Grosjean: Dash back to Spain “was worth it”

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Romain Grosjean thanks a sponsor for helping him fly from France to Spain to participate in yesterday’s test.

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Grosjean: It was worth it (Sky)

“I was supposed to be in bed until 9:30 or 10 to do personal stuff in Paris but I woke up a bit earlier, about 8:30, switched on the mobile phone and had a message from (Lotus Track Operations Director) Alan (Permane) saying, ‘Can you call me back? Kimi [Raikkonen] isn’t well’.”

Engine motive not behind Bianchi deal (Autosport)

Graeme Lowdon: “Discussions on engines are taking place in our team like every team, but with every supplier.”

‘Small things’ hamper Red Bull – Webber (ESPN)

“There’s too much media and not enough racing at the moment so we need to just get down to Melbourne and stop talking about it and just get on with it.”

Last day of testing for Felipe Massa (Ferrari)

“With less than half an hour remaining, a problem with the left front upright meant that Felipe had to stop the car on track, thus bringing a positive day to a slightly early end.”

F1 in 3D: full speed ahead? (The Telegraph)

“Key to the likelihood of fans seeing more F1 in 3D will be rights negotiations. Sky would not comment on anything to do with that notoriously difficult F1 issue.”

Vettel wants another go on Top Gear after rival Hamilton beats his time (Daily Mail)

“‘He was cheating!’ quipped Vettel when asked about being knocked off top spot by Hamilton. ‘Of course I would like another go. I now have another reason to go on the show.'”

Grand-Am teams embrace Circuit of the Americas – will the fans? (Autoweek)

“There’s little doubt that Formula 1, Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett will draw crowds. Will the rest of the season’s races? We’ll have a good idea when we see the audience for Grand-Am.”

Volker Weidler: Shattered career (24 Heures du Mans)

“German F3 champion in 1985 and DTM vice-champion in 1986, Volker Weidler entered F1 in 1980 with the Rial team but the season was a disappointment. His victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1991 was going to revive his career… but had the opposite effect!”

Jamey’s photos (Facebook)

“Apparently Red Bull and a few other teams are complaining that photographers are taking photos of the rears of the cars at pit exit.”

Tweets

https://twitter.com/PaulHembery/status/307806790630912000

Comment of the day

@RyanWilliams on the 11th hour driver change at Marussia:

Absolutely gutted for Razia. Thought he drove superbly in GP2 last year and deserved the seat at Marussia.

Pleased it’s Bianchi replacing him after being horrendously overlooked by Force India earlier this week. I really hope that Razia can recover from this and hopefully we’ll see him on the grid in 2014, once Bianchi has joined Force India.
@RyanWilliams

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Jackie Stewart responded to Emerson Fittipaldi’s wins in the first two races of the 1973 season with a victory of his own in the South African Grand Prix 40 years ago today.

Fittipaldi came third behind Peter Revson’s McLaren.

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39 comments on “Grosjean: Dash back to Spain “was worth it””

  1. It’s not the first dog we’ve seen either. Remember Yuji Ide?

  2. So, the news is that Bernie E. has sent a paddock pass to Lewis Hamilton’s dog. He will be not the most stupid people with a pass…

    Was that last sentence meant to be ironic?

    1. Haha I was thinking the same. As if he is saying that even though Hamilton is extremely stupid, there are some even stupider people with the paddock pass? :)

    2. Perhaps English isn’t the first language, but still, google translate would give you a more accurate, meaningful translation than that! Definitely ironic, although I guess unintentionally so.

  3. Vettel was toppled from the top of the time sheets after Hamilton beat the triple world champion’s best effort in the Suzuki Liana by almost two seconds.

    I’m sorry, but since when was 1.1s “almost two seconds”?

    Hamilton has been setting impressive times in the Mercedes in testing and Vettel conceded he hopes he will be closer to the 2008 world champion when the serious business begins.

    How stupid is this article? Obviously he will be closer to Hamilton (and most probably ahead) – times are almost completely irrelevant.

    If we disregard the ridiculousness of the written word in the article though, I am much looking forward to Vettel coming back on to try and retake his top spot!

    1. That’s to be expected from the people that claim everything can give you cancer though…

    2. He added: ‘I hope there won’t be that big a gap between us during the season and I hope we are in good shape to be close enough’

      @vettel1 read the last paragraph. That paragraph might be slightly confusing but the next paragraph clears it up. Vettel wants Hamilton to not be that further behind him. So it’s not too bad…

      1. @fer-no65 – I was also intending to quote that! The article appears to be portraying that comment opposing it’s intended meaning however, which is grossly incaccuarte.

        How I love the daily mail!

        1. @vettel1 Well, it’s better than the Express, whose front page is almost always covered with a headline about either how crap the EU is or insane weather predictions that always turn out false.
          And don’t even get me started on the Sun…

          1. Well, since EU = crap, I think that would be a very good newspaper.

          2. Well, @Verstappen that is confusing cause and effect. That they are right on the EU (in your opinion and theirs) does not mean they come even close to beign a good source of NEWS

      2. @vettel1, @fer-no65, perhaps we should not be analyzing the pages of the Daily Mail at all (“almost two seconds” was pretty rich indeed), but I do not believe they misquote Vettel in the final two paragraphs.

