Siegfried Stohr Rolf Stommelen Philippe Streiff Hans Stuck Hans Joachim Stuck
zondag 30 september 2012
Lewis Hamilton move would not be a huge surprise
If Lewis Hamilton does move to Mercedes from McLaren for next season, as Eddie Jordan believes he will, it would be a massive shock but not a huge surprise.
There has appeared no urgency from either Hamilton or McLaren to sort out a new contract for 2013 and at the same time there have been signs of unease in the relationship.
The 27-year-old's management team have approached all the big teams this summer and they got short shrift from Red Bull and Ferrari.
Mercedes's reaction has been warmer, and negotiations are known to have taken place, but the issue is complicated by Michael Schumacher's situation.
Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of leaving Mclaren to drive for Mercedes next season. Photo: Getty
Schumacher has not exactly been setting the world on fire this season, with the notable exception of qualifying fastest in Monaco, but at the same time Mercedes cannot be seen to be sacking him because of his status, particularly in Germany.
The German legend is of huge promotional value to Mercedes but the company is split on whether he should continue.
From a marketing point of view, he is a dream - and as he is considered untouchable in Germany any decision to move aside must appear to have come from him.
But those who see the F1 programme from a performance point of view would rather Schumacher stepped down and made way for someone younger and faster.
If they can replace him with someone of the highest calibre - someone such as Hamilton, for example - then that helps, too, as the decision is more easily understandable.
And it is clear after an increasingly uncompetitive season that the team could benefit from employing Hamilton, who is one of F1's 'big three' alongside Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, neither of whom are available.
The attraction Mercedes might have to Hamilton is less clear, given their current struggles, but perhaps the continuing frustrations of his time at McLaren have convinced him it is time for a change.
McLaren struggled by their own high standards in 2009-11, during which time Hamilton did not have a car competitive enough to mount a full-on title challenge.
They came closest in 2010, but it was always a battle against the generally faster Red Bull and Ferrari.
And although McLaren started this season with the fastest car - and have it again after a brief mid-season dip in form - operational errors earlier in the season hit Hamilton's title bid.
Money may well also be an important factor. Hamilton made some cryptic comments in Belgium last weekend about his future move being a "business decision".
Equally, there have been signs of friction between him and McLaren.
In certain quarters of the team, they are uncomfortable about Hamilton's approach to his job and his mindset. And the disconnect was made public this weekend with his ill-advised behaviour on the social networking site Twitter, on which he posted a picture of confidential team telemetry.
Where does that all leave McLaren, Mercedes and Hamilton? Time will tell.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/lewis_hamilton_move_would_not.html
Heini Walter Rodger Ward Derek Warwick John Watson Spider Webb Mark Webber Volker Weidler
Doctors use Formula One pit crews as safety model
American Medical News reports hospitals in at least a dozen countries are learning how to translate the split-second timing and near-perfect synchronisation of Formula One pit crews to the high-risk handoffs of patients from surgery to recovery and intensive care.
"In Formula One, they have checklists, databases, and they have well-defined processes for doing things, and we don't really have any of those things in health care."
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/doctors_use_formula_one_pit_cr.php
Ricardo Zunino Pedro de la Rosa Keke Rosberg† Nico Rosberg Mauri Rose Louis Rosier Ricardo Rosset
Raikkonen favourite to taste victory in Belgium
At Spa-Francorchamps
In this remarkable season of unpredictability and uncertainty, of seven winners in 11 races, of the most open title battle in years, Formula 1 is still waiting for one big result.
A victory for the revived Lotus team has looked inevitable since the start of the year. And as the world championship re-starts in Belgium this weekend following a month-long summer break, the expectation is that this could be their race.
The car, from the team formerly known as Renault that won two world championships with Fernando Alonso in 2005-6, has been fast all season. Its best result has been four second places. But the momentum seems to be with them.
Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus pushed Lewis Hamilton's winning McLaren all the way in Hungary five weeks ago. The Finn has a stunning record at the stunning Spa-Francorchamps track that hosts this race and Lotus have been working on a technical trick that could give them a key advantage on the demanding track that swoops and twists around the contours of the Ardennes mountains.
Kimi Raikkonen has won the Belgian Grand Prix four times. Photo: Getty
The 32-year-old Finn seems to have a special affinity with the circuit regarded as arguably the biggest test for a racing driver anywhere in the world. He has taken four victories here - and either won or retired from every single race he has competed at Spa since 2004.
Raikkonen's all-action style, based on fast corner entry in a car with good front-end bite, seems perfectly suited to Spa's cascade of long, fast corners.
Two of his wins - for McLaren in 2004 and Ferrari in 2009 - came in years when his machinery was otherwise uncompetitive. The other two were dominant victories from the front in 2005 and 2007.
But Raikkonen's position as arguably the favourite for victory this weekend is not founded just on his renowned Spa specialism. He is widely expected to have the car to do the job.
Lotus have come agonisingly close to victory twice already this year - in Bahrain in April and at the last race, in Hungary at the end of July.
Both times it was Raikkonen who challenged only to just fall short, behind Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain and Hamilton in Hungary. But the Finn, who returned to F1 this season after two unproductive years in world rallying, has actually been Lotus's weaker driver for most of the year.
His team-mate, the Franco-Swiss Romain Grosjean, who is in his first full season, has generally had a marginal advantage - to the point that around the European Grand Prix in Valencia at the end of June there were murmurings of dissatisfaction with the Finn, who won the world championship for Ferrari in 2007.
Raikkonen ultimately finished second to Alonso in Valencia, but had been off the pace of Grosjean all weekend - indeed the younger man was pushing the Ferrari hard when his alternator failed late in the race.
When, following the race, Raikkonen expressed his frustration at it taking so long for Lotus to win, one team member privately expressed the view that he would be better focused on beating Grosjean before moaning about not winning yet.
Since then, though, Raikkonen has upped his game and in the race in Hungary he was fantastic, the middle stint there that lifted him from fifth place to potential victor one of the most impressive pieces of driving all season.
