In the round-up: Nico Rosberg says he hopes Michael Schumacher will stay at Mercedes.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
“Car whisperer” Rosberg set for Singapore test (Reuters)
“With Michael it works well, so I’ll be glad if he stays on next year. We also push the team together very well.”
McLaren say 2013 car design is based on Lewis Hamilton staying (BBC)
McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe: “It is our assumption that they are the drivers who we will be fielding next year. We have two fantastic drivers in Lewis and Jenson and we are very keen to keep them.”
Lowe: Qualifying pace a boon for McLaren (F1)
Lowe: “We are in the great position that we can qualify well at the moment. That is proving to be a strong benefit relative to our race pace, which is relatively weaker. Last year the opposite was the case where we had very strong race pace, which made it very tough.”
F1’s greatest driver of all time Schumacher heads to ROC in Bangkok (Race of Champions)
“Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher has signed up for the 2012 Race Of Champions in Bangkok, Thailand.”
Lewis Hamilton says consistency is crucial to his Formula One title charge
“Unfortunately, I have come out [retired] a couple of times ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ or been taken out ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ and we have had a lot of pit stop problems but no reliability problems.”
Time lapse: Preparation of race cars for overseas transport (Sauber F1 Team via YouTube)
Tweets
Track walk Singapore. Approach of turn 13 #bridge #streetstyle #goodfun pic.twitter.com/Tfrst9kI
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) September 19, 2012
Arrived in Singapore. You can straight feel the heat and the humidity whilst going out of the airport ! Looking forward to drive the track
— Romain Grosjean (@RGrosjean) September 19, 2012
Insert HRT joke here: http://t.co/Z23JQB5i #F1
— F1 Fanatic (@f1fanatic_co_uk) September 19, 2012
Comment of the day
More thoughts on Schumacher’s future from @PhilEReid:
In all the races that Schumacher has finished, he?óÔé¼Ôäós always finished in the points. If only the reliability of the car had been better for him. It actually puts him as one of two drivers to, when finish, finish in the points (along with Alonso), which is quite remarkable if I do say so.
It?óÔé¼Ôäós also ?óÔé¼?£nice?óÔé¼Ôäó to see him out doing Rosberg, as that?óÔé¼Ôäós always been a struggle. Where would he be had he been able to finish (granted it was his own fault for not finishing at Catalunya. For one they?óÔé¼Ôäód (Mercedes) would be further away from Sauber. Granted they probably wouldn?óÔé¼Ôäót be challenging the top four, but they?óÔé¼Ôäód pretty much be confirmed 5th at least.
It?óÔé¼Ôäós just quite an interesting thing to see, as I?óÔé¼Ôäód never really seen it before. It?óÔé¼Ôäód be nice if this continued for Michael going into next year, or for him to get a win this year. That would be quite a special moment in F1.
@PhilEReid
From the forum
- A peek at the slogan on the new-look podium at Singapore
- Thoughts on F1 2012 with the game’s release imminent
- Mercedes to join V8 supercars
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to AmericanTifosi, AUS_Steve, Calum, Deadman, GeeMac and Saints!
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
Alain Prost beat Jackie Stewart’s record of Grand Prix wins 25 years ago today.
Stewart’s tally of 27 victories had stood for 14 years until Prost scored his 28th career win in the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Prost took the win after Gerhard Berger spun with three laps to go.
Nelson Piquet collected third place while team mate Nigel Mansell retired with electrical problem. As Ayrton Senna also failed to score, Piquet extended his lead in the drivers’ championship.
Here are the final laps of the race and Berger’s dramatic spin:
Image ?é?® Daimler/Hoch Zwei
Calum (@calum)
20th September 2012, 0:04
I love that I share my birthday with so many other F1 fans – have a good one AmericanTifosi, AUS_Steve, Deadman, GeeMac and Saints! :D
ScuderiaVincero (@scuderiavincero)
20th September 2012, 0:45
Here’s to an awesome day @calum :)
Girts (@girts)
20th September 2012, 6:27
Happy birthday @Calum , @GeeMac and everyone else! Cheers!
BasCB (@bascb)
20th September 2012, 6:41
Yeah, looks like its a good day for motorsport fans! Have a lovely birthday @calum, and very much the same to @AUS_Steve (would be nice to get next season comfirmed as a present!) and I hope @GeeMac will have a nice day with great friends too. And a happy birthday as well to @AmericanTifosi, @Deadman and @Saints
Cornflakes (@cornflakes)
20th September 2012, 0:17
In the Sauber video, why do they take the car apart only to put it back together?
On a completely separate note, I love these daily roundups Keith. I’ve always read them before going to bed and its a good way of catching all the days news. Cheers!
