Lewis Hamilton tells his Twitter followers about how the new tyres, KERS and adjustable rear feel in McLaren’s simulator.
Links
“Hey everyone. Was at McLaren yesterday checking out the new designs for MP4-26. Its looking pretty cool, lots of neat ideas and improvements. I was on the simulator yesterday, first time driving the new car and I was happy. KERS and [adjustable] rear wing is trick but felt right at home with it.
These new tyres are OK, not too big a difference. Rears are weak though, they degrade fast. [The] reason I didn’t do the test is the tyres will change. Car will change and so it was best to let the test drivers get all the data needed for the [simulator] and wind tunnel.”
November’s audio podcast with Pat Symonds (Motorsport)
Discussion of Singapore 2008 was forbidden, but there’s a lot of interesting detail on F1 technology including KERS, double diffusers and increasing overtaking in this lengthy interview with former Renault technical director Pat Symonds.
Brabham Town – Australian Honour For Triple World Champion (The Race Driver)
“A new town in Western Australia is to be given the name Brabham in honour of the 1959-60-66 World Champion, Sir Jack Brabham. Why Western Australia (given Black Jack’s east coast-Australian origins)? Because the town in question is to be built upon, and to include a part of, the old Caversham race track – site of the 1957 and 1962 Australian Grands Prix.”
How 2500 year old philosophy helped Red Bull win in 2010 (The Buxton Blog)
“In keeping two lines of attack, Horner and Red Bull were in the perfect position because Ferrari had to choose which driver to cover – Vettel or Webber?óÔé¼?ª”
Santander set to end McLaren sponsorship deal (Crash)
“Santander has said it will back just Ferrari in 2011 as it begins the second of a five-year agreement that was signed in 2009.”
Macau Grand Prix Formula 3 2010 (Vimeo)
Reader Sergio Perez (no, not that one) sent in this cracking video he composed of the Formula Three Macau Grand Prix.
He says: “You’ve probably noticed but I’ve placed some posts on the forums talking about the Macau Grand Prix. In fact, I’m a videographer and shoot videos, one of them is for the Macau Grand Prix. This year it has been an exciting event and I think I and my photographer partner Ant?â??nio made the event justice with this video.”
Macau Grand Prix Formula 3 2010 from Toze Soares on Vimeo.
Comment of the day
A pithy observation from Kateafan on the official 2011 F1 entry list published by the FIA:
"Not bad for a number 2 driver"?óÔé¼?ª says driver number 2.
Kateafan
From the forum
Guilherme Teixeira has been to see The Senna Movie.
Site updates
The site was temporarily unavailable yesterday evening for approximately half an hour around 10pm UK time. This was due to a distributed denial of service attack on one of the server clouds run by the company which hosts F1 Fanatic. Apologies for the inconvenience.
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
The first F1 world championship race in Malaysia was held in 1999, but this wasn’t the first round of an international racing series in the country.
That was held 25 years ago today, when the World Sportscar Championship visited the Shah Alam circuit for the last race of the season.
A pair of former F1 drivers, Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass, won what turned out to be the only race at the slow, twisty track.
The circuit was sold in 2003 and turned into a housing estate.
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 0:19
Nothing to do with these sub-titles (sorry), but i was reading what joe saward posted about his top 5, and made me think, i am not reading his website anymore lol. I mean Robert Kubica at number one? And Mark Webber ahead of LH. Yes I maybe biased in sum ways, but c’mon!! haha
TommyB (@tommyb89)
1st December 2010, 0:30
I’m not a fan of Joe Saward anyway. Bit too complex and technical for me.
Now Will Buxton, him I like. I read that article about the philosopher and it was one of the best articles I have read this year. Very original journalism.
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 0:40
cheers m8, al giv him a go lol.
Mouse_Nightshirt
1st December 2010, 2:50
Although I generally have little negative to say about people, Joe can be a bit “holier than thou” about many things, take for example a reply he made to one of the comments:
“I pointed out in the blog item that if people disagreed they should disagree elsewhere”
His blog seems more of a way to tell news and glorify himself rather than tell news and discuss it.
Magnificent Geoffrey (@magnificent-geoffrey)
1st December 2010, 3:11
By the way, have you checked the forum lately? There’s an HRT in the F1F PS3 World Championship with your name on it!
