Comments on: Exclusive interview: Pedro de la Rosa on F1 2009 and Motorland Aragon

By: Chaz

Chaz — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:38:12 +0000

Gosh, I’d never heard of this track. It sounds interesting. I’d like to see a race on it.

Slightly off subject, but I still scratch my head as to how Pedro came through spygate relatively unscathed remaining at McLaren especially despite his alleged collusions with Fernando…

By: ninguen

ninguen — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:01:09 +0000

Not dream of a GP in motorland, it´s in the middle of nowhere and there are NO hotel nearby (and by nearby i mean 100km at least) this year a world cup of karting was denegated by that reason it would something similar to mangy cours but very very worst. They are waiting for a project to do something similar to las vegas in the desert so they would have enough hotels in 30 km.

And for PDLR i can assure that having him as a commentator on spanish tv is really great, the best speaker for f1 i´ve seen in my life, he could retire and earn his life with that as the best.

By: motion

motion — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:46:53 +0000

Not having PDLR’s mid season testing feedback for development will hurt McLaren comparatively. Their greatest car strength of the past few years has been neutered.

By: StrFerrari4Ever

StrFerrari4Ever — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:50:22 +0000

Great interview Pedro de la Rosa is really a nice guy he says the things which us the fans pick up on and its nice to see someone like that his a really quick guy i mean that 2005 bahrain race yes he made a few errors but there was no doubt he had the pace and in 2006 hungarian grand prix hopefully a team could pick him in the not too distant future cause great talent needs to be shown to everyone as for the circuit it looks pretty good if they replaced this to be the european grand prix then i wouldnt mind because Valencia last year was very dull unless of course this year we see a difference and those 09 cars cor ugly as sin but if we get used to them then good also i read on this other f1 technical website it said the cars would have higher top ends at circuits such as monza 360km/h again like v10 era any1

By: Andrew Tsvyk

Andrew Tsvyk — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:18:18 +0000

I hope that the Motorland Aragon circuit will become the home of the Spanish GP. I mean, Barcelona does not really deserve it!

By: Arthur 954

Arthur 954 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:02:13 +0000

PDLR puts forth an interesting point : better to have one very good passing point ( in this case a very long straight ) than three lesser ones. Now, could this idea of one great passing point on the track be taken further ?
— a long straight, preceded by perhaps two curves that are difficult ( perhaps off – camber or similar ): this way it is not only about top speed and a powerful engine, but also about the skill of the driver in launching himself for the straight, from those difficult preceding curves.
— at the end of the straight, around the braking area, the track would be triple wide or so,and the first turn ( maybe an “S” )also double or triple wide
— this extra – wide passing area could be cleaned with a powerful air – blowing machine before the race, so that there is more than one clean line.
— then the track would resume its normal width

cheers to all !

By: theRoswellite

theRoswellite — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:58:54 +0000

Keith…great interview. It would be nice to read YOUR INTERVIEWS during the season. I would think running this blog should provide you plenty of access.

I trust McLaren to be making the right driver selections with regard to Pedro, they are certainly familiar with his work. And, after all, racing drivers come and go, but test drivers are forever!

By: matthew

matthew — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:51:00 +0000

“…it’s still going to be the same old Formula 1.”

Pretty candid for a test driver don’t you think?

The course kind of looks like a backwards Interlagos.

By: Arthur 954

Arthur 954 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:44:01 +0000

I wish the McLaren livery would include the wheels painted like their old racers : black on the inside and chrome around the rim. All – black tyres I do not like. By the way, the FIA could ban those plastic wheel covers : they make the cars look ungraceful, and eliminte the posibility of painting the wheels in nice signature team colurs

By: Arthur 954

Arthur 954 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:57:08 +0000

Pedro DLR has the personality and class to be part of a commitee that oversees F1 in a way that it does not lose its spirit and heritage.
All those new racetracks are flat and generic. On the contrary, so many of the great old European and American tracks are, in their origin, derived from public roads, and therefore follow the contours of the terrain, with its ups and downs, irregular radious curves, etc. This is much more exciting to watch, either live or on tv : long straights that go into a forest, reappear in a series of ups and downs with grandstands, dissapear again into the forest and then again an open area with grandstands and slow curves, like the old Hockenheim …….
So, I propose a commitee of people with good judgement and taste that steers F1 in the direction of more authenticity : those memories of cars following each other at full speed through the ups and downs of a forest in Belgium are what really touch your heart