F1 Fanatic round-up: 2/2/2010

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A very busy day on the site yesterday with so much interest in the start of F1 testing, Michael Schumacher’s and the launch of three more new cars.

We’ll have a new testing post open soon but for now here’s the Tuesday round-up:

Links

Rosberg should ‘get out’ says Barrichello (Autosport)

“When asked if he had any advice for Schumacher’s new team-mate Rosberg, Barrichello’s cheeky response was: ‘Yeah. Get out of there! That is the only thing I can tell him.'”

2010 Formula 1 predictions (Doctorvee)

A light-hearted look ahead to 2010.

MercÔÇÖs Classy Attention to Historical Detail (Will Buxton)

“It is… heartening to see that on the ultra sleek and very 21st Century Mercedes GP W01, the team has payed homage to its history and is continuing a design trait it carried on its cars 55 years ago.”

Comment of the day

Were the media getting just a bit carried away with Schumacher’s lap time yesterday? Nick Somebody is our voice of reason:

You donÔÇÖt know what the fuel loads are (there is going to be a huge variation in lap time based on fuel load this year).

You donÔÇÖt know what tyres are being used and the amount of laps they have done.

You donÔÇÖt know what they are doing in their testing program.

You donÔÇÖt know how the track temp and wind has changed. it was windy to begin with. I saw that in some video on YouTube.

ItÔÇÖs natural that through the day you improve your set-up.

IÔÇÖm expecting Schumacher to beat Rosberg and to be on good form this year, but itÔÇÖs all to soon to say that he has destroyed Rosberg or anything like that.
Nick Somebody

If you spot a comment that you think is worthy of comment of the day, please post a link below.

From the archive

A feature I thought I should introduce to the daily round-up from time to time is a re-posting of an earlier article that seems relevant at the moment. With Vitaly Petrov set to become Russia’s first F1 driver this year, here’s an earlier look at Bernie Ecclestone’s attempts to hold a Russian Grand Prix.

Happy birthday!

Another pair of birthdays today – best wishes to Sriram and Invoke!

On this day in F1

Roger Williamson was born on this day in 1948. The British driver was killed in his first F1 start at the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix.

His car hit an improperly secured barrier, flipped over and burst into flames. Marshals mistakenly believed Williamson had escaped the wreckage but he remained trapped in the car and burned to death. The horrific event was widely seen on television and spurred on efforts to improve safety at Formula 1 races, but it was too late to save poor Williamson.

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: 2/2/2010”

  1. With Roger Williamson, I though the reason the marshalls didn’t help him was because they were hopelessly equipped to deal with the fire, which is why David Purley (in his fire-proof race gear) stopped racing in an attempt to get Williamson out but was unable to turn Williamson’s car over by himself.

    I could be wrong but that’s the version I’ve always heard. Tragic either way.

    1. There’s a very detailed account of what happened in David Tremayne’s book “The Lost Generation”. It’s pretty harrowing reading. I’ve just had a look back at it now and realised it was one of the drivers who thought Williamson had got out of the car, but it was actually Dave Purley who had stopped to help try to extract Williamson from the car. Marshalls and a policeman looked on while the car burned – the policeman even stopping some people from helping.

      1. Yeah in trying to help, Dave actually added to the confusion, if he had parked close to the wreck it might have been obvious that there were 2 cars and only one driver.

  2. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sriram and Invoke.

    It’s really tragic to hear about Roger,hope things like that never even happen in F1 in the future.

    Not entirely sure what he want to meant by saying
    “Yeah. Get out of there! That is the only thing I can tell him. He needs to drive fast and don’t crash: Ross will always tell you that before the race.”

    I don’t think Ross will ever want Nico to crash!!!!!!

    1. I think it’s just something he says.. like when a manager tells a player to play good, obviously he doesn’t want to play bad, juts something to encourage him.. I don’t know

  3. “…. nothing is allowed to get in the way of Princess Michelle’s Fairy Tale Comeback.” Hysterical.

  4. Happy birthday Sriram, Invoke!!

    1. Cheers for the birthday shoutout Keith, wasi & Vikas :)

      Having testing on my birthday seemed like a blessing, but it’s hard to keep up with everything with a celebratory induced high alcohol intake!

      1. Happy birthday :D
        Happy birthday Sriram too :D Great to have you both on site

  5. Awsome response yesterday, Keith! Congratulations!!!

    Btw, F1 2010 testing: February 1st doesn’t appear in “Articles in full” section.

    It seems to me, everybody is looking at the back of the cars. I’ve seen some pictures of car’s diffusers but honestly, I’m not skilled enough to understand what’s going on with that part of the car.

    It would be great if somebody could give us some advise about what is happening with the different diffusers we’ve seen up to now.

  6. Way to go Rubens! Looks like somebody’s getting a little, ahem, ballsy. I would love to be the journalist who gets to be first to ask Schumacher’s response to that.

    Keith, nice idea – From the Archives.

  7. Is the Renault a factory team Renault? It’s just with the mAjority of shares belonging genii, I wasn’t sure. Is it true the Renault name leaves at the end of the year? I hope they can win a race anyway.

  8. When Mercedes were paying attention to historical detail, they forgot to check that their colour scheme didn’t look crap. Firstly, it’s not silver, it’s damp grey. Secondly, it’s multi-tone damp grey, instead of monotone silver. Thirdly, they let some juvenile delinquent at it with a spray can.

    The Brawn last year was stunning, and clean, and bright. This is grey, shady, grim, dull, depressing, hopeless, dispiriting, and sad.

    1. I’d take “multi-tone damp grey” over “bath tap chrome” any day.

  9. The teams have approved the new tyre rules for 2010 according to Autosport.

  10. A statement issued by the FIA on Tuesday said: “In order to introduce a further element of strategy, cars having participated in Q3 must start the race on the same set of tyres with which their grid time was set.”

  11. Are they keeping the rule about using both sets of dry tyres?, or can someone try to gain an advantage by not changing tyres?, used to work for Senna.

  12. “Rosberg should ‘get out’ says Barrichello”… lol lol lol… or Nico may get a derogatory nickname similar to Rubens…

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