Whitmarsh will not continue as FOTA president

F1 Fanatic round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Martin Whitmarsh will not continue as president of the Formula One Teams’ Association beyond his current term.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Whitmarsh to quit as FOTA chief (Autosport)

“McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says he will not stand for re-election as chairman of the Formula One Teams’ Association.”

Ferrari has plenty to learn about 2012 tyres – Hamashima (ESPN)

Ferrari head tyre engineer Hirohide Hamashima: “My understanding so far is that the previous company’s tyres had a flat working range and the current tyres have more of a peak. So it is important to prepare the tyre properly and also the driver has to make an effort to use it for the best behaviour and those factors will be very important for the future.”

CoTA latest pics (Sky)

The Circuit of the Americas is coming along nicely.

Vijay Mallya to striking pilots: Understand the extreme hardship that I am going through (The Times of India)

“In an open letter to his staffers, the third in so many months, Mallya warned, ‘If some colleagues feel that I will be pressurised by flight cancellations, they are wrong. Instead, I will stop my own support as a few are effectively holding the entire company to ransom…'”

F1 Tales: All in the Timing (Viva F1)

“At the 1971 Italian Grand Prix […] it was announced that Jacky Ickx’s Ferrari was fastest much to the delight of the local press. According to [Muchele] Dubosc’s timing, however, Matra’s Chris Amon had gone 0.42 seconds quicker and such was her reputation that the organisers could not ignore Matra’s claim. It’s hard to imagine today but when the times were rechecked, Amon was indeed quickest – his pole time exactly as Dubosc had recorded.”

Inside the MTC: Meet Olympic Silver Medallist Tom Stallard (McLaren)

“Tom Stallard, who won a silver medal in the men’s eight rowing at the 2008 Beijing Games, is more widely known within the team as Jenson [Button’s] performance engineer.”

Formula One Betting: 2012 Season Half Term Report Part 2 (Unibet)

The continuation of my mid-season review for Unibet.

Comment of the day

I think we can guess who Davros is referring to:

It must be frustrating for Frank Williams that his best driver has the temperament of a chimpanzee on fire.
Davros

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Wes!

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

Damon Hill came oh-so-close to scoring Arrows’ first F1 win in the Hungarian Grand Prix 15 years ago today.

The reigning world champion had enjoyed little success after being forced out of Williams the previous year. But Arrows’ Bridgestone tyres suited the Hungaroring and he squeezed past Michael Schumacher on lap 11 to take the lead.

But disaster struck in the closing stages. A hydraulic failure hobbled his car and Jacques Villeneuve snatched the win off him on the final lap.

Hill coasted in second as Johnny Herbert took third for Sauber.

Here are the dramatic final laps of the race:

Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

43 comments on “Whitmarsh will not continue as FOTA president”

  1. So you are in a race but you have to condition your tyres so that once you bring them to peak grip they last more than a couple of laps! OK so it’s the same for everyone and it is a skill that the drivers will eventually learn to master but I would much rather see them trying to pass the car ahead than condition their tyres even if it meant going back to the days of harder less grippy tyres that required the drivers to master four-wheel drifts and opposite lock whilst diceing with the other cars. That’ll be tuppence, thank you.

    1. The “harder less grippy tyres” worked horribly over last decade. It’s much better this way.

      Both the tyres and the track position is important. Previously, it was just the track position. And with overtaking being so difficult, it was game over once they got past turn 1.

      1. The “harder less grippy tyres” worked horribly over last decade. It’s much better this way.

        F1 never had “harder less grippy tyres” over the past decade.

        The Bridgestone & Michelin’s we saw over the last decade were actually a softer compound than what Pirelli bring & they also produced more mechanical grip.

        The reason the Pirelli tyres act as they do isn’t because the compounds are softer or harder, Its simply the way the compound is constructed which produced more degredation.

    2. Actually @hohum, I take this interview as a hopefull sign. After all, it means there is a way to make the tyres work well, and its about figuring it out and driver skill. The good news is, that its actually possible to do that. That shows its not a lottery, only a very hard challenge posed to all teams and drivers.
      Also I would take this as a plea to keep the tyres unchanged (not tinker with them over the winter) because the participants in the sport still have a lot to do to get on top of them.

