More elbow surgery for Kubica

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In today’s round-up: Kubica has another operation on his elbow.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Kubica has extra elbow surgery (Autosport)

Robert Kubica has undergone a fourth operation in hospital in Italy.”

How committed to F1 is the BBC? (Doctorvee)

“There is also a myth that Formula 1 can be adequately covered by commercial broadcasters. Anyone who actually tried to sit down and watch a race on ITV will know that this is simply not true.”

The 2011 Motor Sport Hall of Fame (YouTube)

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Einarai shares my thoughts on yesterday’s sodden test at the Circuit de Catalunya:

Why doesnit heavy rain ever hit Barcelona during race time?
Einarai

From the forum

VettelS has an idea for an F1 road trip.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Starosta, Armen and Pabs!

On this day in F1

Nelson Piquet won his home race in Brazil on this day in 1983.

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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41 comments on “More elbow surgery for Kubica”

  1. Obviously 1996 stands out in the memory as a wet Barcelona GP but it really is a rarity to see the levels of rain we’ve had in testing appear at a race weekend as well. It would definitely liven up the race a little, although not as much as it would have done if the final chicane wasn’t installed.

    1. Malaysia in 2009?
      Spa – very often. Suzuka as well.

      1. Korea, China.

    1. The 2 arrows mean: In reply to the above.

  2. The BBC took the odd decision of removing the well-respected commentator Jonathan Legard

    I appreciate the pre-season is dragging on, but do we really need to start posting links to comedy blogs?

      1. Well summed up Feyman. If it ain’t comedy it’s Legard in disguise writing it.

  3. Completely agree with COTD!

    1. Completely agree with Rob G!

  4. Here’s something to think about: the McLaren MP4-24 of Lewis Hamilton got out of Q1 in Barcelona in a time of 1 minute 20.991 seconds. The current car is doing 1 minutes 22s. Yes, Q1 was done in anger on low fuel and these cars aren’t nearly as developed yet, but this was at the stage when the McLaren was a real dog and was to improve by quite a lot.

    So my question is: why didn’t McLaren use the final variant of the MP4-24 as a basis for this year’s car? It might have ended up being a better choice!

    1. Pretty blind of you to be honest.

      They have said many times that the tyres are much slower than last year, and the new aero regulations slow the cars down further.

      Considering they are the experts with all the info, and we are not, you will probably find that they made the right choice to try and improve the car according to what the new regulations allow.

      There is a good chance that the potential to improve last years package more than it had already been improved was less than the potential to improve the current one. The whole point of winter testing is to build a base that can then be improved drastically on during the course of the year. Last years base was probably already max’d out.

      1. I apologise for having the temerity to answer an innocent question. I only hope that one day I can have your superior intellect.

        By the way, if you’re going to act all mighty, at least get your facts right. The MP4-24 was from two years ago. Last year’s was the MP4-25. I am talking about the former, not the latter. Perhaps you might want to read things more carefully next time you feel like satisfying your complex.

        1. D’oh! To ASK an innocent question.

          1. lol, to the two of you… These made F1 Fanatic more awesome site! Shake your hands both of you please :)

          2. Lol, don’t worry, it’s all banter.

    2. Their car was also not a dog. It was quicker than all other teams except two. The virgin, lotus and HTR’s were dogs.

      1. In 2009 those 3 teams didn’t even exist, that car was 2 years ago.

      2. The MP4-24 Icthyes was referring to was the ’09 car, which was at the beginning a pretty slow car. That said, its pace wasn’t tragic compared to the field before Barcelona, it did pick up points in most of the early season races (just not podiums, or podia).

        It was tragic in the middle stint of 09 though, which may include Barcelona, I can’t remember.

        1. The speed with which they got their double diffuser was impressive, I think they had it by China. Then from Barcelona until Nurburgring they were pretty bad, they key upgrade in Germany being the outwash front wing, which was for more important an innovation than the headline-grabbing ever was, both in terms of downforce and keeping the cars susceptible to aero wakes. Obviously the final spec of the MP4-24 had the DDD, as it did in Barcelona, but the car was never designed around it.