Had Raikkonen not made a mess of qualifying, and taken the front row slot he should have earned rather than the fifth place he did, he might well have won. The same can be said of Bahrain, where a decision to save tyres for the race left him down in 11th place on the grid and with too much to do.
Grosjean, too, must be considered a potential Spa winner. Despite making too many errors, he has been all confidence and commitment this year.
He has looked a different driver on his return to F1 in 2012 from the haunted figure who was demoralised by Alonso during his first half-season at Renault in 2009, after which he was dropped.
The high expectations for Lotus at Spa are partly based on the car's inherent qualifies - a factor in its general competitiveness this year has been strong performance in fast corners, and Spa is full of them.
As well as that, though, is that innovation mentioned earlier. In Hungary, and in Germany the week before, Lotus trialled a clever system aimed at boosting the team's straight-line speed without compromising its performance in other areas.
Like the DRS overtaking aid featured on all the cars, the Lotus system affects the rear wing to reduce drag.
It works by channelling air from scoops behind the driver's head to the rear wing, which this extra air then 'stalls', reducing the downforce the wing creates and therefore its drag, boosting straight-line speed.
What is not clear is when exactly the Lotus system comes into play.
Is it independent of the DRS, as some believe, and therefore active above a pre-set car velocity and usable at all times, including in the race when DRS use is restricted to a specific zone?
Or is it, as BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson believes, linked to the DRS and simply an extra boost to the car's speed when that system is employed, like the system Mercedes have been using but without the inherent compromises that team have discovered?
Either way, it could be a significant boost to Lotus's chances in Spa. Lotus have yet to use the system outside free practice, and this weekend they will again try it out on Friday before making a decision whether to race it.
For all the talk of Lotus, though, a win for them is a very long way from a foregone conclusion. Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren will be as strong as ever on a track that should suit all their cars.
In fact, it will be a particularly interesting weekend all round.
Which teams have made best use of the mid-season break to develop their cars?
Have Ferrari made the step forward in performance they seemed in Hungary to need if Alonso - unquestionably the stand-out driver of the season so far - is to hang on to his championship lead?
Can McLaren maintain the upward momentum they showed in Germany and Hungary after a brief slump?
Will Red Bull finally unlock the potential of what has looked, on balance, overall the fastest car?
The climax of one of the sport's greatest seasons, a hyper-intense period of nine races in three months, starts here.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/08/raikkonen_favourite_to_taste_v.html
Jos Verstappen Sebastian Vettel Gilles Villeneuve Jacques Villeneuve Jacques Villeneuve Sr Luigi Villoresi Emilio de Villota
Robert Kubica Hospitalised Following Rally Accident
UPDATE ON KUBICA’s CONDITION: �http://wp.me/p3uiu-11K Renault Lotus F1 driver Robert Kubica has been airlifted to hospital following a car accident while competing on a rally. The incident, described as a high speed accident, left the Pole injured and he had to be airlifted to hospital. �His co-driver Jakub Gerber was uninjured in the incident. While [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/robert-kubica-hospitalised-following-rally-accident/
Ricardo Zonta Renzo Zorzi Ricardo Zunino Pedro de la Rosa Keke Rosberg† Nico Rosberg Mauri Rose
zaterdag 29 september 2012
Chris Economaki 1921- 2012
Long-time racing journalist Chris Economaki has died at the age of 91. Although he was primarily known in the United States of America, he spent many seasons attending the F1 races as a commentator with ESPN. A native of Brooklyn, Economaki came from a curious background: his father being an immigrant from Greece and his [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/chris-economaki-1921-2012/
Sakon Yamamoto Alex Yoong Alex Zanardi Emilio Zapico Ricardo Zonta Renzo Zorzi Ricardo Zunino
Doctors use Formula One pit crews as safety model
American Medical News reports hospitals in at least a dozen countries are learning how to translate the split-second timing and near-perfect synchronisation of Formula One pit crews to the high-risk handoffs of patients from surgery to recovery and intensive care.
"In Formula One, they have checklists, databases, and they have well-defined processes for doing things, and we don't really have any of those things in health care."
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/doctors_use_formula_one_pit_cr.php
Caption Competition 21: Button and Hamilton | Caption Competition
Caption Competition 21: Button and Hamilton is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, who have just six races left as team mates following yesterday's news, feature in today's Caption Competition.
Caption Competition 21: Button and Hamilton is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/FkHSEZxrNZI/
Bill Schindler JeanLouis Schlesser Jo Schlesser Bernd Schneider Rudolf Schoeller Rob Schroeder Michael Schumacher
Hamilton joins Mercedes for 2013 after McLaren exit | 2013 F1 season
Hamilton joins Mercedes for 2013 after McLaren exit is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Lewis Hamilton will end his association with McLaren after the 2012 season and switch to Mercedes' F1 team, taking Michael Schumacher's place.
Hamilton joins Mercedes for 2013 after McLaren exit is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/rFbo1H-vPhM/
Sakon Yamamoto Alex Yoong Alex Zanardi Emilio Zapico Ricardo Zonta Renzo Zorzi Ricardo Zunino
Hamilton glory cannot hide the hurt
Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the Italian Grand Prix was his second in three races and McLaren’s third in a row, confirming their position as the form team in Formula 1.
They have won nearly twice as many races as any other team this season – their five compare with the three of Ferrari and Red Bull. No-one else has won more than one.
Just as worryingly for their rivals, the last two victories – Hamilton’s on Sunday and Jenson Button’s in Belgium seven days previously – were utterly dominant.
The retirement of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel with his second alternator failure in a race this season also helped Hamilton move into second place in the championship.
Lewis Hamilton (centre) celebrates winning the Italian GP on the podium with Sergio Perez (left) and Fernando Alonso (right). Photo: Getty
The 27-year-old may be 37 points behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, but there are 175 still available in the remaining seven races.
Alonso is, by common consent, the stand-out driver of 2012, but Hamilton has also driven a superb season and has almost certainly been second best.
Had it not been for a number of operational problems early in the championship, he may well be leading the championship. Even as it is, he has every chance of making a fight of it to the end of the season.
For a man in such a position, after a strong weekend, Hamilton was in a subdued mood after the race, as indeed he was throughout the four days in Monza.
