f1 news blog Archives - Page 2 of 5

Austin hotels charge F1 Monaco prices, Ecclestone wants F1 Melbourne GP “forever”, F1 Mexico City GP in 2014, Austin GP attendance may fall

March 3, 2013 at 9:10 pmFebruary 26, 2013 at 7:59 pm by The Judge

Austin – the new Monaco

The Statesman, one of the main media sources for the Texas Capital city is reporting “Some international tour operators who specialize in Formula One race packages are hyping the 2013 United States Grand Prix and the vibrant Texas city of — San Antonio. Others are looking to book blocks of hotel rooms in San Marcos — “San Marvelous,” as one tour website referred to it. And a few tour operators have gone so far as not to offer an Austin hotel option for the Nov. 17 race, blaming the high prices Austin hotels charged last year for the city’s inaugural F1 Grand Prix week.” untitled

John Sinker of English tour operator MotoExpress explains, “For some reason the hotels believed they could charge more than hotels in Monaco. They did not understand that F1 fans are very international and they think nothing about travelling around the world to watch races. However, if presented with a choice of going to the Monaco F1 and the Austin F1 and if Monaco is cheaper, they will go to Monaco every time.”

Red Bull and Lotus F1 Engine Mapping Problems, Renault’s 2014 F1 engine is revealed, Dallara design Formula E chassis

March 3, 2013 at 9:10 pmFebruary 26, 2013 at 11:10 am by The Judge

Renault and Newey may have been caught napping

So Williams and Caterham appear to have had their clever exhaust solutions ruled illegal, and you may remember last year all the teams and Renault customers particularly were instructed by the FIA to stop changing their engine mapping for each race. This was believed to be benefiting Red Bull particularly.

The ruling was to tidy up the banning of ‘off throttle blowing’. In simple terms ”off throttle exhaust blowing’ could be described as; when you are driving your car along and you lift your foot off the accelerator to ease through a corner – the engine would scream up to full revs with no gear engaged – and blow a load of hot gases onto something that would increase the traction of your car.

“Ground Effect”. Its History and Theory explained

February 17, 2013 at 10:49 pmFebruary 14, 2013 at 11:03 am by The Judge

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Ground effect is a term applied to a series of aerodynamic effects used in car design, which has been exploited to create downforce, particularly in racing cars. This has been the successor to the earlier dominant aerodynamic theory of streamlining. IndyCars employ ground effect to some extent, but Formula One and most other racing series worldwide currently use design constraints to heavily limit its effectiveness.

History

Jim Hall built Chaparral to both these principles. His 1961 car attempted to use the shaped underside method but there were too many other aerodynamic problems with the car for it to work properly. His 1966 cars used a dramatic high wing for their downforce. His Chaparral 2J “sucker car” of 1970 was revolutionary.

It had two fans at the rear of the car driven by a dedicated 2 stroke; it also had “skirts”, which left only a minimal gap between car and ground, to seal the cavity from the atmosphere. Although it did not win a race, some competition had lobbied for its ban, which came into place at the end of that year. Movable aerodynamic devices were banned from most branches of the sport.

Wolff wishes to clear the air, Big Foot or The Hulk, Pirelli reveals tyres for 1st 4 races, Ecclestone and the ‘appearing’ evidence

April 20, 2015 at 10:07 pmFebruary 14, 2013 at 1:14 am by The Judge

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Toto Wolff sets matters straight

In an interview for Formula1.com Toto Wolff talks about expectations at Mercedes.

“As they (Mercedes) know I have put my neck on the line they know that I have no room for failure. Not only have I taken a personal risk by leaving Williams – where I have enjoyed working – but there is also a financial and economic side to it. There is a huge amount of trust on both sides and I am very happy having joined.”

I’m not really sure what Toto is inferring here, “You cannot run a Formula 1 operation in the UK out of Germany. It is not only a difference in mentality – there is definitely a difference (laughs) – but it is also about physically being there.

Running a company from a distance never really works, so the question is either you run it full time or you don’t. And if you don’t, then you rely on management. In the past I have done that, but it was not the role Mercedes had envisioned for me.”

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Good honest deceit. What happened to Honeywell?

April 24, 2015 at 9:47 pmFebruary 13, 2013 at 1:00 pm by The Judge

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Well we truly are living in historic times. 600 years or so since the resignation of the last Holy Father and it may be 600 more before Bernie decides to relinquish his throne too. I was amused by the fact that His Holiness chose to announce his resignation in Latin and there was only 1 reporter there who knew what he was saying and had the hugest exclusive scoop. So kids – lessons learned. Get your head down with Latin homework.