Mouse_Nightshirt (@mouse_nightshirt)
1st December 2010, 16:54
Dangnabbit, completely forgot! Alas work is easting up my life – I shall check in due course!
BasCB
1st December 2010, 7:34
But you must admit, that the top 5 had a lot more thinking and analysis going into it than James Allen just naming the top 5 according to the WDC standings, only with Kubica in 5th.
macahan
1st December 2010, 3:39
I love Wills article very great.
Hamish
1st December 2010, 1:27
I’d have Webber ahead of Hamilton, many people would.
Kubica number 1…possibly. From time to time we get drivers that buck the trend of machinery heirarchy and Kubica did this on more that one occasion. He kept out of trouble most of the year and made solid, ballsy passes.
I’d even go as far to say that if Kubica was in a Ferrari this year just been he would be WDC right now. The fact that he was in a Renault didn’t help his cause, but he had a very solid year.
Jake
1st December 2010, 9:47
I don’t think we can give Kubica too much praise when he neither had a comparible team-mate to judge the actual speed of the car, or the pressure of a championship battle. Also, Webber ahead of Hamilton? really? only 2 points ahead in a car generally about .5 sec faster with no mechanical retirements? Difficult to see how
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
1st December 2010, 14:09
They both had fairly similar years actually, excellent starts, and then cracking under championship pressure.
Up to and including Spa, they were probably number 1 and 2.
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 19:02
thnx jake, sumone agrees wit me
Cacarella
1st December 2010, 2:26
I was more surprised to not see Liuzzi as his #1.
BasCB
1st December 2010, 7:32
LOL, he is not even in that top 5, that’s strange!
Ned Flanders
1st December 2010, 14:21
Haha! So it’s not just me who’s noticed his Liuzzi love
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 19:02
ur not on ur own here ned, he has a ‘thing’ for him haha
Kyle
1st December 2010, 3:18
Have to say he over-rated Webber. But I completely agree with his analysis of Kubica’s season and I personally also see no reason why he doesn’t deserve the number 1.
The only mistake worthy of mention he made was messing up the pit stop in Spa, which lost him 2nd to Webber. I can’t think of anything else, which is a lot more than can be said about anyone else this season.
The adage which is often applied to champions – that they do the best with what they have – should also be applied to Kubica here, and I don’t think it’s fair to penalise him after such an incredible performance throughout the year, simply on the basis that he wasn’t under title pressure. The car wasn’t good enough, but he made that work for him in both ways. That should be credited, rather than belittled.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
1st December 2010, 6:49
All true. No one was error free the entire season, but Kubica certainly came closest, and not because he was taking it easy, as he outperformed his car by a mile in the process.
TommyB (@tommyb89)
1st December 2010, 0:25
I like the way you have translated Lewis’ tweet into proper English :P
Pimperial
1st December 2010, 0:42
The way he writes really annoys me.. I’m 18, have lived in London all my life and no one I know writes like that (not since hitting puberty at least).
Sammy
1st December 2010, 1:10
who cares? No one is handing out grammar awards to twitter uses are they? sheeesh, some people.
SparkyJay23
1st December 2010, 4:54
So its his grammar that offends not the fact that we are now reporting jumped up text messages as news now?
matt90
1st December 2010, 8:30
I read one of his posts and it was just difficult to read and seemed lazy as well as unecessary, like he was trying to look like a gangster.
hawkfist
1st December 2010, 10:58
While in some cases that’s true, he does seem to post tweets that are near to 140 chars an awful lot so in some instances he probably has to do it to fit all he’s trying to say into one message.
It’s not often he only posts a couple of words at once.
Pimperial
1st December 2010, 21:54
Not his grammar.. just that it takes ages to work out what he’s trying to say and when you do it’s not at all insightful. He has an opportunity to show people what it’s like being a successful sportsman and we get “herp, derp.. dis car is 2 sik. Our KERS is da best.”
BasCB
1st December 2010, 7:38
It seems he has really got into Twitter since the end of the season.
I had a thought about comparing McLaren with Virgin. McLaren used the Abu Dhabi tests to get input for their simulator, having the race drivers run the new car simulation instead of trying out the tyres on the old car.
If Virgin / Wirth can get the same level of accurateness it will probably help them bring a good CFD-only design for next year.