He insisted that the BBC Sport story in which Eddie Jordan said that Hamilton was on the verge of leaving McLaren and signing for Mercedes had not affected him, but it did not look that way.
Whatever was prompting him to keep his answers short and to the point in his news conferences and television interviews certainly did not affect his driving.
He was in excellent form throughout the three days, tussling with Alonso for the honour of being fastest man at Monza.
And once the Spaniard was put out of the reckoning for victory with a rear anti-roll bar problem that left him in 10th place on the grid, Hamilton always looked odds-on for victory.
His task was made easier when Ferrari’s Felipe Massa beat Button away from the grid and held on to second place, with the McLaren never really hustling as it might have been expected to do, until he made his pit stop on lap 19. By then, Hamilton had the race won.
There was no evidence Button would have been able to challenge his team-mate had he got away in second place.
Button did close a little a few laps after their pit stops, but it was clear Hamilton was measuring his pace, and he let Button get no closer than seven seconds before holding him there until the second McLaren retired with a fuel system problem.
It was a mature, controlled drive, just as were his victories in Canada and Hungary. Alonso, who rates him as his toughest rival, will take the threat from him in the championship very seriously.
All in all, it was a tense weekend at McLaren. The Hamilton/Mercedes story made it a difficult weekend for the team and the relationship between their two drivers is frosty, presumably following Hamilton’s decision to post a picture of confidential team telemetry on the social networking site Twitter on the morning of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Button said he was “surprised and disappointed” by his team-mate’s actions, for which read “seriously hacked off”.
“I didn’t concentrate on it too much,” Button said on his arrival at Monza. “I thought it was important to say how I felt. It’s very easy not to say anything; also if you say something you can clear it up quicker. That was the last race. We’ve moved on from that.”
Perhaps, but the body language between the two men was palpably cool throughout the weekend, and they were not troubling to hide it, even in public arenas such as the restaurant at their hotel.
One night, sitting at adjacent tables, they did not even look at or acknowledge each other, let alone exchange a word.
McLaren insiders were relaxed about the situation, though. They like their drivers to race and a bit of edge focuses their minds, one senior figure pointed out.
Hamilton admitted his victory would have been a lot harder had Alonso qualified on the front row, as he looked certain to do before his problem in qualifying.
As it was, Alonso was forced to salvage what he could from 10th on the grid and, typically, he made the most of the situation.
An aggressive and clinical first few laps go him into fifth place by lap seven, but there his progress halted against the back of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull.
The world champion was robust in his defence, and Alonso was not able to pass before they made their pit stops together on lap 20.
Ferrari’s slick pit work, consistently among the best this season, almost got him out ahead of Vettel, but the Red Bull edged ahead, forcing Alonso to get past on the track.
When he went for the big move, around the outside of Curva Grande at 180mph on lap 26, Vettel unceremoniously barged him on to the grass, the Ferrari bucking scarily as Alonso wrestled for control.
Understandably, he was furious, although he kept his counsel after the race. It was a sure-fire penalty, in the context of a clarification on acceptable driving which was issued verbally to the drivers at the Spanish Grand Prix and then in written form in Canada.
The assumption was that Vettel was getting Alonso back for a similar situation, with roles reversed, in last year’s Italian Grand Prix. That one, in which Vettel passed Alonso with two wheels on the grass, has rankled with the German ever since.
He has brought it up at every opportunity, and this looked very much like revenge.
The difference was that, then, Alonso left Vettel just enough room, and Vettel took to the grass when he could – just – have stayed on the track. This time, Vettel left no room, and his behaviour was clearly unacceptable.
Vettel has the arrogance and self-belief that is required of all great drivers but there is also sometimes a sense of entitlement about him which is less than appealing.
He got this one wrong, and one hopes that when he watches a video of the incident, he will recognise that himself.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/lewis_hamiltons_victory_in_the.html
Karl Wendlinger Peter Westbury Chuck Weyant Ken Wharton Ted Whiteaway
vrijdag 28 september 2012
Thailand aiming for 2014 F1 calendar slot
Mark Webber sampled the streets of Bangkok in 2010 Thailand could be ready to host a Grand Prix as early as 2014, according to the governor of the country?s Sports Authority. The Bangkok Post reports that Kanokphand Chulakasem, who met … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/09/26/thailand-aiming-for-2014-f1-calendar-slot/
Peter Whitehead Bill Whitehouse Robin Widdows Eppie Wietzes Mike Wilds Jonathan Williams Roger Williamson
Hamilton saga nearing endgame
Only Lewis Hamilton truly knows where he wants to drive next season - and perhaps not even he does just yet. But the signs are that the saga that has been occupying Formula 1 for months is nearing its endgame.
Hamilton has two competing offers on the table for his future - one to stay at McLaren and one to move to Mercedes.
The latest indication is that he is leaning towards staying where he is; one McLaren insider even suggested at the Singapore Grand Prix that a deal could be inked within days.
At the same time, there may be a complication. There are suggestions that earlier this year Hamilton signed something with Mercedes - a letter of intent, a memorandum of understanding, perhaps - that he would need to get out of before he can commit to McLaren. His current team have heard talk of this, too. Hamilton's management deny this.
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
The conventional wisdom is that Mercedes are offering Hamilton more money and that the deal is sweetened further by greater freedom over personal sponsorship deals. Those are highly restricted at McLaren because of the team's breadth of marketing tie-ups.
But BBC Sport understands it is not quite as simple as that.
For one thing, some sources say the figures quoted for the Mercedes offer in the media so far - of �60m over three years - are significantly larger than what is actually on the table.
Of course, in theory, as one of the largest car companies in the world, Mercedes can afford to pay almost any figure it wants.
But the board's commitment to Formula 1 has been in question all year. While it is understood that the company has now reached an agreement with the sport's commercial rights holders defining the financial terms under which they have committed for the next few years, F1 is not a money-no-object exercise for them.
McLaren believe their offer to Hamilton is broadly similar to Mercedes', and that in terms of total remuneration he could actually end up earning more money if he stays where is.