I have noticed further similarities between the Pope and his F1 peer – Mr. E; maybe the reason we seem to hear gobbledygook when our F1’s supremo makes his pronouncements is because he too is speaking in a nigh on extinct ancient language.

Pressing on to more important matters. First up, a big thanks to those of you recently contributing to thejudge13. Take a couple of minutes to read ‘the project’ page, I’ve updated it today.

Marussia have some kind of Bernie deal, Coulthard Cloned, Chilton under pressure, World’s longest Ferrari

April 25, 2015 at 7:27 amFebruary 12, 2013 at 6:43 pm by The Judge

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Maruasia get some kind of deal

Mr. E today has been assuring the F1 world and its fans that we should hopefully see all 11 teams compete for the full 2013 season. He was in fact in Jerez on Thursday last week, even thought TJ13 was otherwise engaged and was absent for his papal audience with other more important business.

“On Thursday I was bringing the teams up to speed with the new Concorde Agreement,” say Ecclestone to Autoweek. “They are all safe. We have got a deal with them all, including Marussia. We are continuing with Marussia. I thought they were going to go [bust] but they are not.” No thanks to FOM eh Graeme? Further, we have no details as to what Marussia have been offered/told they can have (delete as appropriate).

Ecclestone legal troubles rumble on, Mystic Mallya and the invisible cash, Pirelli report on tyre performance from Jerez, Kovlainen ‘excellent’ candidate for Pirelli

April 27, 2015 at 9:40 pmFebruary 11, 2013 at 4:36 pm by The Judge

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Let’s begin the news round up with a couple of our favourite F1 rogues. What have they been up to whilst the gaze of thejudge13 has been averted.

Ecclestone legal troubles:

Back on the 21^st Nov 2012, TJ13 reported that a second litigation had been filed in the USA over alleged fraudulent transactions connected with the sale of F1’s commercial rights to CVC back in 2005. This follows the case in Munich already with the prosecutors who are considering charges of bribery and fraud.

Dominicali: Red Bull will complain about our suspension, Sauber launch, Di Resta tweets ‘welcome’ to Senna, Rory Byrne: Ferrari legendary designer

February 3, 2013 at 8:54 pmFebruary 2, 2013 at 1:28 pm by The Judge

Judge’s Chambers: The silly season is almost over as the teams prepare for the serious business of testing the 2013 cars. However, there are some twists and turns yet to come and decisions to be made.

I have suggested repeatedly Bruno Senna was a serious contender for the Force India seat. I know there was a feeling in the management that educating a rookie after a relatively disappointing 2012 would affect the team’s performance further this year.

However, predominantly the mainstream media have overlooked Bruno and focused more on the candidacy of Adrian Sutil. An eagle-eyed TJ13 ‘special investigator’ Stefan Sagrott (@stefsagrott) sent me a screen shot of a tweet from Paul Di Resta’s twitter account.

He says, “Pleased to welcome @BSenna as my new team mate @clubforce…” which is Force India’s twitter account. DISCLAIMER: i cannot verify this as the tweet was apparently removed shortly after first appearing.

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Ecclestone muses on all things F1, Oksana Kosachenko shoots from the hip, Watches for all at Silverstone, Force India’s new sponsors

February 3, 2013 at 8:55 pmFebruary 2, 2013 at 2:23 am by The Judge

From the Bench: So Van der Garde confirmed since last post – another notch for TJ13 (not that I’m counting 😉 ). Further, Bart de Pauw writing his first ‘On this day in F1’ appears to have supernatural powers. He picked the announcement 6 years ago, that VDG was to test the Spyker car. Some cool footage and how much did he pay back then for this privilege (OTD 1st Feb)

So 2 GP2 drivers make it to F1 today as Louiz Razia (did we call this too?) makes it into the second Marussia car.

TJ13 Recruitment: The team is building quite nicely. We have 2 ‘On this day writers’, but could do with another 1 or 2. We will help you find the sources and advise on writing.

Also, if anyone fancies running a ‘news desk’, this will be 1 paragraph ‘breaking news’ stories on a separate Tj13 page contact me at thejudge13@hotmail.co.uk. You will be someone able to access the internet throughout the day – European time.

TJ13 reach: Here’s something I thought you might like to see. TJ13 is fast becoming a global F1 community. The WordPress web publishing software I use tells me daily, weekly and all time number of visits and the countries from where you all live – as shown below.