Feynman
1st December 2010, 10:58
I have seen other sites struggle with translation.
GPUpdate reports that ‘KERS and adjustable rear-wing are tricky’ i.e. difficult.
Whereas he actually says ‘trick’, meaning cool, awesome … which pretty radically affects the meaning of the sentence.
<— 253 characters in that simple message, which is reason #3 I refuse to have anything much to do with twitter.
Neusalz (@dpod)
1st December 2010, 0:57
JT16
I personally rate Kubica on same level as Hamilton, you must have missed his races to doubt his talent. But I must agree on Webber, he is definitely not on my top 5.
sato113 (@sato113)
1st December 2010, 1:10
great COTD.
that motorsport podcast is very good! thanks for the link.
Sergio Perez
1st December 2010, 1:15
Thanks for featuring my video, Keith!
Sergio Perez ( the videographer one)
sato113 (@sato113)
1st December 2010, 2:35
nice one matey! :D
US_Peter (@us_peter)
1st December 2010, 6:50
Great video! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Dane
1st December 2010, 8:55
Great video Sergio, i loved the slow motions
HounslowBusGarage
1st December 2010, 16:43
Very nice.
But see the driver holding his groin as he gets in the car! Made me laugh.
Sergio Perez
3rd December 2010, 2:46
Thanks everyone, truly appreciated!
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 1:16
I think Kubica did a good job, i would of rated him 5th. If i had to do a top 5, it would simply be this…
1. Sebastian Vettel – whoever ends up with the most amount of points deserve to be WDC.
2. Fernando Alonso – his 2nd half season was top notch quality, and i hate praising this boy as i detest him.
3. Lewis Hamilton – my main man, did great up until Monza, then made sum crucial mistakes.
4. Mark Webber – Impressive everywhere but one man in same car edged him here and there, especially in last 5 races.
5. Robert Kubica – a mismatch throughout season, sum great performances, sum not so great, was that the car? mistakes in Belgium n Hungary wer amateurish
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 1:17
haa, this was for dpod’s reply
Victor. (@victor)
1st December 2010, 1:23
What specific mistake did Kubica make in Hungary?
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 1:30
sorry, it was the lollipop man hu released him in the path of a force india, my mistake
Victor. (@victor)
1st December 2010, 2:15
So basically you’re saying that Kubica made one minor mistake (after all it only cost him one place) throughout the whole course of the season, and that’s why you’re ranking him lower than the other four drivers.
Sebastian Vettel, whom you’ve ranked first, made three massive mistakes. In Hungary he lost the race due to his foolishness. In Turkey he took himself out and stole another driver’s victory – let’s not forget that that driver is his team mate! Above all, though, there is Belgium, where he decided it didn’t suffice to destroy his own race and managed to completely ruin the race of another driver.
Fernando Alonso, whom you’ve ranked second, spoiled his own chances of winning the Monaco GP due to crashing in practice. Also, he lost valuable points in Silverstone by foolishly overtaking Kubica.
Lewis Hamilton, whom you’ve ranked third, was responsible for at least one of the three DNF’s he encountered throughout the season. Monza was a flashback to the 2007/8 Lewis. One might argue that he should not have been as aggressive and optimistic at his attempt to overtake Webber in Singapore, considering that he desperately needed to finish in the points.
Mark Webber, whom you’ve ranked fourth ran into Hamilton in Australia. Similarly to Vettel, he managed to not only ruin his own but also a fellow driver’s race in Valencia, where he ran into Kovalainen. In Singapore he took out Hamilton. Finally, in Korea he crashed out and buried his title hopes.
Having considered all that, it’s seems completely unjustified to grade Kubica down based on mistakes. Kubica has made the least errors of all drivers this season. If anything, the criterion of errors in rating driver should grade Kubica up rather than down.
I firmly believe that if Kubica had the RB6 at his disposal this season he would have grabbed the championship many races before the final round. Despite the fact that Hamilton made surprisingly few mistakes this season as well, Kubica would not have got himself into a situation like Lewis did in Monza. Korea is a perfect example of that, were he judged the situation perfectly and finished fifth, despite an apparently ‘lacklustre performance’.