How so? Well, it seems the headline salary figures may not differ that much - although I understand Mercedes' offer is larger.
Mercedes offer greater freedom in terms of new sponsorship deals with which Hamilton can top up his income, and out of which his management group - music industry mogul Simon Fuller's XIX - would take a cut that some sources say is as great as 50%, a figure XIX say is wildly exaggerated.
McLaren, by contrast, have strict rules around their driver contracts - they do not allow any personal sponsorship deal that clashes with any brand owned by a company on their car.
So deals with mobile, fashion, household products, perfumes, oil and so on are all out. Jenson Button is allowed to have his deal to endorse shampoo because it was signed before McLaren had GlaxoSmithKline as a partner.
McLaren, I'm told, have loosened some of their restrictions in an attempt to give Hamilton more freedom.
And in their favour is that all contracts contain clauses that define bonuses for success; in McLaren's case for wins and championships. These amount to significant amounts of money and on current form Hamilton would earn more in bonuses with McLaren than with Mercedes.
Financially, it is in XIX's interests for Hamilton to move to Mercedes - that is where they will earn most money.
But that may not be the case for Hamilton, which of course begs the question of whether the driver and his management group actually have conflicting interests.
While Hamilton has steadfastly refused to discuss his future with the media, he has been consistent in one thing. As he put it at the Italian Grand Prix earlier this month: "I want to win."
He knows exactly how good he is and it rankles with him that he has so far won only one world title.
In which case, the last few races will have given him pause for thought.
McLaren started this season with the fastest car in F1, the first time they have done that since at least 2008 and arguably 2005.
But Hamilton's title bid was hampered by a series of early season operational problems that prevented him winning until the seventh race of the season in Canada. Was it during this period that he signed that "something" with Mercedes?
After a slight mid-season wobble through the European and British Grands Prix in late June and early July, though, McLaren have come on strongly.
Upgrades introduced at the German Grand Prix gave them a big step forward, making the McLaren once again the fastest car.
Progress was disguised in Hockenheim by a wet qualifying session, which allowed Alonso to take the pole position from which he controlled the race.
Even then, though, with Hamilton out of the reckoning after an early puncture, Button ran the Spaniard close.
Since then, it has been all McLaren. Hamilton won from pole in Hungary and Italy; Button the same in Belgium. Then in Singapore Hamilton lost an almost certain victory, also from pole, with a gearbox failure.
Meanwhile, Mercedes have floundered. And while rival teams agreed that a big upgrade to the silver cars in Singapore did move them forward a little, Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher only just scraped into the top 10 in qualifying and were anonymous in the race until Schumacher's embarrassing crash with Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne.
Undoubtedly, Mercedes will have given Hamilton the hard sell.
They'll have pointed out that they have won the world title more recently than McLaren - in their previous guise of Brawn in 2009.
They'll have said they are a true works team backed by a huge car company, whereas McLaren are from next year paying for their "customer" Mercedes engines.
They'll have argued that, in team boss Ross Brawn, Mercedes have the architect of the most dominant dynasty in F1 history - the Ferrari team of the early 2000s - who is determined to do it again. Triple world champion Niki Lauda, who is expected to be given a senior management role at the Mercedes team, has also been involved in trying to persuade Hamilton to join the team.
And they'll have said Hamilton has relative commercial freedom with them to make as much money as he wants.
What they won't have said is that the 2009 world title came about in rather exceptional circumstances and that at no other time has the team looked remotely like consistently challenging the best - whether as BAR, Honda or Mercedes.
And they won't have said that McLaren - for all Hamilton's frustrations over the cars he has had since 2009 and the mistakes that have been made in 2012 - have a winning record over the past 30 years that is the envy of every team in F1.
Of course, the past does not define the future, but the future is built on the past.
It's possible that the near future of F1 is one of Mercedes hegemony, but it would be a hell of a gamble to take for a man who professes he just "wants to win".
If the latest indications about his mind-set are correct, perhaps that is what Hamilton has now realised.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/hamilton_saga_nearing_endgame.html
Joachim Winkelhock Manfred Winkelhock Markus Winkelhock Reine Wisell Roelof Wunderink Alexander Wurz Sakon Yamamoto
donderdag 27 september 2012
Hamilton saga nearing endgame
Only Lewis Hamilton truly knows where he wants to drive next season - and perhaps not even he does just yet. But the signs are that the saga that has been occupying Formula 1 for months is nearing its endgame.
Hamilton has two competing offers on the table for his future - one to stay at McLaren and one to move to Mercedes.
The latest indication is that he is leaning towards staying where he is; one McLaren insider even suggested at the Singapore Grand Prix that a deal could be inked within days.
At the same time, there may be a complication. There are suggestions that earlier this year Hamilton signed something with Mercedes - a letter of intent, a memorandum of understanding, perhaps - that he would need to get out of before he can commit to McLaren. His current team have heard talk of this, too. Hamilton's management deny this.
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
The conventional wisdom is that Mercedes are offering Hamilton more money and that the deal is sweetened further by greater freedom over personal sponsorship deals. Those are highly restricted at McLaren because of the team's breadth of marketing tie-ups.
But BBC Sport understands it is not quite as simple as that.
For one thing, some sources say the figures quoted for the Mercedes offer in the media so far - of �60m over three years - are significantly larger than what is actually on the table.
Of course, in theory, as one of the largest car companies in the world, Mercedes can afford to pay almost any figure it wants.
But the board's commitment to Formula 1 has been in question all year. While it is understood that the company has now reached an agreement with the sport's commercial rights holders defining the financial terms under which they have committed for the next few years, F1 is not a money-no-object exercise for them.
McLaren believe their offer to Hamilton is broadly similar to Mercedes', and that in terms of total remuneration he could actually end up earning more money if he stays where is.
How so? Well, it seems the headline salary figures may not differ that much - although I understand Mercedes' offer is larger.
Mercedes offer greater freedom in terms of new sponsorship deals with which Hamilton can top up his income, and out of which his management group - music industry mogul Simon Fuller's XIX - would take a cut that some sources say is as great as 50%, a figure XIX say is wildly exaggerated.
