? Just asking
Difference is, RIC didn’t hit Rosberg. But no he didn’t
@jii…
That perspective needs corrective lenses
oh, how I miss JPM. PR nightmare, pure entertainment.
at least F1 dodged a bullet last year with the double points fiasco,Indy didn’t get so lucky.
RE:Carlos Sainz and his dizziness. This is another situation where the test is not fit for purpose. The FIA gave him a medical on Sunday morning and declared him fit to drive, Carlos later admits to feeling dizzy!!!!! Suggests to me that the FIA medical test is not fit for purpose. Once again FIA not protecting drivers safety, even from themselves!
The FIA merely seems to care about keeping the show running, rather than driver safety being the paramount concern.
Makes me quite angry really, considering even the WWE will not allow it’s Wrestlers to wrestle if they suffer from concussions until they are medically cleared to wrestle again, and sometimes that can take weeks or months or it ends with a Wrestler being retired. Can’t see the FIA taking that sort of approach somehow.
I get the feeling the difference is lawsuits. Until a driver or two sue the FIA for allowing him to race when they shouldn’t then they won’t care.
Medical tests are not magic though. No doctor can declare that anyone is fit to race, they can only look for the absence of some problems. A lot of symptoms require the test subject to be honest, which Carlos might not have been (since he didn’t want to be benched).
Perhaps there should be a rule that a driver has to take a 5 day break if the crash exceeds a certain number of Gs.
Vettel, he speaks German, excellent English and now learning Italian fast. He definitely has a big brain capacity
Started learning it at least as early as ’08 with Toro Rosso.
It’s not so hard to learn new languages, especially if the roots and semantics are similar. But it’s nice to see Vettel put the effort.
As one paper read, in the days of Bernie and Mosley, F1 would have never reached these crisis levels. Not saying that the diarchy of Bernie/Mosly was ideal, but at least it does show what a poor job Todt is doing.
Todt is doing something?? When did that happen? 😀
@mikecloud54
That is a a definite candidate for comment of the season. It’s right up there fella.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Brilliant