I am not saying that Kubica was the best driver this season (although the more I reflect upon it the more I believe this might have been the case). What I am trying to say is that criticising Kubica for making ‘amateurish mistakes’ is like criticising Hamilton for his lack of aggressiveness – consistency is Kubica’s trademark and the last thing he can be criticised for.
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 2:40
alrite, now name the gud points about the 5 of them. all you have picked out is the negatives. Yes i agree if Kubica had a RBR he wud wrap it up early, same wit LH.
robbiepblake (@driftin)
1st December 2010, 14:17
That’s pretty much my top 5 as well, and I also say that as McLaren/Hamilton fan.
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 19:04
i thought i was alone here driftin, someone agrees wit me? wow haha
David-A (@david-a)
2nd December 2010, 12:23
I agree with this JT19. Kubica can’t magically be number 1, when he didn’t perform any better than quiet Nico Rosberg.
Neusalz (@dpod)
1st December 2010, 1:28
I must say I am quite surprised you put Vettel ahead of Hamilton. I personally would not since being WDC does not automatically make me put him on top, he just has not proven himself to me just yet. Webber I would keep out of my list, he never really shined in inferior cars and I just think its more car than talent. I may be wrong but its just my opinion. Sorry for being totally off topic here.
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 1:32
oh naa, this is jus for this season m8, i reckon LH will cream SV anyday lol
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
1st December 2010, 1:40
I have to agree that The Buxton Blog is right.
Stephen Jones (@aus_steve)
1st December 2010, 2:09
the cloud’s being DDOS’d.. thats kind of scarily cool i guess.. we should contact the internet police.. or the A Team.
and i agree with the buxton blog, and the tactic of having 2 options.. if alonso got hit by a runaway toro rosso, or FI, that’s Ferrari’s title hopes gon
TomD11
1st December 2010, 10:38
We need to get the cyber-police to backtrace them! LOL
Polishboy808 (@polishboy808)
1st December 2010, 2:54
Why the DDoS? I don’t get how you can DDoS a WHOLE server and shut down every website that uses it, it’s quite scary really….
Joey-Poey
1st December 2010, 5:53
That was a GREAT video. I’m jealous! I’d love to get paid to do pieces like that.
Stephen Jones (@aus_steve)
1st December 2010, 7:01
+1 the video’s great, and the music fits really nicely
Sergio Perez
1st December 2010, 7:14
Thanks for the compliments, guys. Only get to do this once a year, so have to make that motorsport passion in me count to be able to do it next year!
Steve
1st December 2010, 9:03
I’m glad Stantander stopped paying Mclaren. That money is meant for Alonso after-all.
Calum
1st December 2010, 9:49
Yup, the only thing I don’t understand in the Hamilton twitter bit is
“The new rear wing is trick”
What’s a rear wing?? Seriously though – what does trick mean?
I also can’t wait to see the new MP4-26, as well as the spy shots of new F1 cars a couple of days before the official launches: I’d say new car launches are right up there with seeing you’re face driver winning races!!!
Hamish
1st December 2010, 10:39
Other words he may use instead of “trick”:
– Dope
– Phat
BBQ2
1st December 2010, 10:56
Well Calum, you must have heard or read that there will be an adjustable rear wing for 2011 cars….. or not? And that statement should read: “The new rear wing adjustment is tricky to apply”….. Since Twitting is a short message medium, it is forgiveable to leave some letters out!! Just my 2pens Calum :)
hawkfist
1st December 2010, 11:02
Yup, the only thing I don’t understand in your message is
“you’re face driver”
Seriously though – what does face driver mean?
Typos are easily made, he meant tricky.
Calum
1st December 2010, 13:26
Right, so the wings are complicated to use.
Typos on an ipod are a regular occurance :P
It was supposed to say ‘fave’ as in favourite but the ipod autocorrected it to face. :/
Cacarella
1st December 2010, 15:01
Haha, I think Hamish nailed it with ‘dope’ or ‘Phat’. Trick is slang for Awesome, cool, neat-o, fancy…
Mr. Zing Zang
1st December 2010, 15:31
He meant “Trick” as in “dope” or “tricked out”
Ever watched “pimp my ride?”
Mr. Zing Zang
1st December 2010, 15:33
“Tricked out”
1. Derived from the language of pimps and hoes; refers to the ho’ gettin’ dressed up for the trick. Now it simply means “having all the accessories” or simply being really prettied up. Usually used with a sense of admiration. May refer to people or inanimate objects.