McLaren, by contrast, have strict rules around their driver contracts - they do not allow any personal sponsorship deal that clashes with any brand owned by a company on their car.
So deals with mobile, fashion, household products, perfumes, oil and so on are all out. Jenson Button is allowed to have his deal to endorse shampoo because it was signed before McLaren had GlaxoSmithKline as a partner.
McLaren, I'm told, have loosened some of their restrictions in an attempt to give Hamilton more freedom.
And in their favour is that all contracts contain clauses that define bonuses for success; in McLaren's case for wins and championships. These amount to significant amounts of money and on current form Hamilton would earn more in bonuses with McLaren than with Mercedes.
Financially, it is in XIX's interests for Hamilton to move to Mercedes - that is where they will earn most money.
But that may not be the case for Hamilton, which of course begs the question of whether the driver and his management group actually have conflicting interests.
While Hamilton has steadfastly refused to discuss his future with the media, he has been consistent in one thing. As he put it at the Italian Grand Prix earlier this month: "I want to win."
He knows exactly how good he is and it rankles with him that he has so far won only one world title.
In which case, the last few races will have given him pause for thought.
McLaren started this season with the fastest car in F1, the first time they have done that since at least 2008 and arguably 2005.
But Hamilton's title bid was hampered by a series of early season operational problems that prevented him winning until the seventh race of the season in Canada. Was it during this period that he signed that "something" with Mercedes?
After a slight mid-season wobble through the European and British Grands Prix in late June and early July, though, McLaren have come on strongly.
Upgrades introduced at the German Grand Prix gave them a big step forward, making the McLaren once again the fastest car.
Progress was disguised in Hockenheim by a wet qualifying session, which allowed Alonso to take the pole position from which he controlled the race.
Even then, though, with Hamilton out of the reckoning after an early puncture, Button ran the Spaniard close.
Since then, it has been all McLaren. Hamilton won from pole in Hungary and Italy; Button the same in Belgium. Then in Singapore Hamilton lost an almost certain victory, also from pole, with a gearbox failure.
Meanwhile, Mercedes have floundered. And while rival teams agreed that a big upgrade to the silver cars in Singapore did move them forward a little, Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher only just scraped into the top 10 in qualifying and were anonymous in the race until Schumacher's embarrassing crash with Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne.
Undoubtedly, Mercedes will have given Hamilton the hard sell.
They'll have pointed out that they have won the world title more recently than McLaren - in their previous guise of Brawn in 2009.
They'll have said they are a true works team backed by a huge car company, whereas McLaren are from next year paying for their "customer" Mercedes engines.
They'll have argued that, in team boss Ross Brawn, Mercedes have the architect of the most dominant dynasty in F1 history - the Ferrari team of the early 2000s - who is determined to do it again. Triple world champion Niki Lauda, who is expected to be given a senior management role at the Mercedes team, has also been involved in trying to persuade Hamilton to join the team.
And they'll have said Hamilton has relative commercial freedom with them to make as much money as he wants.
What they won't have said is that the 2009 world title came about in rather exceptional circumstances and that at no other time has the team looked remotely like consistently challenging the best - whether as BAR, Honda or Mercedes.
And they won't have said that McLaren - for all Hamilton's frustrations over the cars he has had since 2009 and the mistakes that have been made in 2012 - have a winning record over the past 30 years that is the envy of every team in F1.
Of course, the past does not define the future, but the future is built on the past.
It's possible that the near future of F1 is one of Mercedes hegemony, but it would be a hell of a gamble to take for a man who professes he just "wants to win".
If the latest indications about his mind-set are correct, perhaps that is what Hamilton has now realised.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/hamilton_saga_nearing_endgame.html
Jackie Stewart Jimmy Stewart Siegfried Stohr Rolf Stommelen Philippe Streiff
Cool, canny Alonso seems to have all the answers
The remarkable story of Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's incredible season continued at the German Grand Prix as the Spaniard became the first man to win three races in 2012 and moved into an imposing lead in the world championship.
Those three victories have all been very different, but equally impressive. And each has demonstrated specific aspects of the formidable army of Alonso's talents.
In Malaysia in the second race of the season, at a time when the Ferrari was not competitive in the dry, he grabbed the opportunity provided by rain to take a most unexpected first win.
In Valencia last month, it was Alonso's opportunism and clinical overtaking abilities that were to the fore.
Other drivers may wonder how to stop Alonso's relentless drive to a third title. Photo: Getty
And in Germany on Sunday his victory was founded on his relentlessness, canniness and virtual imperviousness to pressure.
Ferrari, lest we forget, started the season with a car that was the best part of a second and a half off the pace. Their progress since then has been hugely impressive.
But vastly improved though the car is, it was not, as Alonso himself, his team boss Stefano Domenicali and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel all pointed out after the race on Sunday, the fastest car in Germany.
Vettel's Red Bull - which finished second but was demoted to fifth for passing Jenson Button by going off the track - and the McLaren appeared to have a slight pace advantage over the Ferrari, given their ability to stay within a second of it for lap after lap.
But Alonso cleverly managed his race so he was always just out of reach of them when it mattered.
He pushed hard in the first sector every lap so he was always far enough ahead at the start of the DRS overtaking zone to ensure his pursuers were not quite close enough to try to pass him into the Turn 6 hairpin.
After that, he could afford to back off through the middle sector of the lap, taking the stress out of his tyres, before doing it all over again the next time around.
Managing the delicate Pirelli tyres in this way also meant he could push that bit harder in the laps immediately preceding his two pit stops and ensure he kept his lead through them.
Equally, he showed the presence of mind to realise when Lewis Hamilton unlapped himself on Vettel shortly before the second stops that if he could, unlike the Red Bull driver, keep Hamilton behind, it would give him a crucial advantage at the stop.
It was not quite "67 qualifying laps", as Domenicali described it after the race, but it was certainly a masterful demonstration of control and intelligence.
And there was no arguing with another of the Italian's post-race verdicts. "(Alonso) is at the peak of his personal performance, no doubt about it," Domenicali said.
