It’s race day and it’s also Nico Rosberg’s birthday. He turns 25 today, so happy birthday Nico!
Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Michael Schumacher hits back over ITV criticism (Daily Mirror)
Have the Daily Mirror not noticed F1 hasn’t been on ITV since 2008?
Renault’s fresh faces breathe life into tainted team (The Guardian)
Eric Boullier: “Formula One needs to work more as a global industry. We should work more together for the interests of the sport rather than just look after ourselves. I am not naive. There are egos and interests out there. But F1 needs to behave and have one voice, like the Olympic Games. We need to develop for the interests of F1, we need to walk as one community and with one aim.”
Lunch with the FT: Chad Hurley (Financial Times)
“When I ask about speculation that he is seeking a partnership with Ferrari to bring a Formula One team to the US he does nothing to dampen the speculation, instead going out of his way to praise Ferrari’s role in the history of motor sports. ‘They’d be great to work with but I don’t know when that would be, whether it will even be an option on the table,’ he says.”
Teams seek to clarify testing rules (Autosport)
Martin Whitmarsh: “We will clarify the regs. Given I am calling for that then we will not be doing a filming day. We will be doing a straight-line running day, which will consume one of those days. That is the fair and proper thing to do.”
Comment of the day
Today Lotus mark their 500th Grand Prix start. While some insist the new incarnation of the team should not be considered the same as the one which raced from 1958 to 1994, others disagree, including Jim N:
As a very long time Lotus fan, emotionally Lotus was only Lotus when Colin Chapman was in charge as it was very much his team and his genius.
But did that make the Lotus races after Chapman’s death not Lotus? No of course not. But if you have gone to the lengths that Fernandes seems to have done, buying the rights to the old name, getting the backing of Lotus cars and the Chapman family, building the cars as near to the old Lotus workshops as possible with quite a few of the old personnel, then I think he has done all that can reasonably be expected.
No, for me they do not have the emotional pull of the old Lotus, that would be impossible. But I don’t have a problem with them using the name and claiming some of the heritage and I would like to see them do well, well enough to perhaps persuade the Chapman family to let them use the final endorsement, the ACBC logo.
Jim N
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Dan N!
On this day in F1
The first F1 race at Clermont-Ferrand was held on this day 45 years ago.
While several tracks have been given the appellation, ‘mini-Nurburgring’, Clermont-Ferrand was one of the very few to actually deserve the name. There is nothing like it on the F1 calendar today – the eight kilometre circuit had 51 corners and Jim Clark’s pole position time was three minutes, 18 seconds.
The Lotus driver won having switched from his usual 33, with which he had won at Spa-Francorchamps two weeks earlier, to the earlier 25.
Here’s an excellent video I found of the race on Vimeo. It appears to be part of a series so if anyone knows what production it’s from, please let me know as I’d like to see the whole thing!
Read more: F1 circuits history part 5: 1961-6
Icthyes (@icthyes)
27th June 2010, 1:04
It’s not called the Daily Moron for no reason. I’m surprised they didn’t ask Schumacher to denounce David Cameron whilst they were at it.
TogoT
27th June 2010, 10:23
They had me convinced of their outstanding competence when they called Bild the leading newspaper in Germany.
(Bild is about ten times worse a tabloid than the Mirror in my opinion. So yes, quality.)
Joey-Poey
27th June 2010, 1:06
The bluegrass music is amusing X). Not something I would normally connect with the French Grand Prix.
David-A (@david-a)
27th June 2010, 1:21
Even for a tabloid, The Daily Mirror have really dropped the ball on that one.
F1Yankee
27th June 2010, 4:47
i thought the bluegrass was an interesting choice for a piece that only had 1 engine drive-by recording, played over and over :D
not the greatest coverage of not the most professional sport, but it oozes magic we’ll never see again.
Joey-Poey
27th June 2010, 5:04
haha, I noticed that too about the engine sound clip.
Alex
27th June 2010, 8:58
OMG that France Grand Prix was SOOOOO BOOORING… It had like 0 overtakes!! I suggest we add movable rear wi.. oh wait.
On a more serieus tone, what a balls those drives had. As far as I can see they didn’t even have seatbelts!
Alex
27th June 2010, 9:00
Whoops early morning here, it should of course be French grand prix and drivers.
Mike
27th June 2010, 9:07
Whitmarsh is right, it was a not quite an above the belt move from Ferrari.
I like that there is talk of limited in season testing. It should be good.
I think the “Filming days” should be scraped if testing is brought back, If you want to film, do it while you test. instead of testing while you film…
The Daily mirror took an almighty kick at Schumacher didn’t it!
hawkfist
27th June 2010, 10:43
As much as I want Whitmarsh to be right being a McLaren fan, I don’t see how this can be differentiated from what Hamilton did in Montreal Q3. It’s against the spirit of the rules but within the letter of them.
While I’m not sure of the exact wording in this case, I’d assume what they did to be legal. The rule needs to be changed so filming days must be done with the car setup used in the last race or something along those lines.
Dan N
27th June 2010, 10:35
Thanks for the birhtday wishes. And I’ve got my own GP with which to cure my hangover. Happy birthday to Nico, had no idea we shared the same day. Bet he doesn’t feel as rough as I do…
BasCB (@bascb)
27th June 2010, 10:43
Have a nice birthday Dan N!
I think Nico will not be feeling that much better today after yesterdays qualifying. I am pretty sure he did not have a very nice afternoon and evening to make up for it, as you hopefully did.
Dan N
27th June 2010, 16:00
Many thanks!
And you make a very good point.
BasCB (@bascb)
27th June 2010, 10:45
Anyone get some information on the GP2 shunt in Valencia.
I heard on the radio, that the car of Kral ended up being wedged between the barriers, although he was not badly hurt himself.
Bleu
27th June 2010, 10:48
He hit Rodolfo Gonzalez before braking into turn 17 and had massive airborne moment, hit tarmac runoff while landng and went to the barriers, still carrying very high speed.
Calum
27th June 2010, 11:03
Speaking of tabloids dropping clangers, in yesterdays Sun (a bit of a rag admitedly) they had a map of the Barcelona track in their EuroGP build up, I laughed.