In the round-up: Jean Todt confirms he will stand for a second term as FIA president.
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Todt to fight for FIA role (The Telegraph)
“Todt said that he wanted to finish what he had started and claimed that he had only held off announcing his candidacy as the official campaign period had not yet begun.”
FIA ready to renew Pirelli contract (Reuters)
Jean Todt: “If it is unanimous to go in a direction and then if I go to a tender you know what people will say? (They will say) ‘He is against Pirelli so he does a tender to try to make it Michelin’.”
Alonso downplays ‘idiots’ jibe (BBC)
“He said a second message praising the team had not been broadcast and added he was confident of a strong race from his best grid position for seven grands prix.”
“Monza, Vettel flies into pole Alonso (5th) furious: ‘You’re idiots'” (La Gazzetta dello Sport)
“A few minutes before that he?óÔé¼Ôäód already shouted, ‘You really are idiots, mamma mia…’ (he may actually have said ‘geniuses’ in an ironic way, but that doesn?óÔé¼Ôäót change the sense), which in some ways is indicative of the situation that Ferrari find themselves in, having to try a million things to try to compete with a seemingly unstoppable Red Bull.”
‘I drove like an idiot’ – Hamilton (ESPN)
“I drove like an idiot. It’s the worst I’ve driven for a long, long time. I’m just sorry for the team.”
Floor damage hampered Hamilton, says Brawn (Adam Cooper’s F1 Blog)
“Lewis was looking OK, and unfortunately caught a kerb and damaged the car underneath and broke the floor, and we didn?óÔé¼Ôäót realise the consequence of that until a bit later in the session. It was irreparable, so that was unfortunate as well.”
Di Montezemolo refuses to scotch rumours that Raikkonen will make a return to Ferrari (Daily Mail)
“We haven’t signed any contract with anybody. We will talk with Massa and then we have our opinion and then we will decide.”
Bernie Ecclestone Q&A: The F1 boss on tyres, calendars and his future (Sky)
“What will actually happen I think is that when I am not here Formula 1 is going to be run in a much more corporate way. I’m more entrepreneurial, but things will be corporate.”
Interview with Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen (F1)
“We had a good year last year and a pretty good 2013. Okay, today was not ideal, but that doesn?óÔé¼Ôäót change the fact that we are pretty okay together. We have certain issues and they have to fix them and they can have a good next year.”
Sauber: Spa\Monza Wing specification (Scarbs F1)
“With the new wing the main wing and end plate arrangement remain the 3-4 element design, with its curved slot gaps and underwing vane. The three complex cascade elements have now been replaced with a single device.”
Tweets
#F1 #MONZA Showers/storms currently N & W of Monza. Models keep main threat just to N/W for Sun but retain a shower risk for race, esp later
— Ian Fergusson (@fergieweather) September 7, 2013
I feel sorry form@RFrijns for his role have been drop in Sauber, he clearly has very good talent and will. But money talks more in F1. Great
— Luiz Razia (@luizrazia) September 7, 2013
Jean #Todt about the FIA presidency election: "I will stand for the election. Why should I not. I want to finish what I started."
— Tobias Grüner F1 (@tgruener) September 7, 2013
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Gaz isn’t convinced of the merits of Ferrari’s qualifying tactics:
You can understand Alonso?óÔé¼Ôäós frustrations, so his comments don?óÔé¼Ôäót really mean much in the long run. They shouldn?óÔé¼Ôäót be wasting their time with those ridiculous tactics, taking the drivers focus away a little.
Fernando was fast all weekend and I think could have managed at least third (probably second) given his form up until third practice. Once again, Ferrari shoot themselves in the foot by complicating things when there is simply no need!
Gaz
From the forum
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On this day in F1
Fifty years ago today Jim Clark won the world championship for the first time. In one of the most dominant performances ever seen, five wins and a second place for Clark in the first seven races gave him the title with three rounds to spare.
Win number five of the 1963 season went to Clark by a crushing 95 seconds over Richie Ginther at Monza, with Bruce McLaren’s Cooper a lapped third.
Image ?é?® FIA
Atticus (@atticus-2)
8th September 2013, 0:40
I wanted to quote that sentence from the Kimi interview if it had not made an appearance here.
‘…THEY can have a good next year.’ Hm.
Funkyf1 (@funkyf1)
8th September 2013, 3:42
Yes I agree, was it Kimi’s poor english or talking about “they” the team “I” used to drive for?
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th September 2013, 0:40
Lots of idiots today.
The true idiots are Ferrari. I bet Luca’s gonna say something during the week, maybe with the Horse Whisperer nonsense. But the truth is Ferrari has been playing against themselves ever since they lost the title in 2010. They have to pull a million tricks because they are just not good enough…
I won’t be surprised if Kimi avoids returning with those bunch of tools…
q85
8th September 2013, 0:43
alonso didnt shout at anyone on the radio…. he may of said this or that but did he shout. No.
Dave (@)
8th September 2013, 1:04
Never underestimate the media’s ability to spin anything from nothing.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th September 2013, 9:46
@raceprouk La Gazzetta dello Sport is an Italian publication so they’re better placed than most to judge the content of the radio message.
Dave (@)
8th September 2013, 9:50
Doesn’t make them immune to spin though :-P
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th September 2013, 10:17
@raceprouk And how, in your view, have they ‘spun’ this?
Dave (@)
8th September 2013, 11:49
@keithcollantine – Can’t say for La Gazzetta dello Sport itself, but as I originally stated, all media spins stories. It’s an inevitable part of having people write articles.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th September 2013, 21:40
@raceprouk
So you don’t think they have. That’s all I wanted to know.
