Jarno Trulli indicates his place at Lotus is safe for next year in a radio interview.
The F1 Fanatic 2010 season review began here yesterday with a look back at how Virgin did.
Later today we’re going to be talking about the best overtaking moves of the year and I’ll be naming the six things that made F1 great in 2010.
In the meantime remember you can contribute to the 2010 season review via these threads on the forum.
Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Trulli hints at Lotus commitment (BBC)
“I’ll go to the factory in a few days to get ready and prepare the 2011 season chassis, cockpit and seat.”
Thanks to TommieJoie for the tip
Newey: ‘Petty’ snipes were annoying (ITV-F1)
"I’ve got to say I’ve never known a season quite like this one for the petty finger pointing that’s gone on in the paddock. It’s a shame, but the bottom line is that what we’ve done with the front wing has been endlessly investigated by the press and the FIA. The FIA quite rightly have to look at it, as they have to take these things seriously – and what we’ve done is completely legal."
Novel interactive season review from Ferrari (bit of a goof with the Bahrain track map though).
Dario’s Dream – Special Report (Road and Track)
Great feature on Dario Franchitti driving Jim Clark’s 1965 Indianapolis 500-winning Lotus 38.
Thanks to Abhi Shah for the tip
NASCAR warning: No team orders (ESPN)
I missed this interesting story in the run-up to NASCAR’s title-decider last weekend: “Hendrick said NASCAR wanted to make sure there were no influences outside the three drivers involved deciding the title, as there have been in other forms of motorsports. For example, Felipe Massa arrived at this year’s Brazilian Grand Prix saying he would give way to Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso if that’s what it took to win the Formula One title.”
Tost: Toro Rosso facing ‘tough’ winter (Autosport)
“I’m not so happy with the complete season, we will have some tough months in November, December and January because we have a lot of work ahead of us. We simply have to catch up.”
“The most frustrating aspect of operating in today’s clinical environment is the constant presence of minders when you attempt to speak to drivers. Not a word is spoken without a uniformed arm coming between you and placing a micro-recorder on the table.”
Comment of the day
We’ve had lots of great suggestions and designs for the revised Abu Dhabi track. Here’s one from Eric M. with input from another commenter:
I’ve revised my previous idea to incorporate a chicane layout similar to HounslowBusGarage’ idea.
I’ve also increased the radius of turns two-three to reduce the effects of the downforce penalty of cars travelling in dirty air behind another car, and hopefully benefit from the tow instead. Turn eight has also been tightened again similar to the original configuration.
Eric M.
From the forum
Desinole wonders if Force India are on the hunt for an Indian driver.
Happy birthday!
A very happy birthday to Matt Aitch!
On this day in F1
Stirling Moss won the Australian Tourist Trophy at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne on this day in 1956.
Driving a Maserati 300S it took him just over an hour to complete 32 laps of the track, which was similar in length to the current circuit but run in the opposite direction.
Image © Bridgestone/Ercole Colombo
J_LH (@)
25th November 2010, 0:13
Best overtaking move has to be Lewis on the safety car in Valencia!
Ohter than that Lewis on Rosberg in Melbourne, Lewis on Vettel and Sutil in China, or one of the 30 odd overtakes he did in the first four races. Also, one move from Lewis that I think is highly under-rated is going round the outside of Vettel into turn 3 at Istanbul after falling behind him at the start. Other than Lewis, Kobayashi round the outside of Jaime in Suzuka despite the best efforts to drive him off.
Christian
25th November 2010, 12:28
Lewis Lewis Lewis!!! Yay Lewis!!!!
….
US_Peter (@us_peter)
25th November 2010, 0:13
Happy B-day Matt.
I like Trulli’s personality, but I wish he’d mover over and make room for some younger driver to get a race seat. I don’t see him ever fighting for podiums again.
macahan
25th November 2010, 0:33
if you listen to the last Lotus podcast Trulli just reflects on the year gone while Heikki talks about past year AND prepartion and goals for next year. Judging by that it sure didn’t seem like Trulli was expecting or believed in a 2011 Lotus seat. Of course things could have changed since then but he became very vague over the 2011 car and the winter preparation.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
25th November 2010, 3:37
Will Buxton seemed to think he was retiring of his own accord a while back, but at the last few races of the season it seemed Trulli was talking of being in next year for sure, so I don’t know what to believe.
