F1 Fanatic round-up: 17/9/2010

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The second part of the Codemasters interview on “F1 2010” will be on the site today. Don’t miss it – they had some very interesting things to say about what’s in the game, what they think of other racing games, and their early thoughts on “F1 2011”.

I’m planning to have a full review of “F1 2010” on the site early next week. I see some other sites have already put reviews up based on limited game time spent on only one console. For obvious reasons I wanted to chalk up as much playing time as possible and test it on all three formats before giving a definitive verdict.

With that, I’m off to fire up the Xbox! Here’s today’s round-up:

Links

Red Bull locked in to using Renault engines – Newey (ESPN)

“Adrian Newey cannot see Red Bull using any make of engine except Renault next year.” Echoing what he said at the start of the year.

Cosworth eyes ambitious F1 future (Autosport)

Cosworth F1 general manager Mark Gallagher: “We’ve been approached by potential new teams, and we’ve had discussions with existing teams, about the next two years, but we’re looking forward to 2013, because the world’s our oyster. We have very ambitious plans for developing the Cosworth offering for 2013, and we certainly want to be with teams throughout the grid. We want to be winning again.”

Australian government under fire for F1 losses

“The financing for the Australian race is different from that proposed for Texas. The Australian Grand Prix Corporation, a government agency, pays the money necessary for the event to break even. If costs rise or sales fall, it pays more. The race is held in a public park. In Austin, the sole government funding announced has been the $25 million a year for 10 years that the state has committed from its Major Events Trust Fund. For the first year, 2012, the $25 million is to be taken out of the state’s general revenue fund. After that, the $25 million in annual government financing, which will go toward the sanctioning fee local organizers must pay the international F1 organization, is to be generated by tax revenue attributable to the previous year’s race. Race organizers must show each year that the event has made the state at least $25 million.”

Comment of the day

What’s Nick Heidfeld’s reasoning behind his latest career move? Andy W takes a guess:

At the end of the day I think that Nick just wants a race seat?óÔé¼?ª I suspect he left Merc to test tires for Pirelli in the hope that this would count in his favour when it comes to getting a drive for next season.

Then when Sauber offered him a drive in place of Pedro he jumped at the chance, meaning that Pirelli then felt obligated to let Nick go as they don’t want to be seen to be giving privileged information to any team.
Andy W

From the forum

Next up in the 2011 F1 season rumour mill: Pedro de la Rosa to HRT?

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Valentina and al!

On this day in F1

And happy birthday to 1996 world champions Damon Hill who turns 50 today!

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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56 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 17/9/2010”

  1. Happy Birthday Valentina, Al, and Damon Hill!

  2. Kinf of related to Formula 1: Ken Block has released Gymkhana_THREE – Ultimate Playground

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TshFWSsrn8

    It was done at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlh̩ry, which hosted nine French Grands Prix in the pre-war racing era. I just thought it was interesting because the circuit was chosen for its incredible banking Рfifty-one degrees. To think that Grand Prix racing used to take here just blows my mind.

    1. Yep, amazing. Saw that a few days back.

      I seriously think there is a market for some sort of race series like that. Not as extreme as that, but a Gymkhana rally sprint series through decent patch of land.

      Setup costs at each location would not be ridiculous and if you were able to places the fans in an area which contains them, gives them a good view and isolates them from the danger would pave way for the unlimited class.

      1. Sounds like you may be interested in Rallycross. There are motorkhana events too, but mainly at club levels.

        1. ah, ok I just wiki’d motorkhana and found its pretty much an Aus/NZ thing. I just figured it was widespread.

          1. Motorkhana in NZ goes as far borrowing a field off a farmer before it gets converted to a corn crop and a few cones as markers.

    2. Here are some brave chaps going round without any of your fancy flappy-paddle gear shifts. Because it was 1934.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSBnxY1Ch4s

    3. Love those Block videos. Can someone explain the Obama joke to me though?

      1. I don’t think it’s a reference to anything.

      2. May be a play on “White Men Can’t Jump”, and of course it rhymes!

  3. I’m very curious to read your review on the game. I wanted to buy it on the PS3 due to free online, but the triggers are awful on the Dualshock, so I’d find it pretty much impossible to play the game with all the driving aids off. If it is very hard to play then I’ll stick with the 360 version. I wonder if it will run as well on the PS3 as Codemasters have only shown the 360 version.

    1. you can assign the x button as the throttle. X can be pressure sensitive, It works in F1:CE

    2. If I was buying the game myself I’d want a steering wheel and pedal set, definitely. Driving with a gamepad, even one with analogue controls, just feels horrible.

      1. I’m a proponent of X, Square and the D-Pad with driving games. Even though they’re pressure sensitive with such a tiny amount of travel I have quite a bit of finesse with them. I’ve never got on with the sticks or a wheel and I genuinely hate using the triggers as accelerate and brake – It’s not Scalextric!

  4. keith, you have the best job in the world

    1. Yeah the perks aren’t bad! The boss is a real slave-driver, though.

  5. Just have to clarify – it’s the Victorian State Government that pay the $Bernies, not the Australian Federal Government. The Grand Prix Corporation is a state body.

  6. ‘With that, I’m off to fire up the Xbox!’

    so keith they gave you a copy of f12010 to test out?

    1. Yep! Am playing through a season for Virgin at the moment. Only got an Xbox version right now though, so just playing with a gamepad on a fairly easy setting.

