F1 Insiders Est. 2012
At times Pirelli’s position within the sport could be described at best as a rock and a hard place.
A bold new vision for Formula One cars for 2017 was developed earlier this year. Part of the reasoning was that this would reverse the falling interest in the sport from both TV viewers and those attending grand prix. Proposals included wider and more aggressive looking cars, bigger wheels, a lot more down force, cars … Read more
A Daily Round up of Formula One news, inside whispers, opinion and comment. Today, Time for an F1 revolution Van der Garde speaks out Time for an F1 revolution TJ13 has long advocated a change to certain F1 events, with Monaco being the prime culprit. The modern Formula One cars have such incredible acceleration that … Read more
By Track Profile Writer Alistair Hunter After the slightly longer break, F1 kicks into action once again this weekend in Spain, for the fifth round of the 2014 season. A fond favourite with the teams, this will be the 55th edition of the Spanish Grand Prix, which is now relatively established at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. … Read more
Top times of the day Pos Driver Team Tine Diff Laps 1 Vettel Red Bull 1’25.908 33 2 Webber Red Bull 1’26.172 0.264 31 3 Rosberg Mercedes 1’26.322 0.414 26 4 Raikkonen Lotus 1’26.361 0.453 38 5 Grosjean Lotus 1’26.680 0.772 32 6 Alonso Ferrari 1’26.748 0.840 35 7 Hamilton Mercedes 1’26.772 0.864 … Read more
Below follows an analysis provided by German publication AMuS and kindly translated by Patrick Heemstra. Paraphrased by thejudge13 and John Myburgh.
The ‘perfect lap’ is defined as one where the best 3 sector times from any driver are added together to give the ultimate lap time at a given race occasion. So before the cars hit the track in Melbourne here’s one last look at what we can glean from Barcelona test 2.
Bank bailout forces HRT sale: Meanwhile, the team travels to Austin with the minimum staff to compete and avoid a financial penalty from FOM for being absent (as.com). We may well see the cars qualify, start the race and retire the cars after one lap.
thejudge13 has previously reported that HRT are using parts way beyond their sanctioned life and has a debt to repay before December 2nd or face dissolution. Thesan Capital, we believe, is a front for the Banco Popular who applied yesterday for a bailout of 2.5bn Euro’s. The terms of the bailout are that all non-profitable assets of the bank must be identified and disposed of – including HRT.
As to the story that Colin Kolles is interested in buying the team, this is fantasy by Thesan Capital. He was ‘exited’ last December when the debt from Banco Popular was assigned to Thesan Capital who on taking control issued a statement explaining Colin’s departure, “This is due to the new direction that the team has taken and the decision of the new management to move the team headquarters to Spain,” it read. (Yallf1.com)
Lauda – what exactly is his job?: In a Q&A with Auto Motor und Sport, Niki explains his contribution to Mercedes. When asked how Mercedes can find 1.5s to match Red Bull when the drinks company spends 100m euro more he tells us, “We now have to analyze carefully whether the money factor plays a role, and if so what. I can say it but not yet, because I still go to school. This is part of the inventory.”
Remember Lauda said a couple of weeks ago that money had been wasted so far at Mercedes F1, and they needed to deliver more for less. Mmm.
Niki was asked how he could bring Mercedes to success. “The first part of this task is to take stock. I find myself just in the learning phase. That’s why I’m already some time been in the factory in Brackley and I will continue to do so regularly. It is important for me, along with Ross Brawn introduced to every aspect of the team, the car and the tools in the factory to be. Every time I go to Brackley, I get it. I need to understand the context of the processes, and then with my logic, direct access, which I, in common with Ross find a solution.”
Alonso refutes La Stampa story: Fernando Alonso has dismissed as “not true” reports in the Italian press of a post-qualifying row with Ferrari Formula One team members in India last weekend. thejudge13 reported yesterday that the Turin paper, La Stampa newspaper claimed the Spaniard took exception to media comments by Ferrari’s British technical director Pat Fry, and threatened to publish a ‘tweet’ about a lack of aerodynamic progress since May this year. (LINK)
Alonso hit back on twitter, “The problem is when it is not true,” and added in Spanish “It’s not fair to your readers,” ending the exchange with “Forza Ferrari.”
The difficulty for many modern F1 watchers and in this case Fernando himself is they do not understand Ferrari and its history. If something over the years is published in La Stampa, it has been historically seen as sanctioned if not leaked by Ferrari because the Agnellis family who own the publication are very much part of the same family as Ferrari.
Well, 2 weeks since the launch of the blog – over 3000 hits and some very complimentary comments. I’ve quickly learned in social media though, you need a thick skin as some comments are not just au contraire but pretty abusive. Hey Ho.
Its not been too bad so far. We called the Jake leaving the BBC the week before it was announced and suggested in the “Shrinking Calendar” piece there may be trouble yet for New Jersey (You can see the date published on each article)
Well today was the day that wasn’t. We’ve had an FIA executive meeting with no news, a Mercedes car company board meeting with no news and the much awaited Eddie Jordan prediction was also – no news.
So here’s some links to a few things that have occurred.
