F1 Fanatic round-up: 23/8/2010

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Hope you all enjoyed the last weekend of the F1 holiday season. Don’t worry if you’re suffering from withdrawal symptoms because the Belgian Grand Prix preview will be up later today.

Until then, here’s today’s round up:

Links

‘Severe Punishment’ For Ferrari – Mosley (Speed)

"Ferrari should receive a significant sporting sanction for breaking the rules at Hockenheim, according to the controversial former president of F1’s governing body.

"After the Italian team angrily slammed Niki Lauda for predicting a similar outcome at next month’s FIA disciplinary hearing, Max Mosley waded into the debate during an interview with Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

"’I will not make any recommendation, but on the facts at the moment there should have been some sporting sanction and not only a fine,’ he added."

Blog: Good morning Rotterdam! (Renault F1)

"The residents of Rotterdam had a nice surprise this morning as we rocked up with our F1 car and did a couple of runs along one of the bridges in the centre of the city. What better way for the locals to wake up than to the sound of V8 power and the smell of burning rubber!

"In the car today was Jan Charouz, fresh from the training camp with RF1PP in the south of France. This was Jan’s first chance to drive an F1 car on proper city streets and, as you can see from the video below, he’s certainly perfected his donut technique. I’ve seen my fair share of donuts in my time, and these looked very neat and tidy – especially as there wasn’t much room on the bridge.

"Today’s teaser was all part of the build-up to the main event on Sunday, which will see both Vitaly Petrov and Jan Charouz blast through the streets of Rotterdam in the R29. It’s always a popular event, which is free to the public, so if you’re close by and want to see the awesome sight and sound of an F1 car, why not come along and watch the show."

Two icons, but who is the bully and who’s a gent? (The Independent)

"Schumacher’s win-at-all-costs mentality leaves many cold but it’s impossible not to warm to the emotional, passionate Rossi.

"Two of motorsport’s greatest legends, Michael Schumacher and Valentino Rossi, have come under the microscope during the summer.

"Both are multiple champions widely regarded as the modern-day greats of their sports. The Italian may have a way to go to catch the winning tally of the great Giacomo Agostini, whereas the German surpassed Juan Manuel Fangio long ago, but in many ways they are very similar despite a 10-year age gap (41 to 31)."

Comment of the day

I’m glad so many of you have enjoyed Ned Flanders’ ten favourite Herman Tilke designed corners. Prisoner Monkeys says:

“The rules are not the problem. Tilke is.”

Actually, the rules kind of are the problem. Have you seen the rulebook? It’s very specific about what a designer can and cannot do.

If we were to get rid of Tilke and have someone else come in, they’d be forced to play by the same rules. For all their work on Silverstone, Populous didn’t actually do that much – the Wellington Straight already existed.

You also have to consider that Tilke doesn’t have a say in where he builds the circuit. When a new Grand Prix is arranged, land is set aside for it and those "endless possibilities" are confined to that piece of land. Sometimes, he’ll get a good bit of land, like he did with Sepang or Istanbul.

But other times, he’ll get a flat tract of landm as he did with Abu Dhabi or Shanghai, or a piece of land that seeverly limits what he can do, as was the case with Hockenheim.
Prisoner Monkeys

From the forum

F1 stories + quotes

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday Tom?â?ís and innim!

On this day in F1

The European Grand Prix was held on this day in 2009.

Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole but lost a lot of time with a problematic pit stop, allowing Rubens Barrichello to take his first Grand Prix victory since the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix. Hamilton finished second, followed by Kimi Raikkonen for Ferrari in third.

Barrichello said:

What a fantastic day. I am so delighted with the win after what was a really tough race out there. It’s just amazing and a weekend that I will never forget. Even after five years, you don’t forget how to win and the feeling is so good!

Although we were fuelled heavier than the McLarens, I knew that I would have to push really hard throughout the race. My engineer Jock was great today, he really encouraged me and helped me to maintain the pace, and the team did a fantastic job with two excellent pit stops.

I want to thank everyone who has supported me and this victory is dedicated to the whole of Brazil but particularly to my great friend Felipe Massa. I hope he is back racing against me soon.
Rubens Barrichello

Romain Grosjean made his F1 debut for Renault, replacing Nelson Piquet Junior. Luca Badoer also made his return to F1 replacing the injured Felipe Massa, having not raced since the 1999 Japanese Grand Prix.