      I know that you feel the tyres are too big a factor this year, and its not needed, but I guess there’s not much we can do but hope the more the teams learn about them, the better they will be able to use the potential and it will further level the field to make for great racing.

      1. @basCB, yes maybe so but so far nobody seems to have found the formula. I wonder what people would say if 1 team like RBR mastered the tyres and Vettel romped away from everybody for the rest of the season.

        1. I think many would say the second half of the season was boring in that case @hohum! But the real F1Fanatics will know better …

  2. Is it just me, or is Whitmarsh very much leaving the door open for another year of him as FOTA president? Or maybe that’s just the politician-esque way he always talks.

    1. You mean, ” I don’t aspire to another year, but of course if everyone thinks I am the best person for the job I would, naturally, answer the call of duty.”

    2. I read the article yesterday and found it pretty definite on him stopping to do that job. Nowhere does he say he might be convinced to stay

      1. I’d say it’s at least implied by…well, almost everything he says, actually (the tone as I read it is exactly as HuHum has described), but this is where it’s clearest:

        “I’m never going to volunteer for it,” Whitmarsh told AUTOSPORT. “I think it’s probably healthy, I suppose it’s three years or whatever, I think it would be quite healthy for someone else to do it now. I think it’s for the teams to decide on that.”

        Those, to me, do not sound like the words of someone who cannot be convinced to come back as president. He might have no intention of volunteering for the position again, but if the teams insist, well…

  3. “…the driver has to make an effort to use it for the best behaviour…”
    Thank you Mr Hamashima, breaking news, F1 drivers actually have to make efforts to drive !

    1. That’s rather pathetic way to twist someone’s words when they don’t reflect your opinion.
      He clearly stated that drivers have to make an effort to get the best out of the tires, which sounds great as far as I’m concerned. That means that driver can be differentiation factor when it comes to the car’s ultimate pace. Tires are just returning the portion of the power back to the driver.
      In other words, tires are not the factor; tires are a platform which enables the driver to become a bigger factor again.

      1. Well said. It’s obvious enough to spot who is an agressive driver and who is not, which has implications on tyre life. These guys should be able to adapt, that’s why they’re in F1.

        1. @andrewtanner, I agree with you, I just like to watch aggressive drivers.

  4. Not sure if anyone is interested but tomorrow, the Super TC2000, the touring car racing series from Argentina, will attempt to break all the national speed and average laptime records on the 2.8 miles Rafaela oval circuit.

    It’s bigger and faster than Indianapolis, and has hosted an USAC race back in the 70s (won by Al Unser). Only once has the TC2000 series raced at the oval, and it was superb. But now, they’ll try to race (at least in practice) on the oval with the new Radical V8 engines.

    Speeds expected to get close to 300 km/h !

    1. Wow, I did hear about the series but have not been following it much, now I will keep an eye out for what they are doing over the weekend!

    2. Sorry about that mistake, it’s actually TODAY that they’ll attempt to beat the records. :)

    3. @bascb They raced today, and they broke the 300 km/h barrier! they are showing it on the telly later today, so I’ll try to find a video to post it on the forum :)

      1. Looking forward to the video then @fer-no65

  5. Isn’t it amazing to see that an Olympic medal winner is now working as one of the team members in F1!

    1. Incredible, I believe that’s called a ‘double life’ or something along the lines.

  6. As a dutch taxpayer, I’m appalled with this bit of F1 news.

    We should’ve paid less for Greece and invest it to pay for a Zandvoort revamp and FOM’s fee to host a race!

    1. That looks like a tunnel on the back stretch, about 300 metres long. And the cars would enter it at around 250 kph.
      Hmmm.

    2. Eh, it’ll never happen. The decision to build a circuit and host a race given the state of the Greek economy would probably cause Europe to lose faith in the country and withdraw financial support entirely.

      As for the circuit, some parts aren’t too bad, but other sections look dismal, like the squiggly bit in the first sector that would only string the cars out on the approach to one of the few overtaking points on the circuit. The whole thing looks like it was drawn by someone who figured “Hey, this looks good on paper, so it must be good for racing!”. At least Hermann Tilke tries to make things that will be interesting for the drivers.

