F1 Fanatic round-up: 21/1/2010

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Today Valentino Rossi wraps up his Ferrari test and we now know he’ll be followed by Felipe Massa a day later. Here’s the Thursday round-up:

Links

Donington advisors out of pocket after F1 scheme collapse (Brits on Pole)

“Speaking in June, when problems signing off planning documents were finally overcome, ISG chief executive Andrew Hampel said: ?óÔé¼?ôIt is nonsense to say that the Donington Park figures and debenture scheme does not stack up. […] An administrators’ report has revealed that, at the time those words were spoken, the company was embarking on its third finance bid, a bond issue, after two previous attempts to fund the project had collapsed.”

Superstitious Schumacher likes to be odd (Reuters)

“Formula One comeback king Michael Schumacher has swapped racing numbers with Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg for superstitious reasons.”

Schumacher only had an even number once in F1 – on his debut for Jordan in 1991, when he was number 32. But should we read anything into this about his relationship with Nico Rosberg?

McLaren signs ex-Ferrari aero boss (Autosport)

“McLaren has signed former Ferrari man John Iley as its new head of aerodynamics.”

Comment of the day

Ajokay reckons F1 races are too expensive compared to other ways of spending your money. Commenting on Are F1 fans getting ripped off? he said:

That doesn’t surprise me, and it’s the reason I’m not going to Silverstone this year. In 2004 I paid ?é?ú100 for the entire weekend of general admission.

You can get the same amount of entertainment at a cinema for a tenner, a gig or theatre or day at a theme park for ?é?ú20-40.

I would have loved to have gone this year, really I would, but ?é?ú180-ish for a decent seat just for the Sunday? No thank you, I’ll sit on my sofa and watch it. It’ll be raining anyway?óÔé¼?ª
Ajokay

From the forum

Superted666 asks whether F1 cars are still getting quicker, year-on-year. Mitch, Ned Flanders and others have provided some good data and I’ll chip in with this post from last week: Will F1 cars lap quicker in 2010?

Site updates

Some of you may remember Maximum Motorsport, a site I ran until last year covering other forms of motor racing apart from F1. I decided to close the site last year and it has now been taken down.

The old posts have been moved onto F1 Fanatic, and as a lot of them cover lower categories it means you can now find quite a bit of information on the earlier races of drivers like Bruno Senna and Nico Hulkenberg:

This year I’m planning to do a little coverage of non-F1 series on F1 Fanatic, mainly GP2 as its number one feeder series, and possibly some major sports car events (Le Mans) and Indy Car too. As ever if you’ve got any opinions on what you’d like to see, please post in the comments.

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Yuji Ide was born on this day in 1975. He made his F1 debut in 2006 at the age of 31 – well above the typical age for an F1 rookie. He lasted just four races before the FIA revoked his superlicence following a collision with Christijan Albers at Imola.

Author information

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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18 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 21/1/2010”

  1. Bewildered
    21st January 2010, 0:07

    Schu 1 – 0 Rosberg

    I little bit of, I’m bigger than you methinx. It’s all psychological.

    1. Ratboy
      21st January 2010, 0:51

      yeah, seeing as he didnt get to choose his number at jordan or the first two years at benetton.

      1. LewisC
        21st January 2010, 10:26

        At Jordan, EJ would have told him to shut up and get out there. :)
        I definitely think it’s a little case of a tiny little mind-game. Let’s hope Nico doesn’t come over all nicey-nice on the track…

    2. RFB
      21st January 2010, 17:34

      That, and Ross saying “Michael will win the championship in 2010”.

      Rosberg who didn’t want to go to McLaren, because everything there would revolve around Hamilton, goes to Mercedes where he has already been pretty much told that he will always come after his new teammate. Bad luck, I guess.

  2. Calum
    21st January 2010, 8:49

    Yuji Ide, what a legend!

  3. ajokay
    21st January 2010, 9:05

    Ooh, comment of the day. Didn’t expect that!

    And happy birthday Yuji Ide.

  4. John H
    21st January 2010, 9:17

    Not sure what the removal of Simon Lacey (he has gone to join Ron) at McLaren says about the MP4-25. I hope not bad things!

  5. ajokay
    21st January 2010, 10:32

    Good idea to keep abreast of the important GP2 news, especially as it’s not on free-to-air TV any more. Maybe keep track of Formula 2 as well, as technically it’s an F1 feeder series.

    Le mans and a bit of sportscar news would be good, especially as the FIA are bringing back the various GT and Le Mans World Championships this year

    1. Profile Photo

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      21st January 2010, 10:46

      I think so. I did an interview with Oliver Turvey, who I think is one of the GP2 drivers to keep an eye on this year, at Autosport last week. I’ll have it up on the site soon.

      1. Zahir
        21st January 2010, 16:46

        Considering Moto GP or just keeping it to 4 wheels Keith?

        1. Profile Photo

          Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
          21st January 2010, 17:23

          Afraid not – what I know about motorbikes wouldn’t fill a Tweet, never mind a blog :-)

  6. Bullfrog
    21st January 2010, 10:48

    Yes I’d like to hear about the feeder and sportscar series, particularly in weekends when there’s no Grand Prix on, or when they have title deciders.

    Formula 2, GP3, whichever championship Alguersuari came from: any series likely to provide the next F1 drivers.

  7. Lustigson
    21st January 2010, 10:56

    “… the FIA revoked his superlicence…”

    That’s interesting, Keith. Couldn’t you do an article on F1 drivers who had their licences denied, revoked or suspended, during the last 60-odd season?

  8. Macca
    21st January 2010, 12:23

    I menchened thi sbefor but I would like to see catergories from other countrys on here like V8 Supercars, NASCAR, BTCC, DTM.

    You wouldn’t nessesarily have to write large articles on each one, but it would be nice to be able to see the results of a race weekend and how the championship standings look.

  9. BigGalah
    21st January 2010, 23:03

    What about covering the V8’s here in OZ? More specifically Bathurst as it draws international drivers and is supposedly widely broad cast.

    What do you think Keith? Do you know much about V8’s?

    Do any other F1fans follow tin tops?

    1. Profile Photo

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      22nd January 2010, 0:10

      It’s a great series and I do catch what I can of it on Motors TV – especially Bathurst. But this is still first and foremost an F1 site, and I want to focus more on series that are closely related to F1. Plus, as the series runs in Austrlia, they’re all on in the middle of the night over here.

  10. YujisRevenge
    22nd January 2010, 0:40

    Happy Birthday to Yuj… He’s the inspiration for our 24 Hours of LeMons entry for the Phoenix 2010 Event this weekend…

    1. Profile Photo

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      22nd January 2010, 8:31

      Really? How?

Comments are closed.