          1. What I mean is the fundamental design, the Abu Dhabi spec was geared towards maxing the diffuser but the DDD was always just an add-on, not like with the Brawn, Toyota or Williams.

          2. Yeah, the upgrade between England and Germany was immense. They went from being lapped by Red Bull at Silverstone, to Lewis battling them for the lead on the first corner at the Nurburgring (and Heikki helping Webber get up by slowing most of the field). McLaren seemed to struggle with the air flow for the entire European season up to that point, they were going backwards.

            I remember them saying around Silverstone that the upgrades were good, but they were missing a critical component that would bring it all together and make it a quick car. I laughed at the time. They were then I think one of the quicker cars for most of the remainder of the season.

          3. “(and Heikki helping Webber get up by slowing most of the field)”

            Well, Heikki was still driving the un-updated version in Germany.

    1. Exciting :D

  5. somerandomguy
    13th March 2011, 9:42

    quiet day today

    1. 1 week to go!!! :D

      1. DeadManWoking
        13th March 2011, 10:17

        Until there’s another week to go :(

        1. well it’s 1 week until we start seeing build up photos from oz on f1.com and other sites!

  6. SennaNmbr1 (@)
    13th March 2011, 11:05

    If the BBC really want to cut back on the F1, they should do it like they did in the early 90s on Grandstand and just show the race with two commentators.

  7. Re: COTD – Heavy rain has hit Barcelona – twice, in fact. First one was in 1992, which Mansell won. The other was in 1996, which Schumacher won. Both wins were achieved in dominant fashion, but only Mansell had the best car in the field for that win.

  8. Quiet Sunday indeed given all the testing’s done (great coverage of it all by the way).

    I liven things up, take a look at these F1 2011 posters I made for the upcoming season. There’s one for every Grand Prix on the calendar :)

    http://www.pjtierney.net/2011/03/formula-1-2011-poster-series.html

    1. Those posters are awesome! I particularly like the Turkey and Japan ones, but they all look very sophisticated and authentic. Nice job.

    2. SennaNmbr1 (@)
      13th March 2011, 16:45

      Silverstone one is awesome, incorporating the new wing building.

      1. Thanks guys, GB one’s my favourite of the lot, the shapes of the wing are awesome. Looking to get these printed and then open up a store :)

      2. Awesome work man!

    3. Those. Are. Awesome.

  9. “There is also a myth that Formula 1 can be adequately covered by commercial broadcasters. Anyone who actually tried to sit down and watch a race on ITV will know that this is simply not true.”

    I am so sick of this nonsense! The BBC is one of the only television stations in the world who broadcasts F1 without commercials, hence, the British are nearly the only people in the world who have the pleasure of seeing F1 without commercials. I live in Australia, and the quality of our local OneHD telecast is well documented, but I have watched some old F1 races including the build-up and analysis from ITV and I can’t fault it. I would do anything for coverage as good as that, in fact!

    1. Sorry Damon but it’s not the fault of British people that you can’t enjoy the benefits of a state-funded broadcaster.

      F1 should be broadcast ad-free wherever it is shown. It’s hard enough broadcasting and covering a race which may have multiple focuses of attention at any one time (unlike many other sports which typically have one) without huge chunks of live footage being cut out.

      1. We have the ABC in Australia, but they’ve never been interested in broadcasting the sport. I wish they would, but it doesn’t seem to be a priority. I am not angry at the people who are critical of ITV because it has advertisements, I am just annoyed that many people seem to take the BBC’s fantastic coverage for granted. The British are extremely fortunate to have it, but it’s not going to last forever.

        I am thankful for our woeful coverage in Australia, because if it weren’t for OneHD, there’d be no way in the world I could possibly follow F1. Unfortunately, that is the case with GP2, which I happen to enjoy a lot.

        It’s hard enough broadcasting and covering a race which may have multiple focuses of attention at any one time (unlike many other sports which typically have one) without huge chunks of live footage being cut out.

        Indeed. Moments I’ve missed this year include the battle between the Ferraris before the switch in Germany, Hamilton trying to pass Hulkenberg in Brazil, the restart in Australia and very nearly, the moment when Vettel wiped Jenson Button out of the Belgian Grand Prix. Be thankful whilst the uninterrupted coverage lasts.

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