Thomas Baer (@yogibaer)
20th September 2012, 0:57
Whereas im reading this after waking up….. we’re a bit upside down in Australia:-)
PaulT (@pault)
20th September 2012, 1:10
No, I just looked out the window – we’re the right way up, it’s the rest of the world that’s doing it wrong!
Egon (@egon)
20th September 2012, 1:01
I think its something to do with the maintenance and replacement of various parts after the race they’ve just come back from and then rebuilding it for transport with the new/fixed parts.
xeroxpt (@)
20th September 2012, 1:03
@cornflakes They must check all components before putting them back in, they perform several tests to several parts of the car to ensure they are in good state to put them back in the car for the next GP, to do that they resort to various machines that analyse the state of the different component’s for instances for carbon composites they have an scanner that detects possible inconsistencies in the material, for the suspension arms they also test their resistance, as for other parts like the engine they are usually sent to their manufacturer.
Cornflakes (@cornflakes)
21st September 2012, 1:56
@ukfanatic – thanks! Great insight.
Suave (@suave)
20th September 2012, 0:30
I really enjoy those little Sauber videos. This one and the cutaway F1 car are great.
BasCB (@bascb)
20th September 2012, 6:42
Me too, its great to see they have been putting some really nice material out in the open lately.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
20th September 2012, 20:38
@suave Ditto. I don’t think any other team connects with the fans so well. It’s impossible to dislike Sauber.
Dom (@3dom)
20th September 2012, 22:16
I also agree. The first grand prix that I got to watch was the 2008 British grand prix. Plenty of teams had stands there with the previous year’s car for us to peruse as well as other team memorabilia. I enjoyed looking around all of them, it allowed me to get a flavour of each team’s personality and heritage, and so I found myself being interested even in teams that I don’t follow. I also got a rare chance to appreciate the differences between the cars up close (even if by f1’s standards they were “out of date”). When I attended the British grand prix in 2011 and July this year, I was disappointed to find that the teams no longer have stands with such displays, instead just stands to sell memorabilia. I assumed that this was due to the current economic climate. It’s nice to see what Sauber are doing, a simple yet effective way to engage with the fans and give us more insight into the “mystery” of what happens behind the scenes at the factory between race weekends
Scalextric (@scalextric)
20th September 2012, 1:02
That vehicle in the alleged HRT twitter clip looks more like an original Lamborghini. Are they making an F1 comeback?
AJ (@aj13)
20th September 2012, 1:48
Couple of stories suggesting Lewis being pushed… Have to say it’s got a bit personal between Ron and Hamilton. Whether it’s Rosberg, Schumacher or Massa that are affected who knows? wp.me/p2HWOP-22 wp.me/p2HWOP-3A
AJ (@aj13)
20th September 2012, 1:51
dunno why those links didn’t work… think its a twitter thing… try again
http://thejudge13.com/2012/09/17/lewis-being-pushed/
http://thejudge13.com/2012/09/20/ferrari-in-for-lewis-hamilton/
badger (@badger)
20th September 2012, 10:36
I have always had a feeling that Lewis could go to ferrari, especially after the love in on the italian podium. Maybe the McLaren situation wouldnt happen under ferrari management. I know it is unlikely but i would love to see lewis and alonso reunited :-)
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid)
20th September 2012, 2:54
Thanks for the links, they make interesting reading although I don’t know how credible that blog is as I’ve never read it before.
One thing that I think the writer hits the nail on the head regarding the Lewis-McLaren negotiations is
That seems to me to be the real driving factor here. Simply money. Regarding the other article I think it’s far fetched to believe Alonso, Ferrari’s king, would allow Hamilton into his domain.
MaroonJack (@maroonjack)
20th September 2012, 7:18
Well, the authors insight appears to be based on “hearing whispers”…
JCost (@jcost)
20th September 2012, 7:33
I’m starting to think that both Schumacher and Hamilton will stay where there are.
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid)
20th September 2012, 11:54
Me too.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
20th September 2012, 12:01
Things are starting to settle now, I agree on that, but generally where there’s smoke there’s a fire. And we’ve had PLENTY of smoke for the past couple of weeks. I reckon we’ll find out by the end of this weekend though…
F1Yankee (@f1yankee)
20th September 2012, 3:19
wow, great video sauber, more please! and, an eddie cheever sighting
KaIIe (@kaiie)
20th September 2012, 12:31
Some “news” from Finland: the JJ Lehto trial will be on again in October in a court of appeal (Hovioikeus, the second highest judicial body). JJ has some new expert saying that it wasn’t him who drove the boat, while the prosecutor denies these claims and is pushing for a five year sentence.
Full story in Finnish: http://www.nelonen.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/uutinen/j%C3%A4rvilehdolta-uusi-asiantuntijalausunto-hovioikeuteen