F1 Fanatic round-up: 6/9/2010

Here’s today’s round-up:

Links

Tomizawa killed in Moto2 accident (Autosport)

"Japanese rider Shoya Tomizawa has died as a result of injuries sustained in today’s Moto2 race at Misano.

"The 19-year-old was running fourth when he crashed in front of Alex de Angelis and Scott Redding, and was hit at speed by both riders. He was taken to hospital in Riccione where he was pronounced dead at 14.20 local time.

"’On Sunday 5th September during the Moto2 race at the Misano World Circuit, rider Shoya Tomizawa aged 19 suffered a serious crash and subsequent cranial, thoracic and abdominal trauma,’ said a statement from the organisers.

"’Given the seriousness of his condition – especially for the thoracic and abdominal trauma – Tomizawa was immediately treated at the Misano World Circuit medical centre and put under artificial respiration.’"

Button still angry after Vettel collision (ESPN F1)

"Jenson Button has confessed he is still angry at Sebastian Vettel after the German caused potentially irreparable damage to his hopes of defending his drivers’ championship."

Engine revolution made backs the future in Formula One (The Observer)

"The universe has a natural order, even when it comes to motor cars, and Enzo Ferrari believed he understood it. ‘The horse doesn’t push the cart along with its nose,’ he told guests assembled for his traditional end-of-season address in 1959. He was explaining why his Formula One cars still had their engines in front of the driver, where they had always been.

"Ask a man of a certain age to draw a racing car and he is likely to sketch something with a very long bonnet and a short, hump-backed tail. Nothing like today’s Formula One missiles. His subconscious image will have been formed by the prevailing shape of generations of front-engined racers – from Ferenc Szisz’s 90-horsepower Renault, the winner of the first grand prix in 1906, through the Bugattis and Alfa Romeos of the roaring 20s to the streamlined Maseratis and Vanwalls of the post war era.

"A year after Ferrari made his famous remark, three of his cars finished first, second and third in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The horses were still pulling the carts, as he had decreed. But 4 September 1960 would go down in history as the last day on which a front-engined car would win a world championship race, marking the single most radical change in the sport’s technical history. From the results sheet, it looked like the most sweeping of triumphs."

The 1960 Italian Grand Prix (The Guardian)

"Archie Smith’s photographs of the 1960 Italian Grand Prix, the last time a Grand Prix was won by a front-engined car."

Comment of the day

Karun Chandhok has driven the first lap of the Korean International Circuit in a Red Bull demonstration car. But question marks remain over whether the Korean Grand Prix will go ahead as scheduled.

Chris Yu Rhee says:

The circuit is about as far South of Seoul as you can get. If you look at South Korea as an upright rectangle, the track would be in the lower left corner, with Seoul just left of the top middle.

We just had a typhoon (hurricane) pass through that shredded a lot of the country, and it’s been raining a lot since then. I don’t see how they are going to get anything else finished unless the foundations were poured a long time ago. I used to be in commercial construction (high-rise/institutional) in the states; never mind the rain, you can’t build on any of the surrounding rice patties as they are all currently flooded with water (it’s how you grow rice), so there is no way to get proper soil compaction on any of those areas.

They build things pretty fast (and loose) here, so they might be able to pull this one off, but labour problems delayed the project in May I think. I doubt Uncle Bernie is going to put his stamp of approval on this one. Too many things aren’t ready. There is still an asterisk on the official F1 schedule, so we’ll have to wait and see.

And the obvious question everyone wants to ask since I live here, "Have I bought my tickets yet?" No.

If you’re coming, check out Korea’s official tourism site. It has a lot of helpful info, and there is a phone number you can call to get help in almost ANY language.
Chris Yu Rhee

From the forum

Keith has started a thread giving each of us the opportunity to answer questions about ourselves. It makes for a great read: The secret life of… you

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

Clay Regazzoni won his first Grand Prix on this day in 1970.

Regazzoni went from third on the grid to win the Italian Grand Prix – he was behind the wheel of a Ferrari and in his debut season in F1.

This proved to be a stellar year for the young Swiss driver and he finished the season third in the drivers’ championship with 33 points, 12 points behind posthumous champion Jochen Rindt.