It was the 30th victory of Alonso's career, and he is now only one behind Nigel Mansell in the all-time winners' list. The way he is driving, he will surely move ahead of the Englishman into fourth place behind Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna before the end of the year.
At the halfway point of the season, Alonso now looks down on his pursuers in the championship from the lofty vantage point of a 34-point advantage.
That is not, as Red Bull team principal Christian Horner correctly pointed out in Germany, "insurmountable" with 10 races still to go and 250 points up for grabs. But catching him when he is driving as well as this will take some doing.
Alonso is clearly enjoying the situation, and is taking opportunities to rub his rivals' noses in it a little.
He is not the only driver to have been wound up by the index-finger salute Vettel employed every time he took one of his 11 wins and 15 pole positions on the way to the title last year.
So it was amusing to see Alonso do the same thing after he had beaten the German to pole position at Vettel's home race on Saturday.
The exchange between Alonso, Button and Vettel as they climbed out of their cars immediately after the race was also illuminating.
After standing on his Ferrari's nose to milk the applause, Alonso turned to Button and said: "You couldn't beat me?" He then pointed to Vettel and said: "He couldn't either."
All part of the game, but a little reminder to both men of what a formidable job Alonso is doing this season.
The race underlined how close the performance is between the top three teams this year.
Red Bull had a shaky start to the season by their standards - although to nowhere near the extent of Ferrari - but have had on balance the fastest car in the dry since the Bahrain Grand Prix back in April.
And while McLaren have had a shaky couple of races in Valencia and Silverstone, they showed potential race-winning pace in Germany following the introduction of a major upgrade.
Despite a car damaged when he suffered an early puncture on debris left from a first-corner shunt ironically involving Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa, Hamilton was able to run with the leaders before his retirement with gearbox damage.
And Button impressively fought his way up to second place from sixth on the grid, closing a five-second gap on Alonso and Vettel once he was into third place.
This has not been Button's greatest season, as he would be the first to admit.
Germany was the first race at which he has outqualified Hamilton in 2012 and even that may well have been down to the different tyre strategies they ran in qualifying.
Nevertheless, he remains a world-class grand prix driver and Germany proved the folly of those who had written him off after his recent struggles.
And despite Alonso's lead in the championship, the season is finely poised.
Germany was a low-key race for Mark Webber, who was unhappy with his car on the harder of the two tyres but remains second in the championship. And Red Bull's two drivers clearly have the equipment to make life difficult for Alonso.
The McLaren drivers are determined to make something of their season still and Lotus are quick enough to cause the three big teams some serious concern.
Mercedes, meanwhile, have a bit of work to do to turn around their tendency to qualify reasonably well and then go backwards in the race.
"It's going to be a great, great season," said McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh on Sunday. "It already has been a great season."
And the next instalment is already less than seven days away in Hungary next weekend.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/07/cool_canny_alonso_looks_diffic.html
Wolfgang Seidel Gunther Seiffert Ayrton Senna† Bruno Senna Dorino Serafini Chico Serra Doug Serrurier
Fernando Alonso: ?We were not very competitive this weekend??
Fernando Alonso kept himself firmly in the lead of the World Championship with a typically canny drive in Singapore, bringing his Ferrari home in third to score some more priceless points. Alonso lost 10 points to winner Sebastian Vettel, who … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/09/23/fernando-alonso-we-were-not-very-competitive-this-weekend/
Leslie Thorne Bud Tingelstad Sam Tingle Desmond Titterington Johnnie Tolan
woensdag 26 september 2012
Hamilton's tough decision
Since BBC Sport chief analyst Eddie Jordan reported on this website last week that Lewis Hamilton was on the verge of switching to Mercedes from McLaren next year, Formula 1 has been awash with speculation about the 2008 world champion's future.
McLaren did their best at last weekend's Italian Grand Prix to dismiss the story - team boss Martin Whitmarsh even joked: "Any sentence that begins, 'Eddie Jordan understands' is immediately questionable, isn't it?"
But it was noticeable that not only did McLaren not deny the story was true, they said very little to suggest Hamilton was staying with them.
From Whitmarsh, it was: "Lewis and his management have made their position clear to us", "my understanding is we're talking to him" and "I'm pretty convinced we will have a very good, competitive driving line-up next year."
None of which translates as "Hamilton is staying".
Hamilton was triumphant at Monza, but how many more races will he win with McLaren? Photo: Getty
As for the doubts cast on the veracity of the story, the source is strong and credible, and the core information - that Hamilton has agreed terms on a contract with Mercedes for next year - is based in fact.
That does not necessarily mean Hamilton will move but it does mean he is thinking about it seriously. And you can make what you will of his downbeat behaviour throughout the Monza weekend - even after he won the race.
In the paddock, the general view was that a move would be a mistake - but it is a much more complicated decision than that.
Firstly, McLaren have undoubtedly been more competitive than Mercedes in the last three years. Between them, Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button have won 16 races since the start of 2010; Mercedes only one, with Nico Rosberg in China this season.
Over an extended period, McLaren have a winning pedigree beyond that of any other team. Only Ferrari have won more grands prix, and they have been in F1 for 16 years longer.
Hamilton, who has been nurtured by the team since he was 13, says: "I want to win." On pure performance, there's only one choice, right?
In F1, things are rarely that simple.
Yes, McLaren usually have a good car, but until this year it had been a long time since they had unquestionably the best.
It was close with Ferrari in 2007-8, although hindsight would suggest now that the McLaren was probably not quite as good then. In which case, you probably have to go back to 2005 to find the last time McLaren had conclusively the fastest car in F1.
This is known to have irked Hamilton in 2010-11, and played some part in the cocktail of issues that led to his difficult season last year, when his frustration at the car's inability to compete for the title and problems with his family and his girlfriend led to what he admitted was his worst season in the sport.
That all changed this season. The McLaren is again setting the pace. But a series of operational problems in the opening races badly affected Hamilton, costing him 40 points. Add those points to his current total and he would be leading Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, not trailing him by a win and a fourth place.
Hamilton has done well to disguise his disappointment publicly, but it was around this time that his management started approaching McLaren's rivals about job opportunities.