JT19 (@jt19)
1st December 2010, 19:06
hahahaha, i thought he missed out the ‘y’ meaning tricky
Calum
1st December 2010, 9:57
Just read the IamLewis4Real tweets and have decided that the weather must be really bad in Woking, Jenson and Lewis are pushing the guys at the factory – cars stuck in the snow? :P
Also, Lewis has security by him while he is tweeting, presumably to stop the inevitable that he shares secret pictures of the new MP4/26 to his ‘peeps’ as well as the rest of the world!!!
He says he can only smile at his doubters, as he ‘keeps rolling,’ Mclaren sponsor Johnnie Walker will be disappointed he mucked up their slogan in te PR tweet, keep walking as they say. :P
CarlitosF1
1st December 2010, 10:36
TBA = To Be Auctioned
Ben
1st December 2010, 11:59
Jose Maria Lopez (almost of USF1 fame) will be driving the final round of the GT1 World Championship this weekend at San Luis (Potrero de los Funes). He’s joining the Young Driver Aston Martin team.
http://gt1world.com/news/article/lopez-joins-young-driver-for-san-luis
The GT1s have produced some incredible racing this year so this should be another good race on a pretty impressive circuit.
Calum
1st December 2010, 13:19
A new town named after an F1 Driver?
Come to Scotland and visit –
Stirling (Moss) in Perthshire,
(Eddie) Irvine in Ayrshire
Dane
1st December 2010, 21:43
Eddie & Moss must be a couple of hundred years old? :)
David-A (@david-a)
2nd December 2010, 14:54
You forgot (Lewis) Hamilton, South Lanarkshire.
Zindon
1st December 2010, 14:23
Keith,
Do you have any plans to make it clearer from the mobile version of the site which articles are the daily round-ups? I often check the site from my phone.
Feynman
1st December 2010, 14:50
Never mind mobile, what about the main site … the number of times I have nearly missed the round-up cos I wasn’t much interested in the headline story, is quite a large number, and might be even larger if we count the unknown number of times I did actually miss it.
If people are having to read sub-headings instead of headings to navigate, then that might mean something has got a bit inverted in the design.
#suggestions
Calum
1st December 2010, 15:19
Mclaren are doing an advent Calender, here’s day 1:
http://c0578022.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/2086_Advent-1.jpg
BasCB
1st December 2010, 15:44
WOW, looks like McLaren is really changing. Another bit of humour that is actually pretty funny.
HounslowBusGarage
1st December 2010, 16:48
Maybe Uncle Ron isn’t around so much . . .
Feynman
1st December 2010, 16:00
Somewhere Tilke is muttering and shaking his head: “no, no, no, not enough hairpins onto neverending long-straights”
Is that Jakob Andreasan in the middle of the three, back and healthy?
VXR
1st December 2010, 16:42
So many ‘best drivers’ didn’t win the championship this season – must be a reason why? Definitely a season of costly mistakes rather than one of great drives.
Looking forward to KERS, new tyres, no DDD’s, and more controversy regarding moveable aero devices.
Also looking forward to more pointless ‘which driver is best’ threads. I mean, if Massa trounces Alonso next season and Schumacher becomes WDC again…..
Calum
1st December 2010, 20:50
Maybe because only 1 can……..
I know what you mean though ;)
JayBee
1st December 2010, 22:13
Can’t believe no comments on Pat Symonds interview.
Serious, almost compulsory listening for all F1 fans.
The man talks (in easily understood language) a lot of sense and reveals a great insight into how F1 engineers view rules, changes, drivers from different eras, the past season, and more.
Compelling listening.
What a loss to the sport, a man with his experience, intellect and capacity.
Not condoning his involvement in a terrible event, but maybe move on to re-integrating a more than worthwhile contributor to F1, back into the fold.
Malibu_GP
2nd December 2010, 5:45
Pimperial, You’re a kook. Get a life… None of Us care to read Your negative spew. He is young, rich and miles beyond what You could ever imagine. Have You heard him speak ever? Clearly He communicates well when needed. Who are You? An anonymous nobody…, an internet rockstar, with an over-inflated opinion of Yourself.