Archive for March, 2008
Jean-Marie Balestre, 1921-2008
I was saddened this evening to learn of the death of Jean-Marie Balestre.
Balestre was the president of the Commision Sportive Internationale from 1978, and formed the Federation Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA), the fore-runner of today’s FIA.
He became president of the FIA in 1986 (despite having a coronary artery by-pass graft that same year) and [...]
The Ben Evans column: ITV aren’t bad
Another early start for the UK’s armchair fans unfortunately didn’t equate to another exciting race last Sunday. Ferrari dominated and McLaren floundered – with Lewis Hamilton struggling get close to Mark Webber’s Red Bull and Jarno Trulli’s Toyota, let alone actually make a move.
Yes he may have been driving for points (in the second race [...]
“Brands Hatch” (Chas Parker)
If you go to Brands Hatch today it’s hard to imagine it being used as a Formula 1 circuit. It’s narrow, steep and the barriers (and crowd) are far too close to the trade for the FIA or Bernie Ecclestone’s liking.
At its peak, Brands Hatch held up to four races for Formula 1 cars per [...]
Ecclestone on Hamilton and Raikkonen
It’s always interesting to hear what the most powerful man in Formula 1 thinks of the sport’s drivers.
Bernie Ecclestone hailed Lewis Hamilton as the new Michael Schumacher and said he wants to see a rivalry developed between him and world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
DTM’s stupid pit stop rules to get worse
The DTM have found a way to make their complicated and boring pit stop rules even harder to follow.
On top of forcing drivers to pit twice a race, they’re now going to set pit windows which will restrict the times at which they come into the pits.
It’s a rubbish idea nicked from, among other categories, [...]
How can we make the Live Blogs better?
The new F1Fanatic Live Blogs of the practice, qualifying and race sessions have proved really popular, with hundreds of you joining in the Grand Prix comments.
But I think we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what we can do with this feature so please give me any feedback on the service so far. Here [...]
Should Tata bring Jaguar back to F1?
Ford have sold Jaguar (and Land Rover) to Indian company Tata for £1.15bn ($2.3bn). The blue oval ran Jaguar Racing in F1 for five years before selling it to Red Bull in 2004.
As a luxury car manufacturer two of Jaguar’s biggest rivals compete in Formula 1 – BMW and Mercedes. So should Tata bring the [...]
How teams dodge traction control ban
The FIA are failing to make teams stick to the traction control ban according to ITV’s Ted Kravitz.
The teams have been using special engine setting maps at the start of the races to simulate launch control and get their cars off the line as quickly as possible – and efforts to stop the practice have [...]
Video: 2008 Bahrain GP preview 1
Watch the first part of the Malaysian review and Bahrain preview video plus a competition to win Grand Prix tickets and a Lewis Hamilton McLaren model.
F1 Racing vs Motorsport
I renewed my subscription to F1 Racing at the start of the year but soon after I started to wonder if I’d made the wrong decision.
Since its rival Motorsport left the Haymarket stable, started covering contemporary F1 again, and poached two of the stars from Haymarket’s weekly Autosport (Damien Smith and Nigel Roebuck), I’ve found [...]