        I don’t know when Vettel made these statements (i.e., before or after Lewis set a 1m20.5), but I think it could just be Vettel being a bit generous to his rivals, while at the same time acknowledging that the pace of the Mercedes has been pretty impressive, better than expected. So I think Vettel indeed says: I hope we won’t be that far behind when the racing starts, privately confident that he will most likely be ahead of the Mercedes.

        1. @adrianmorse – perhaps he was just treating the interview as a joke, given the Mail’s reputation! ;)

  4. Levente (@leventebandi)
    3rd March 2013, 1:30

    Haha De la Rosa eventually not the only name on that list to look. Horner is in 4th place! :P

    1. FlyingLobster27
      3rd March 2013, 10:45

      Did you read the text of the tweet? That’s exactly what PdlR’s pointing out.

  5. There’s nothing lamer in F1 at the moment than Lotus’ ImSexyAndIKnowIt hashtags. They are posting it literally every day and it must have became overused after third time already.

    1. It makes me cringe when someone over and over repeats another ones bad joke. I can appreciate the song, but to take that and try desperately to make it your own is like taking another one’s F1 heritage by just buying a brand and … Oh … well

  6. “Apparently Red Bull and a few other teams are complaining that photographers are taking photos of the rears of the cars at pit exit.”

    Suck it up, princess(es)!

    I know the teams like to keep the finer deatails of their diffuser and exhaust arrays as secret as possible for as long as possible, but this is just taking things to new and ridiculous extremes. We all know that when the teams aren’t complaining about the photographers, they’re pouring over whatever images they can find of their rivals.

    1. @prisoner-monkeys it’s a lost battle anyway. With cameras being so high-tech right now, they can take pictures from every angle at the track, even if they are far away… specially the rear, is hard to miss !

    2. Red Bull do seem to be overly sensitive about their rear end.

      And as you say, a little hypocritical:
      http://www.darrenheath.com/season/2013/blog/chasing-shadows
      “Busy rushing up and down the pitlane, Red Bull’s very own ‘spy’ photographer is shooting to his first top-team brief. A Ferrari front wing, a McLaren monocoque, some Sauber sidepods – all are in his sights.

      While their new charge is nervously avoiding eye contact with rival teams’ crews, the Red Bull posse are providing some enjoyable – if rather bizarre – entertainment of their own…”

    3. Besides, I’m pretty sure that most teams have one/more undercover photographers to keep an eye on their rivals’ cars. So I don’t really see what’s the point of complaining.

    4. I think the ploy to cover up the rear is diverting attention from something else: remember last year Red Bull managed to test a DDRS in Singapore and nobody noticed!

    5. “Apparently Red Bull and a few other teams are complaining that photographers are taking photos of the rears of the cars at pit exit.”

      @brace There, thought I’d just highlight a part of that quote you seem to have missed (or are conveniently ignoring).

  7. Abdurahman (@)
    3rd March 2013, 4:52

    Whats the answer to ex f1 docs riddle? Todt?

    1. Tits! or time….

    2. Must be Todt I think. Presumably he’s claiming that Todt was pushing for Bianchi to get a seat, either because he’s French, or linked to Ferrari, or both?

    3. It’s likely, Nicolas Todt (Jean Todt’s son) is Bianchi’s manager. That would explain saying “both”.

      1. @nipz But what has (any) Todt to with a reptilian?

        1. Ex f1 doc’s been reading to many conspiracy theories. I think he’s calling them reptilian because he’s now believing David Ickes theories..

  8. To add to the roundup, here’s an interesting piece in German AMS about time getting short for McLaren do decide on going on with Mercedes (and Honda board to decide on when their new engine will be available to race)

  9. About the Top Gear thing… I wonder if they ever invited Alonso on the show. He’s the only champion from the last decade who hasn’t been there. I say put him in a Liana too and see what he can do with it – that should spice things up.

    1. @klaas – I would think they would have, as there is no reason why they shouldn’t (other than perhaps I don’t think he is the most popular driver on the world over here). I think they should have all the top guys on during the British GP weekend or something, so we can eliminate all the variables and see who’s quickest (although it is just a bit of fun really)!

      1. @vettel1 @klaas John Prescott had a go and (as far as I know), he’s by far the least popular star to show up.

        Alonso’s interview would be interesting and so his lap ! He MUST go !

        1. @fer-no65 – very true! He was definitely thrown to the lions in that interview!

          I’d welcome any F1 driver back on: perhaps they should do a world champions duel and a rookie duel or something, see who comes out on top!

          1. @vettel1 I loved that interview. I’m not british, I hardly knew Prescott, but I loved that interview. He was thrown to the lions but he had the balls to go there anyway. He knew he’d be thrown to the lions and he stood with it.

            I think he did well… it was certainly interesting to watch and listen !

          2. @fer-no65 – absolutely he did very well and he was quite ballsy to go there! It was just a bit of friendly Tory vs Labour banter in the end though!

            I thought the interview was very funny indeed, although his lap was quite painfully slow in the end!

          3. @vettel1 well… his enoooorrmous belly probably impeded him to steer the wheel :P

  10. Does an F1 driver needs a sponsor for a ticket to fly? Arent they paid handsomely enough..???

    1. Availability of flights at short notice was the problem.

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