F1 links: The Chain

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The Chain letter

“We – the undersigned – are writing an open letter to you, urging you to once again use that part from Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain as the title music to your Formula One coverage that begins this year on BBC One.”

Hot from Guildford – the new James Allen

Grand Prix Legends’ deliciously off-the-wall vidcast.

Glock pessimistic over new regulations

Timo Glock: “We don’t have any experience of it yet, but my feeling is that it will be not a big change in terms of overtaking.”

Howett on victory, cost cutting and Toyota’s future

“I believe that Formula One itself is a strong and powerful sport. We can either be very pessimistic but I think the debt in Formula One is probably less than in football. We are a global sport, which means that certain regions will recover from the recession earlier. I believe you could say that people will have less disposable income, so they will probably stay home at the weekend and watch Formula One. We have to look at the up side as well. I think generally the sport is in a good position, and provided we have a competitive season and not too much politics, then the value of staying in Formula One is strong. And I would admit, as a team, we need a strong year.”

The inside track on Force India’s fabrication shop

“The fab shop makes all of the larger metallic items that are fitted to the car, including the cooling systems for the engine and gearbox, the pipework and plumbing and all the brackets that can’t be made from composite carbon for heat and tolerance reasons. As a small team of just three people, that’s a pretty tall order. Particularly when each and every part they make could be, as Neil Christie, one of Force India’s fully skilled fabricators explains, a ‘car breaker’ – scarily, a part that could end a driver’s race.”

Bernie Embattled

“Max Mosley, once Bernie’s lapdog, is unlikely to bow down to him on this occasion, especially now that it becomes obvious that their views on the future of the sport differ so fundamentally. While Max is set upon creating a spec formula and is already well along the way to such an abomination, Bernie wants to free up the rules in exchange for some form of commitment from the manufacturers. We all know that is not going to happen and neither is Max going to start a new war with the teams by introducing yet more rules just to suit Bernie.”

Escaping the winter blues

“Good old BBC – and now they will be sending us Grands Prix from all corners of the globe. I whinge about the licence fee, but it’s great value for money. It will be interesting to see what the Beeb brings to the party in Melbourne.”

Super fee for the super licence

“The new deal would mean world champion Lewis Hamilton having to pay ?����?�218,920 for his licence fee this year. Seems like a lot of cash, but probably not so much if you’re earning ?����?�12 million a year.”

Joe Saward – F1 Globetrotter

Joe Saward’s F1 blog.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “F1 links: The Chain”

  1. Great job posting that link about the FI outsourced fabrication shop. Very insightful.

  2. from “Bernie Embattled”

    The cost-cutting measures agreed between the FIA and FOTA are a step in the right direction but cannot reduce costs quickly enough to save the threatened teams. It is very likely that Williams and Renault will cease to compete in F1 after 2009; Toyota has one more year to improve or be axed. This is not a problem what will go away if a few more Ferraris, McLarens and BMWs appear on the grid.

    i agree with these unfortunate predictions. this is the carpocalypse, and f1 is both an apex predator and a wicked sinner. the meek shall inherit the earth, in their mazdas, lotus 7’s, and mustangs.

  3. The solution is, as ever, somewhere between the two camps, and with agreement from FOTA as well of course.
    For Bernie to keep the big Manufacturers, he needs to allow them to drop their works teams and concentrate on supplying engines and gearboxes at a reasonable price to whoever wants to build an F1 car.
    For Max to have his ‘Spec’ series, he needs to relax his control over who makes what, but clarify to everybody just what is required for the engine, gearbox, brakes, tyres, etc, and set a challenging price limit on everything too.
    That way we can have more, smaller, leaner, competitive teams on the grid, as many engine and tyre suppliers as want to take part, with no big budgets, and possibly a few more chassis designers in the mix too.
    We can have our cake and eat it – why can’t those in charge just grow up and sort it out?

  4. dear bbc, please dont use music from the 70’s in a sport years ahead of any other sports.

  5. I don’t believe the BBC should use “The Chain” – for all it’s a fantastic piece of music that goes straight to the gut of any motor racing fan.

    As we said in a blog post a while ago, they should be breaking with the past and looking for new ways to bring us spectacular F1 coverage, not lazily invoking nostalgia.

    1. Why can’t we have spectactular new TV coverage, and still use the ‘original’ music? F1 isn’t F1 without The Chain, even though its just a silly bit of music.
      Who remembers the British GP where Fleetwood Mac played the tune live……….?

  6. from ” Bernie Embattled”
    Probably it´s not that difficult for the FIA to set some new good rules :
    — the new Cosworth engine is a step in the right direction, and I do not think there is any stigma of “spec series” for using it : Lotus and Jim Clark used that engine, and they where considered the classiest team of all.
    — if at the same time teams lke BMW want to make their own engine, with the same specs more or less as the Cosworth one, they will also have that prestige. The main thing is that the new engine be reasonable , for example a 3000cc V8 with 14000 revs.
    — gearbox and KERS, the same for all
    — possibility of customer cars.

    I´m sure that if the FIA and the teams sat down, they could determine some good rules. No matter how strict the rules are, there will always be a way of doing things so that there is no perception of “spec series” – I would not worry about that.

    The problem I think is not the rules, those can be changed anytime. The problem is CVC – the world of F1 revolves around their financial predicament.

  7. Many thanks for the Joe Saward link – otherwise I’d never have known he’d started the page. He’s not even mentioned it on grandprix.com…

  8. I’m all for the chain myself, I grew up watching F1 in the 80s so that piece of music will always mean F1 to me and get the blood racing.

    However, I’m not against change for the better, so if they do go for something new I really hope they go for something unique that can become synonymous with F1 and not some bland, generic “Right Here, Right Now” style of mainstream dance track that has been used for countless montages in the past.

  9. Would you have Match of the Day without ‘Offside’; Pot Black without ‘Black & White Rag’; Ski Sunday without ‘Pop Looks Bach’; Cricket without ‘Soul Limbo’; Wimbledon without ‘Light and Tuneful’ or golf without ‘Chaseside Shoot-up’? No of course not. And you can’t have Formula One without ‘The Chain’…..

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