It may not be the same as watching an F1 race but yesterday’s GP2 Asia race helped slake my thirst for some proper racing action. If you’re not already seen it, check out the race report which has a small selection of pictures added too.
The second race is at Yas Island today which for British viewers is once again on Eurosport 2 at 2pm. Here’s the rest of today’s round-up:
Links
Motor racing-Force India reject closure threat, ready to race (Reuters)
“Force India rejected a report on Friday that they were in danger of being forced out of business and said their new Formula One car would start testing as planned in Spain next week. A spokeswoman said the new VJM03 car had passed all its mandatory crash tests, with German driver Adrian Sutil giving it a successful shakedown at Silverstone’s Stowe circuit on Wednesday.”
Jerez weather forecast (Weather Underground)
Early forecasts for next week’s test at Jerez suggests a chance of rain which would be bad news for Red Bull, Force India and Virgin Racing. The test runs from the 10th to the 13th, see the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar for more details.
Nico Hulkenberg official website
Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg has a new website – it’s only in German at the moment but he says an English version is coming soon.
Comment of the day
After yesterday’s article on F1 fans’ experiences of different tracks we’ve started to get more contributions from fans who’ve been to Grands Prix. Pieman was at the wet Italian Grand Prix of 2008:
With Silverstone and the British GP under constant threat from Bernie, I went to Monza in 2008.
The weather was atrocious and it didn’t show Monza in its best light. The infrastructure and fabric of the autodrome was falling apart behind the image you see on tv. The track was cracked, cabling was lying all over the place and the marshalling of crowds and vehicles was non existent. The toilets were stomach turning and the tifosi were very anti-Hamilton/McLaren. I thought what part of Silverstone is as bad as this? Has Bernie ever experienced this side of a GP. Perhaps he does from his helicopter as he arrives at the paddock?
Having said all that Monza was fantastic. I was cold, wet, thirsty(!), muddy, uncomfortable and a little bit fearful at one point with the tifosi but it was GREAT. I’d go again without a second thought. The walk through the park to get to the circuit and hearing the engines roar up coupled with the natural passion and enthusiasm of the Italian crowd.
PS. Watch out for the Police one of them grabbed my mate’s bottom.
Pieman
Noticeboard
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Happy birthday!
Birthday greetings today go out to Smitty and Chris Gordon-Smith!
On this day in F1
This time last year Toro Rosso confirmed Sebastien Bourdais would race for them in 2009.
Well, for the first half of it anyway…
wasiF1
6th February 2010, 1:57
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO Smitty and Chris Gordon-Smith
More on Force India threat
http://www.espnstar.com/motorsport/f1/news/detail/item391735/Force-India-face-F1-ban-threat/
http://www.espnstar.com/motorsport/f1/news/detail/item391869/Force-India-dismiss-ban-claims/
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
6th February 2010, 8:50
The ESPN story is a repeat of this one from the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7157613/Companies-House-threatens-to-dissolve-Vijay-Mallyas-Force-India-team.html
Which Joe Saward gives a bit of a kicking:
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/a-silly-story/
And here’s Force India’s records on the Companies House website:
http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/eea09feae97720af173291c31db3ba93/compdetails
rabbit
6th February 2010, 8:15
Kieth , can you tell us when the forum will be back up again ?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
6th February 2010, 8:52
At the moment, no. There was no indication the forum software wouldn’t work on the new server, but the forum simply failed to work at all after the move. At the moment we’ve set up a new, blank forum to work out what the problems and are whether they can be fixed. If they can’t, that will mean a change of forum software.
I’m sorry it’s taking this long, I hope to have an update on progress this weekend.
SonyJunkie
6th February 2010, 9:21
Keith, what forum software are you using? and have you considered using phpBB? Of course this would mean starting from scratch!!
wasiF1
6th February 2010, 15:11
Really missing the forum.
F1Yankee
6th February 2010, 8:22
of course the autodrome is crumbling – it was abandoned forever ago. or do you mean the facilites used now? sorry to hear about the toilets and fresh cops, tho.
three4three
6th February 2010, 9:39
Off topic but, BBC press office:
“Up to an hour of analysis on the red button immediately after all races with Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard, Eddie Jordan and Martin Brundle. Viewers are invited to e-mail/text in, ask questions and interact.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/02_february/04/f1.shtml
Looks like all services from 09 will remain available on the red button. Nice! :)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
6th February 2010, 11:31
Not off-topic at all – anything goes here!
Glad to see the red button stuff will remain intact this year.
Hairs
7th February 2010, 21:07
Looks like they’ve dropped the CBBC commentary option though. Hardly necessary when we’ve got the stupendous 5 Live team.
ram
6th February 2010, 10:55
Is there any photos of Force India VJM03
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
6th February 2010, 11:30
Not yet.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
6th February 2010, 11:30
A couple of things to make you aware of:
Adam Cooper has a new F1 blog: http://adamcooperf1.com/
And you can win a place at the Lotus launch by answering this question to Tony Fernandes on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/tonyfernandes/statuses/8718537513
Texas Tony
6th February 2010, 18:52
Can only echo Pieman’s comments on Monza 2008 however we did not have meet the Police Officer.
Steve
6th February 2010, 21:48
Nelson piquet jr in fifth Danica in 14th early in the daytona arca race on speed.
Whitty 123
6th February 2010, 22:11
yep, heres a link
http://www.justin.tv/slapnut_v5#r=avu0JRk
Toby Bushby
6th February 2010, 22:04
Uh oh! Ralfie’s looking to follow big bro around again:
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns22064.html
Chaz
15th February 2010, 20:58
We had a bunch of Sebastiens and now its a couple of Nico’s on the grid…