      1. easy setting. im disappointed

  7. Just coming to the end of a 100% race distance now Keith!?

    In other news, I wish that Renault would dump Red Bull as a customer, and not the other way around!

    1. yeah it must really rile Renault to see one of their engines winning. Gosh, they must be so annoyed!

      (sarcasm)

      1. It annoys Ferrari. They have an unspoken policy of only giving customer engines to teams that cannot beat them on-track. I liked Norbert Haug’s reaction to Brawn last year when McLaren were struggling; he basically said he didn’t care that McLaren were doing so poorly if Brawn kept winning.

        1. I think your absolutely right on Ferrari. Newey said exactly the same.

          I think Renault or Mercedes can take it only as a positive and a challenge to be better themselves (with the RenaultF1 and McLaren respectively), if their customers win races. It shows they build good engines and is a boost to their status.

          That said, i am glad McLaren stopped the supply to Red Bull, they would have been even further in front this year on speed.

      2. I’m referring of course to Red Bull moaning about the engine relative to the others.

        That doesn’t appeal to me as a purchaser of everyday road cars to be honest, regardless of whether they win the WDC.

        That will all be down to Newey of course (sarcasm).

  8. Gees Damon Hill was a very late starter in F1 when you think Senna and Brundle are about the same age as him.

    1. Well, Damon had a career on two wheels first and only switched to racing cars relatively late. He was 31 by the time he made his F1 debut.

      1. There is still hope Hamish.

        Now, wheres that Eastern European or South American oil company to back me…

  9. I have my fingers crossed that my guest article will be coming up very soon. Possibly after the F1 2010 reviews and before Singapore.

  10. It’s also Sir Stirling Moss’ Birthday today! He turns 81 :) didn’t know the British champs shared the same bday. You can send him your Birthday wishes on twitter @StirlingMossCom

    Happy Birthday also to Valentina and al

    1. Stirling Moss was never a champ…

      1. He is in our hearts

        Crumpets.

    2. Damn, I was about to post that.

      The man defines ‘Legend’ in my book.

  11. Happy birthday to Valentina. And Stirling Moss as well.

    And to Grace. Have a very nice birthday (noticed your post yesterday) today Grace!

  12. See Adrian Neweu has been challenged to create te ultimate racing car he can possibly make for Gran turismo 5. It will be called X1 Prototype and is basically an extreme F1 car without any restrictions holding it back!

    1. Cool, got a link for that?

        1. That looks like a pretty interesting sportscar Adrian dreamt up for GT5!

    2. I’ve been following GT5 for a while. Particularly over at GT Planet. We’ve known about Newey’s – and Vettel’s – involvement for a while, and it was hypothesised that they might be developing a no-holds-barred Formula 1 car, but until now we haven’t had any proof. From the looks of things, Project X1 is going to be some utterly insane Formula 1-Le Mans hybrid.

        1. I want to play with that.

          There was an article on here a while back about “How fast would they go?” wasn’t there?

          I think the squidgy organic bit behind the wheel would be the speed limiting factor.

          1. From the Red Bull site:

            Step forward virtual test driver Sebastian Vettel who took the X1 Prototype for a shakedown around Suzuka in Japan. On his first virtual lap, the German beat the lap record – set by Kimi Raikkonen in 2005 – by more than 20 seconds.

        2. It def looks more like a Le Mans sportscar than an F1 car from that head on shot. It’ll be interesting to see full pics of it.

    3. I have always wondered what a ‘no regulations’ F1 car would look like, and what type of times it would set. Red Bull should build the X1 and race it around a track or two – it would be a great promotional stunt for the company.

      1. Twould be damn awesome, think of the untold millions though.

        I think Williams designed a no holds barred concept thing an estimaited it could do upwards of 20secs on current.

    4. * Calum
      * Newey

      iPod touchs are really bad for typing on ;)

      1. Yeah, sometimes the auto-correct just plain screws things up for me. Still, I’ll take it over any other phone.

  13. Happy birthday to Valentina, al, Sir Stirling Moss and of course my all-time F1 hero, Damon Hill!

    On another note I’m sad to say I won’t be gracing the site for these next 7 days. Maybe not so sad because I’m going to Greece for a holiday!

    1. Have a good one!

      1. Thanks! Best of all I don’t miss any F1 and come home back to another race :)

        1. Good planning. :-)

  14. The critics of the Australian GP do not understand that the event more than pays for itself through the promotion of tourism to Australia and the economic effects of bringing so many people into the city each year. F1 is scheduled every year, if the economy is bad or good, so local businesses such as hotels, restaurants, hire car companies and even the casinos can depend on a boost each year as the F1 circus comes to town.

    If you look at the numbers purely as a P&L statement for the organizing company, there is obviously a shortfall, but if you include all the taxes collected through the extra visitors to the city and the knock-on economic effects, there is a huge gain. I wouldn’t be surprised if the economic effects of hosting the grand prix are in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

  15. I cant find another place to put this, so I just wanted to say that the forums are down for me :'(

    1. Oh, woops, nevermind, I reloaded it 3 times and it works, sorry for that.

  16. I haven’t seen this point of view for a long time.

    Although everyone is bashing Renault for their lack of performance. The real reasons is they played a fair game… Maybe a bit to fair.

    Newey said …. he admitted that the French marque “very strongly adhered” to the spirit of the engine freeze and therefore fell behind in the power stakes.

  17. Interesting article

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