27 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 23/8/2010”

  1. Oh yeah, third CotD! Thanks, Cari!

    1. at least I got quoted in a COTD…
      (will add a reply in the original thread)

  2. What’s sad is that the current FIA president, Jean Todt, hasn’t opened his mouth, and yet Mosley finds the need to talk to the reporters about what should be done. Why are we still listening to this guy?

    1. Todt can’t comment. If he did, he might be seen as trying to influence the WMSC verdict.

    2. Todt should NOT comment and play politics here. He made a “verdict” it goes to WMSC now if he does the right thing he will not say a word about this to media until after the Sep meet. Personally I think Todt done a great job. Only saying things when he should and acting and escalating things when should have and kept his mouth shut on team actions, teams, drivers and everything. Which Mad Max never could do.

    3. If Todt would comment, he would be making the same mistake as Mosley when he was president, i.e. he would show bias.

      Mosley having his say was only to be expected, he wants attention and the wording of the team order ban was deviced by him as well.
      A shame he did not make sure the rule would be enacted during his time as president, with team orders being done disguised as something else, so we would not notice.

  3. Tavo Hellmund will reportedly be on “Wind Tunnel” (an American show, I gather) tonight. The Austin circuit layout is reportedly finalised, and will be announced soon. It apparently has twenty turns – some high-speed, some of them slow and technical – and has a total elevation of a hundred and forty feet (about forty-five metres).

    1. If you go to Speedtv.com and go to windtunnel you should be able to see the interview on there. I haven’t gone and checked but you usually can. Bed time for me.

      1. not yet available it seems, hope it will be soon though!

  4. Hopefully the F1 this week will cheer me up after the football yesterday, it was a total embarassment :P

    1. Well I can just about make out the orange from you’re gravatar so im guessing you’re a blackpool fan?

      1. No Dundee United, we got beat 4-0!!

  5. “For all their work on Silverstone, Populous didn’t actually do that much – the Wellington Straight already existed.”

    Hang on a minute… weren’t we talking about corners yesterday! $:)

    1. Yes, but the point is that Populous didn’t actually come up with the Wellington Straight and the Brooklands corner. They already existed. From reading the interviews about how they re-designed Silverstone, it’s pretty plain that Populous hit upon the idea of using the existing National Circuit in their expansion of the Grand Prix circuit.

  6. I reckon Ferrari should get some punishment and I don’t mean to sound like Ferrari here but I’m surprised at Max. I think he’s right about them needing a punishment and the incidents are very different but I expected Renault to get more than a fine and Piquet not to be immune etc. :P They are very different so I can’t call him a hypocrite but I’m surprised and also fascinated to what the punishment will actually be.

    Anyway, I’m glad Todt is keeping his head down. Any comment would seem biased and to interefere with the final punishment. I’m seriously impressed with his professionalism he’s shown since he came in.

  7. Rotterdam was fun (i just lived over the Bridge) tobad i could fit into the twositter because i would love to take a ride (minardi two sitter)

    But the sounds were hard through the city buildings i could hear it from my home.

  8. Oh, this is rich:

    http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=383311&FS=F1

    I’m beginning to think it would have been better if Ferrari had left Formula 1 at the end of last year.

    1. Looks like they really are in a different world! They consider sueing the FIA and do their reputation even more damage than has been done already.

      I think Ferrari should look at Renault handling their punishments (Spygate lite and Singapore) and cooperate with the FIA to have some kind of penalty that makes everyone get on with it and does not damage onyone too much.

  9. Just got accepted into Uni today, doing mechanichal engineering. Adrian Newey watch out!!

    1. Congratulations and good luck!

  10. Good luck Lenny! Wish I had followed that dream back in the day. Make sure to get some aero courses in whilst you’re there

  11. Just me or was F1 Fanatic not working for most of today?

    1. Don’t worry it wasn’t just you.

      It was caused by a software failure, I’m afraid. We’re still looking into it but everything should be ok now.

      1. Looks like everything is working quite fine now. Thanks.

  12. I think it was Alonso who qualified on pole not Hamilton, but then Alonso’s wheel nut came loose.

    1. That was the Hungarian Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton.

  13. Happy birthday to both of you Tomás and innim

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