F1 links: November 12th

It’s Hamilton’s title: Formula One diary, October 28 to November 4

"I am subsequently crushed by a cosmopolitan mish-mash of TV crews as I make a desperate bid to record an early Hamilton sound bite. The bruises are scarcely worth it as I escape to discover my voice recorder missed most of what he said, largely because I had accidentally switched it off." Simon Arron in the thick of the action at Interlagos.

Glock also victim of internet racism

"According to the Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell, the guestbook of the Toyota driver Timo Glock's personal website was attacked in the form of 500 vile messages in the wake of the Brazilian Grand Prix."

Fast Lane Daily – 11Nov08

Spot the F1 Fanatic plug… (Video)

Column November 11th. In defence of populism

Former Daily Express editor Richard Addis defends Paul Dacre as an "emotional populist".

Max Mosley: My sex life is of interest to no one but this squalid industry

Max Mosley hits back at Paul Dacre in an article in The Guardian: "Dacre is just a bully. He delights in attacking those who cannot hit back. In open debate, which he always avoids, the intellectual and moral demolition of his position would be swift and complete. In the meantime, his championing of the Sun and the News of the World as society's moral guardians reveals the bankruptcy of his position."

NASCAR working on cost cutting

Brian France: "one of my goals is to have a system where you don't need $26 million to put a competitive team forward." Cost cutting in NASCAR has an entirely different order of magnitude compared to F1.

Di Montezemolo critical of KERS

"We feel introducing KERS already this year was a mistake, even though we're in favour of F1 being a technological springboard. But the energy recovery system in the races will in any case be very different from the road system."

Lewis Hamilton – The Onion

A funny take on Hamilton from The Onion (Thanks John Spencer)

Formula 1 Insight

The whole thing now appears to be a house of cards ready to collapse in the next economic recession. Greed has dictated that the profits from the sport are not poured back into it but are used to fill the pockets of a few and service astronomical debts that were undertaken without thought for the future. It would be an interesting and salutory lesson to be enjoyed by spectators, were it not for the fact that it affects the sport we love. When regulations are forced upon the teams because CVC needs more money for interest payments, we are right to object. If the gamblers are caught out, why should the sport bail them out?

ITV chief off but was he pushed?

"[Radio] Five's Jonathan Legard has agreed terms to be behind the mike when Formula One returns to BBC next March but won't be paid anywhere near the reported £50,000 per race predecessor Murray Walker receives for Honda ambassador work."

The implications of the McLaren-Force India deal

"It is worth looking at the experience of NASCAR to see that allowing customer cars and restricting testing is not a very good combination. What happens then is that the team with the most cars gets the best information and makes the most progress. In the US stock car series this resulted in the midfield being gutted as the big teams took their sponsorship in order to expand the number of cars being run. Even celebrated teams such as Petty Enterprises and Dale Earnhardt Inc are now struggling to survive as they cannot compete with the big combines such as Roush Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing as they are running more cars and overseeing satellite operations as well, thus driving the smaller teams back on the grid. The only way for teams to avoid this is to build better cars than the big combines but with regulatory and financial constraints this is not easy to do."

Hakkinen goes into management

"The Formula 1 World Champion of 1998 and 1999 has joined Aces Management Group, where he will work alongside his long-time friend and manager, Didier Coton to find and nurture new, young driving talent."

These are articles I’ve found and bookmarked using Delicious. View my Delicious profile to see what else I’m reading and recommend other links to me.