BasCB
25th November 2010, 15:45
Happy birthday from me as well Matt.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
25th November 2010, 0:34
I can get behind Eric M.’s Abu Dhabi proposal. I would, however, make one slight change: the first corner of his new chicane. Rather than having a pair od right-angled corners, I’d change the angle of entry for the first corner and make it much gentler, forcing the cars to brake and turn at the same time. I’d also consider changing the bottom hairpin to be a double-apex left to allow the cars to carry more speed into the next section.
But other than that, I really like what he’s done with it. Especially the new swtichback at the end of the straight; it now looks like a corner that will favour the attacking driver more than the defender.
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
25th November 2010, 1:04
Agreed, I think it’s the best proposal I’ve seen yet. Of course, we’d all to do away with the Turn 4-5 chicane, but that’s not an option, and reversing the direction seems to be a good alternative.
Someone forward these plans on to the Abu Dhabi Royal Family (yes, tinkering with Yas Marina really is an issue of national importance!)
Icthyes (@icthyes)
25th November 2010, 12:36
Agree, I think it’s quite good. Not sure about changing the hairpin as you say, the straight is long enough to build up speed. The only thing I would add is a change to Turn 1 to make it tighter, perhaps turning it into a 95-degree corner so it’s a better overtaking zone, particularly with the modification to the last corner.
HounslowBusGarage
25th November 2010, 23:30
Surely the problem with an ‘easy-in’ first part of the chicane is that it blunts the do-or-die, all-or-nothing overtaking attack into the first element.
I don’t really want to see the skill of breaking on a curve, I want to see overtaking.
A double apex hairpin might be a good idea I think, but only if the second apex is much later in the corner giving the faster exit to the hairpin as Mark pointed out last night. There’s not much room in between the two banks of grandstands to open the second part of the hairpin and make a difference, but every little helps (where have I heard that before?).
Hamish
25th November 2010, 1:40
Thats are rather decent article by Maurice Hamilton. I think the points that he identifies isn’t just whats changed in motorsport, but more sport as a whole
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
25th November 2010, 1:55
That’s a surprise to hear that Trulli is staying with the team, may be the team decided to use his experience to develope their car.I think Heikki will be there,which mean they won’t change the line up.
wasiF1
25th November 2010, 2:21
If you only think that drivers are great at twitter then just read these tweets.
TheFifthDriver McLaren
@OfficialMGP Two hungry swans spotted on the lake at MTC today. How are yours doing? Have the ducks chased them away yet?
OfficialMGP MERCEDES GP PETRONAS
@TheFifthDriver They seem to cohabitate quite nicely at the moment… But for
how long???
Samuel
25th November 2010, 4:46
lol….Ive been sitting here for the past minute trying to understand the meaning behind those tweets.
The best I could come up with is that Lewis and Jensen are at the McLaren Tech center, and TheFifthDriver is intimating that Nico and Michael are being lazy??
The Merc twit response is that Lew and Jense’s happy partnership wont last…..?
Swan
25th November 2010, 12:27
http://twitter.com/#!/OfficialMGP/status/7358277922856960
http://twitpic.com/39ovtm
BasCB
25th November 2010, 15:42
LOL nice thinking.
bosyber
29th November 2010, 11:53
Good effort of reading to much into those messages – fun!
Eric M.
25th November 2010, 3:03
Cheers for the COTD Keith! My first!
BasCB
25th November 2010, 15:44
A very deserved one. Nice imput into the circuit development Eric.
HounslowBusGarage
25th November 2010, 23:21
Yes, well done Eric and thanks for the name check!
Logan00si
25th November 2010, 4:36
Forgive me if this is ignorant but if force India want a Indian driver what’s wrong with karun? He’s shown decent pace I’n crap machinery.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
25th November 2010, 8:11
Because he doesn’t have enough money to buy a seat. He was dropped from Hispania because his sponsors stopped paying them.
Fixy (@)
25th November 2010, 15:34
On the Ferrari book, on pages 98-99 it says: “Nuerburgring”.
US_Peter
25th November 2010, 18:27
That’s the correct spelling if you omit the umlauts. Nurburgring or Nuerburgring. You can do the same for any German word with umlauts by adding an ‘e’ after the letter.
f1yankee
26th November 2010, 4:52
what complete BS from nascar. not only are there constant team orders, but drivers routinely take each other out. nascar is pro wrestling on wheels.
does your (marketing) superstar need to pit? make the call to 1 of several schlubs and someone’s going into the wall for a 10 minute yellow.