TMF (@)
8th September 2013, 11:17
agree – the media is spinning this – but they were enabled by Alonso with his comments this and last year trashing his team. Enough doubt that everything is peachy in Maranello to run a story.
Alec (@vonhoff)
8th September 2013, 1:12
Nice to see such honesty from Hamilton, makes a change from ususal drivers excuses!
On a different note, I bet Ferrari re hire Massa next year.
Maksutov (@maksutov)
8th September 2013, 3:16
Yep, nice to see honesty from Hamilton.. although in my opinion he just made a small mistake and things just didn’t work out after.
But on Massa and Ferrari, i think you are right. ,
Alex de Brito (@corix)
8th September 2013, 1:24
Ferrari saying that they will announce their driver line up soon. Does that mean that they are thinking about hiring Hulkenberg after his third place qualifying?
@HoHum (@hohum)
8th September 2013, 2:27
Maybe they wan’t to wait until Massa remembers that “Fernando is faster” than him.
Hamish
8th September 2013, 10:13
I think some people forget about McLarens policy of having the two best possible drivers available.
Perez to Ferrari, Raikkonen to McLaren.
Alex de Brito (@corix)
8th September 2013, 16:13
Here in Brazil, Rubens Barrichello has said he had talks with people at McLaren and that they have no intention of hiring Raikkonen.
Ben (@scuderia29)
8th September 2013, 19:50
i dont think a team would ever hire anyone on the basis he qualified third in one race
Hamish
8th September 2013, 23:34
Heard the Michael Schumacher story?
@HoHum (@hohum)
8th September 2013, 2:34
Sadly I think Bernie is right, F1 will become more corporate and like all great brands will be milked for all it is worth, at least Bernie knows when he has gone to far and re-negociates to keep the brand alive. Talk about the devil and the deep blue sea.
Kimi4WDC
8th September 2013, 3:28
If not GFC, he would have retained his stake and would have option to put his foot down when needed. Now it’s all lawyer business. Democracy…..
Hamilfan (@hamilfan)
8th September 2013, 6:31
@hohum Yes , it’s a good thing that Ross is protecting him. I don’t think Nico did a spectacular Qualifying. He would not be too hapy about it . If you think that 6th place is a great Qualifying for Nico , then you are clearly underestimating him. Now, that lap in Spa in the wet was bang for Nico . That’s what he must be looking at , not some 6th place. But,having said that, I think the Merc was not faster than the Ferrari yesterday .
Hamilfan (@hamilfan)
8th September 2013, 6:35
Sorry @hohum …that was meant for @funkyf1 for the comment below . A thousand apologies, my friend
gDog (@gdog)
8th September 2013, 15:21
I think where Bernie said “entrepreneurial”, he meant “crooked”
OmarR-Pepper (@)
8th September 2013, 3:04
If Alonso is fifth, he will be behind Hulkenberg’s rear wing, so that makes me wonder how obvious will Massa’s move to let him pass be. Probably the dotted line depends on that, or Ferrari can be planning a way to make Massa annoy Nico, so Alonso takes advantage of that and (a possible) Webber’s bad start to be second in seconds (redundant?)
Maksutov (@maksutov)
8th September 2013, 3:20
Im not worried. It is likely that Alonso will eventually overtake Massa and prob finish 3rd, and Massa will end up far behind , like always
Funkyf1 (@funkyf1)
8th September 2013, 3:48
Hamilton has handled his poor qualifying performance very well. Hie was basically hounded be the media yesterday trying to get him to blame Sutil for his poor lap, but he held his head high and took the blame himself. As usual Ross has come out and said his no.1 baby had a broken floor on his car also trying to take the heat of him. No mention of Nico and what a good job he did considering he miss P3
Mike (@mike)
8th September 2013, 4:07
It’s probably a good thing that Ross is trying to protect his drivers. He’d be a good boss I think!
Maarten (@)
8th September 2013, 7:18
@mike
Just so long you’re not Rubens Barrichello :) But I jest, I think Ross is handling it very well as a team boss.
Patrick (@paeschli)
8th September 2013, 8:14
I think setting Barichello as a number two is more a decision of other people at Ferrrari than Brawn himself.
N
8th September 2013, 10:31
Interesting you say no mention of Rosbergs performance, while trying to defend Hamilton..
Funny how people see what they wanna see, innit?
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
8th September 2013, 4:11
Hypocrite Razia.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th September 2013, 10:18
@peartree Why?
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
9th September 2013, 21:45
@keithcollantine @jcost They are all pay drivers. Razia in particular was ready to enter F1 via big bags of cash, the only difference between Sirotkin and Razia himself, is that his deal never went through, and it wasn’t for a lack of will from Razia.
JCost (@jcost)
8th September 2013, 10:35
Razia himself was dumped because money he was to bring never made an appearance @peartree
ElBasque (@elbasque)
8th September 2013, 11:25
I don’t think its hypocritical. He’s just showing exasperation in seeing someone else with appreciable talent unable to get into the bubble of F1 due to the financially dominated drivers market.
Abdurahman (@)
8th September 2013, 5:55
I’ve never been a Ferrari fan, it’s kind of like rooting for the Yankees.
But Italy, Monza, Ferrari, COME ON SAMURAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rain could make it interesting for sure.
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
8th September 2013, 8:04
Can’t get this calculation. Doesn’t make sense
Patrick (@paeschli)
8th September 2013, 8:12
Yeah … no way he could have finished ahead of one of the Red Bulls.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
8th September 2013, 11:54
@neelv27 fourth, yes. Third, possibly. Second, unlikely. Pole, certainly not.
Alex Brown (@splittimes)
8th September 2013, 10:10
Felipe for the win!