On top of that, McLaren are entering an uncertain period. For the first time next year, they will have to pay for their Mercedes engines - that's in the region of eight million euros they cannot spend on the performance of the car unless they find it from other sources.
Tied in with this is the question of salary. McLaren have made it clear they cannot afford Hamilton at any price. The word is they have offered him a cut in money for next season, on the basis that they cannot afford anything more. This might be offset by other compromises, such as over PR appearances, flights and so on.
Already on about half of what Alonso earns at Ferrari, one can imagine how that has gone down with Hamilton - especially as McLaren's portfolio of sponsors makes it very difficult for a driver to do personal deals elsewhere to top up his earnings. That's because almost anywhere he looks there's a clash with a company that has links with McLaren.
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Meanwhile, Mercedes are by definition a "works" team with factory engines, have the might of an automotive giant behind them. They can pay Hamilton a lot more than his current salary - believed to be about �13m - if they want to. And at Mercedes there is also a lot more freedom for a driver to do personal sponsorship deals.
The funding for Mercedes' F1 team comes entirely from external sponsors - and the budget is reputedly significantly less than enjoyed by Red Bull and Ferrari. But it is underwritten by the parent company so even if there is a sponsorship shortfall it doesn't affect the team.
Performance-wise, the team that is now Mercedes actually won the world title more recently than McLaren, when they were Brawn in 2009. Ironically, the man who won it was Button. His success - and what he interpreted as the team's ambivalence about him staying - led to him moving to McLaren.
Admittedly, Brawn's success in 2009 was tainted by the row over double-diffusers that clouded that season. Once everyone had them, the car was no longer as competitive as it had been.
Mercedes have certainly been under-performing since then, but that can at least partly be explained by the fact that Brawn, facing serious financial problems, slashed their staff by 40% in 2009. As Mercedes, they have been slowly building levels up again.
The pressure on the team to up their game is massive - hence the huge investment in terms of staffing and resources in the last 18 months or so.
And while they are a long way behind McLaren this season, they are on an upward trend, even if it is significantly slower than either the team or the Mercedes board would like.
Equally, few in F1 would disagree that Hamilton is one of the three best drivers in the world, alongside Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. Mercedes don't have any of them.
It's impossible to know how much faster the car would go in their hands than it has done so far in those of Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Some might argue not at all. But, that's not how Hamilton, who raced and beat Rosberg in their formative years, will look at it.
Add all that up, and the decision doesn't seem so easy after all.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/hamiltons_tough_decision.html
Keke Rosberg† Nico Rosberg Mauri Rose Louis Rosier Ricardo Rosset Huub Rothengatter Basil van Rooyen
It?s still a Bull market
Sebastian Vettel set the pace in the third practice session in Singapore, three-tenths of a second ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with Fernando Alonso another three-tenths behind. Nico Hulkenberg was fourth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, Fleipe Massa, Paul di Resta, Nico Rosberg, Bruno Senna, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber, who slowed his progress by clonking a [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/its-still-a-bull-market/
Doug Serrurier Johnny ServozGavin Tony Settember Hap Sharp Brian ShaweTaylor Carroll Shelby Tony Shelly
Vote for your Singapore GP driver of the weekend | 2012 Singapore Grand Prix
Vote for your Singapore GP driver of the weekend is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Compare all the drivers' performances and vote for who you think was the best driver of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
Vote for your Singapore GP driver of the weekend is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/k1_utu6uAa0/
Johnny Thomson Leslie Thorne Bud Tingelstad Sam Tingle Desmond Titterington
'The point of no confidence is quite near'
 The wreckage of Jochen Rindt's car at Barcelona |
?Colin. I have been racing F1 for 5 years and I have made one mistake (I rammed Chris Amon in Clermont Ferrand) and I had one accident in Zandvoort due to gear selection failure otherwise I managed to stay out of trouble. This situation changed rapidly since I joined your team. ?Honestly your cars are so quick that we would still be competitive with a few extra pounds used to make the weakest parts stronger, on top of that I think you ought to spend some time checking what your different employes are doing, I sure the wishbones on the F2 car would have looked different. Please give my suggestions some thought, I can only drive a car in which I have some confidence, and I feel the point of no confidence is quite near.?A little more than a year later Rindt's Lotus suffered mechanical breakdown just before braking into one of the corners. He swerved violently to the left and crashed into a poorly-installed barrier, killing him instantly.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/the_point_of_no_confidence_is.php
Heini Walter Rodger Ward Derek Warwick John Watson Spider Webb Mark Webber Volker Weidler
dinsdag 25 september 2012
Life in the pit lane
 The Mercedes pit crew prepare for Michael Schumacher in Singapore |
These are not select millionaires but up to 16 ordinary, yet gifted, guys; team mechanics who have worked their way up the system and often migrate from team to team, are paid real-world wages of between �30,000 and �50,000 a year, are drilled to perfection ? and whose split-second synchronisation brings their teams huge rewards.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/life_in_the_pit_lane.php
Roelof Wunderink Alexander Wurz Sakon Yamamoto Alex Yoong Alex Zanardi
Webber loses 10th place for off track excursion
Mark Webber has lost his 10th place in the Singapore GP for gaining an advantage by going off track while battling with Kamui Kobayashi. The stewards said: “Notwithstanding that the distance by which car 2 left the circuit was minimal, … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/09/23/webber-loses-10th-place-for-off-track-excurision/
Shorty Templeman Max de Terra Andre Testut Mike Thackwell Alfonso Thiele Eric Thompson Johnny Thomson
2012 Singapore Grand Prix fastest laps | 2012 Singapore Grand Prix fastest laps
2012 Singapore Grand Prix fastest laps is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Nico Hulkenberg set the fastest lap in the Singapore Grand Prix. Here's all the drivers' lap times from the race in an interactive chart.