    3. Germany should’ve bought Greece instead of giving it huge loans which they are just going to waste!

      1. Germany should’ve bought Greece.

        Yeah, because countries are available for purchase in your nearest grocery store

        1. @todfod – Turkey, for instance

          1. @david-a . It took me a second to get that. LMAO

        2. Germany were flirting with the prospect of buying some of the Greek islands; I’m sure tourism would improve there given some financial stability. After all, it appears they are the only country to have come out of the recession relatively unscathed (well, at least the amount of countries being bailed out by Germany suggests so).

      2. How would buying Greece have helped then? After all Germany has to help mainly to avoid having to buyout its own banks (and French banks) who would fail if Greece did not pay them back all the loans handed to them when everyone thought it was no risk to loan just about anyone.

    4. Your comment, and most of the comments I see on message boards for that matter, just show how this whole experiment is working just as planned. Everyone is blaming Greece and acting as if their country is just simply giving money to Greece as a lunch money.
      Do you know what is actually going on in Greece, and more importantly, why?

      1. People will always complain about whatever happens with ‘their’ tax money. I don’t think any European citizen should be too hard of judgment, since a LOT of countries (including the Netherlands) could easily have similar troubles coming their way. Of course, the only things reaching the TV screen are ‘Greek people lazy; retire at 28’ or ‘Those crazy Greeks are at it again; spend money they don’t have!’..

      2. @brace @npf1 All I know is that shipyards and churches don’t pay taxes. That everyone with knowledge knew that the books weren’t right before Greece entered the EU. To name just 2 things.

        And this week it’s been announced that Goldman Sachs won’t be proscecuted for the crimes which led to the finacial crisis. While they were also involved in polishing Greeces books.

        But when you’re in trouble you can’t pension at 55 while the people who bail you out must work till 67, just as you can’t organise a race, how much sense it makes, it looks just plain bad. And if you don’t know about perception, you should’nt be in politics.

        Anyway, I’m having this dream about real economics, Ayn Rand-style, where everything Goes bust, so we can build ourselves a real economy without the looters.

        Now I could go on n on, I won’t. After all this site is about F1. But, given the choice, really, give us Zandvoort!

      3. I know enough from the media to realise Greece, Italy and Spain in particular are deeply in recession, partially due to the fact money was spent expecting a return which never came. Spain borrowed vast amounts in the early 2000’s and now are unable to pay it back, causing the country to go into recession (and along with various others drag the whole European economy down with them). The financial situation is dire, and some German investment (and control in my opinion) would allow countries like Greece to re-boot the economy.
        And just for the record, I’m too young to have to pay taxes, so my view is impartial. Tax money means nothing to me.

    5. You pay nothing for Greece. No German tax payer pays a cent for Greece or any other country for that matter. The problem is that all of you all misinform as hell by your little stupid propaganda news.

      All your money go to the same place that every Greeks taxpayers money go to also. And that ain’t in some aid. Wake up already, search threw internet about how the whole system works where you can find a lot more information than your stupid channel news.

  7. I’m really looking forward to seeing CotA used for the first time in Novemeber; I think it has all the potential to be a great track – it definately looks like one of the better Tilke-designed tracks.

    1. @vettel1 Me too. It does look fun from what I’ve seen. Interested to see how the drivers take to the Turn 8 inspired corners.

  8. Hungary 1997. One of the most amazing F1 weekends of all time.

  9. I never was a fan of Rubens…but is it a run of bad luck wherever he goes or he likes to openly critisize his team even though it is/was a championship winning car because he can’t deliver. I thought back in 2009 he had a fair shot at the title and he couldn’t deliver.

  10. Sounds fair enough to me from Whitmarsh regarding FOTA. How many teams have left FOTA now? Let somebody else deal with the mess of it all and concentrate on bagging a couple of championships!

  11. That picture of Martin, I would love a caption for that!

    Martin after another failed pitstop:
    I am going to punch someone in the face for that!

  12. It must be frustrating for Frank Williams that his best driver has the temperament of a chimpanzee on fire.

    The COTD makes me want to play Timesplitters!

Comments are closed.