2012 Singapore Grand Prix fastest laps is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/eTbE4PVZbfA/
Desire Wilson Justin Wilson Vic Wilson Joachim Winkelhock Manfred Winkelhock Markus Winkelhock Reine Wisell
maandag 24 september 2012
Button Steps Up Pre Season Training With Lance Armstrong
Jenson Button teamed up with record breaking cyclist Lance Armstrong, as he continues to prepare for another Formula One season. The McLaren driver excitedly tweeted that he would be riding with Armstrong, the 7 time Tour de France winner, in Hawaii. Armstrong responded via Twitter “I hope he doesn’t ride as srong as he drives [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/button-steps-up-pre-season-training-with-lance-armstrong/
Louis Rosier Ricardo Rosset Huub Rothengatter Basil van Rooyen Lloyd Ruby
Not bad for the number two driver
There was a moment of levity in the news conference after the British Grand Prix when race-winner Mark Webber was asked if he would continue to fight for the championship or back off and support Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
The journalist in question clearly does not know Webber very well. But the men on either side of him - Vettel and the world championship leader Fernando Alonso - certainly do. The two of them broke out into broad, knowing grins at the sheer unlikeliness of the suggestion.
Webber, as befits a man with class out of the cockpit to match his ability in it, treated his inquisitor with a delicacy that some of his rivals might have found more difficult to summon. But, before expanding on his answer, even he couldn’t resist drawing the humour out of the situation.
“Yeah,” he drawled, smothering a smile. “At Hockenheim (the next race), we will let Seb through.” Cue even bigger smiles from Alonso and Vettel, who are well aware he will be doing no such thing.
Mark Webber (left) celebrates winning the British GP with team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Photo: Getty
There is no Formula 1 driver more rooted in the concept of fair but hard competition than Webber – as his battles for equal treatment at Red Bull, which boiled over at Silverstone in the previous two races, attest.
There was no repeat this year of the squabbles that took place in 2010 and 2011, when Red Bull’s apparent preference for Vettel – and the Australian’s absolute refusal to play a supporting role - were laid bare in different ways.
The internal dynamic at Red Bull is very different this year. The team and drivers seem more at peace with their respective positions, and the drivers are fighting it out on the track without the tensions of previous seasons. And Webber is proving every bit a match for the double champion.
Webber out-qualified Vettel in the wet on Saturday, lining up alongside pole position man Alonso on the front row, and then won a straight battle with the Ferrari driver in the sunshine of race day to move within 13 points of the world championship lead.
The internal qualifying score at Red Bull is now five-four in Webber’s favour, and the 35-year-old has two wins to the German’s one. After a difficult season watching Vettel romp to the title in 2011, Webber has bounced back in style this season. A serious title contender he certainly is.
For a long time, the British Grand Prix looked to be Alonso’s to lose. He converted pole position into a lead at the first corner, with the help of a take-no-prisoners sweep across the track to deter the faster-starting Webber, and he led through both rounds of pit stops.
But in the last 14 laps before the chequered flag, Alonso found his Ferrari a much less competitive proposition on the ‘soft’ tyres he had saved to the end of the race because he had not liked them when he tried them in the one dry practice session on Saturday morning.
Webber remorselessly closed him down and, with Alonso defenceless, swept by into the lead with four laps to go.
It would be easy to blame Ferrari for choosing a strategy that in hindsight turned out to lose them the race. Easy but wrong.
It made perfect sense to save the more fragile ‘soft’ tyres to the end of the race, when the track would have more rubber on it and the cars would be carrying less fuel. It just turned out, in hindsight, to be the incorrect choice.
Alonso, Webber and their respective teams have reason to leave Silverstone satisfied.
Ferrari confirmed their recent progress, and theirs is now clearly a seriously fast race car – as evidenced by the fact that Alonso has contended for victory in each of the last five races, as well as team-mate Felipe Massa’s upturn in form. It is a remarkable turnaround after starting the season 1.5 seconds off the pace.
But, as both Alonso and Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali admitted after the race, the car is not quite a match for the Red Bull, which is now clearly the fastest in the field.
Although Red Bull team boss Christian Horner denied it after the race, the championship seems to be distilling down to a straight fight between Alonso and the Red Bull drivers – Vettel is only 16 points behind Webber.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton is being left behind in fourth place. He is 37 points behind Alonso in the standings after finishing eighth at Silverstone, but more worryingly McLaren have slipped from the pace.
Quite apart from the problems this will cause for them in the championship, it is particularly bad timing for a team whose driver is out of contract at the end of the season.
Hamilton is known to have had conversations with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. It is not clear how much interest there is in him by any of them but this is not the sort of performance that will encourage him to sign a new contract at McLaren.
The fact that even Bernie Ecclestone – who has never needed an excuse to kick Silverstone – refused to blame them for the horrendous traffic jams of Friday that led to them asking 20,000 fans with tickets not to come on Saturday underlines the reality that the organisers can hardly be blamed for the wettest June on record.
Nevertheless, there were clear examples of organisational problems as well as bad luck, and the track’s contingency plans clearly did not work on Friday, even if Silverstone did subsequently manage to dig themselves out of the hole they found themselves in with some effectiveness. They also showed laudable honesty in admitting there were serious problems.
The situation is more complex than it seems. The size of the fees charged by Ecclestone make it hard for races to make any money out of hosting a grand prix and Silverstone simply does not have the funds to pour money into solving the problem.
But a problem there is, and it could easily recur – as every F1 driver pointed out at the weekend, the British summer is notorious for its poor weather.
Those involved in the post-mortem meetings planned for this coming week will have to be imaginative in trying to coming up with solutions, but solutions, whatever they are, do need to be found.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/07/andrew_benson_1.html
Roger Williamson Dempsey Wilson Desire Wilson Justin Wilson Vic Wilson Joachim Winkelhock Manfred Winkelhock
Karthikeyan Makes Surprise F1 Return With HRT
Narain Karthikeyan has made a surprise return to Formula One after being announced as one of Hispania HRT’s drivers for the 2011 season. The Indian driver was unveiled as the first racer to be working with the Spanish based squad, who look likely to enter into a second season of racing despite on-going financial concerns. [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/karthikeyan-makes-surprise-f1-return-with-hrt/
Mika Salo Roy Salvadori Consalvo Sanesi Stephane Sarrazin Takuma Sato
zondag 23 september 2012
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