F1 links: Mosley criticises “childish” Howett
16th May 2009, 23:06 by Keith Collantine 26 Comments »
In-depth interview – Max Mosley
Video interview with Max Mosley on the BBC. He criticises Toyota F1 boss John Howett for being “childish” in trying to lead a walkout during the F1 rules discussions yesterday.
KERS now available to Brawn GP
Ross Brawn: “Mercedes have made [KERS] available to us. We’ve just got to find a way of fitting it to the car and not compromising the handling, because the car wasn’t designed for their system."
My ride with Michael Schumacher – onboard video
"As you may already know I got lucky in the Bacardi competition and won myself a ride with Michael Schumacher. The whole thing happened earlier this week in Spain at the Ascari Race Resort. Here is the onbard video of me in the car with Michael Schumacher."
Ferrari president misses F1 meeting
"Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who has threatened to pull his team out of Formula One unless the 2010 rules are changed, will miss today's crisis talks with Max Mosley after the death of his father."
Lewis Hamilton ‘driven to despair’ by politicsF
"I used to enjoy Formula One and part of that has been taken away from me. I never imagined there would be so much politics when I came into Formula One. It definitely was a shock. There has been too much time taken up with it. Unfortunately, it is the way the Formula One world works for some reason. It’s much nicer in the lower categories, where all the people are there just to race and the teams are there just to race.”
Lola moves ahead with F1 project
"Following completion of its evaluation of the technical regulations for cost-capped Formula One teams announced by the FIA World Motorsport Council on 29th April 2009, the Lola Group is pleased to announce that it will be submitting an entry for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship™."
These are links I’ve bookmarked using Delicious. You can see my Delicious profile here.
Henry said on 17th May 2009, 5:07
Very interesting list of links!
Thanks @F1Fanaticupdate
@henrychannel
http://twitter.com/henrychannel
F1Yankee said on 17th May 2009, 7:15
for those concerned, the bbc interview with max is viewable in the states. this is a nice change as most video material is usually blocked. instead of this worthless bbc america, i wish i could get real british tv on a regular basis.
btw, i love the fact that the bbc player goes to 11.
Sush Meerkat said on 17th May 2009, 9:51
The reason you can see it in the states is that Bernie doesn’t own the rights to Max Mosley’s face.
Kudos on spotting the volume
Gave me a giggle.
F1Yankee said on 17th May 2009, 11:19
for example, a certain gear show, which may or may not be on top, will block footage until it’s aired in the states. bonus clips, etc, are not blocked. if i navigate the bbc site, most videos are available, but someone from uk linking often fails.
John H said on 17th May 2009, 16:07
That’s because we pay Tax for that service in the UK.
So please just be grateful for the bits you can see
F1Yankee said on 17th May 2009, 19:24
bbc america doesn’t arrive at my house for free, or intact for that matter. while we’re at it, bbc has been airing shows in the states for 4 decades, and that wasn’t free either.
Chaz said on 17th May 2009, 9:32
I found the BBC’s Mosley particularly interesting especially on the issue of Howett trying to lead a walkout…
Alianora La Canta said on 17th May 2009, 18:43
Symbolic strike action has a long and proud history. Its exponents are not being childish, they are simply using a means of protest that has often proved effective when talking reasonably has not worked.
Max Mosley has unwittingly made himself look even more like a dictator than his actions regarding the budget cap so far have.
persempre said on 17th May 2009, 10:38
I shouldn`t think insulting Howett will have earned Max much respect with either the teams or the fans. Probably just the opposite.
st said on 17th May 2009, 10:50
Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
F1Yankee said on 17th May 2009, 11:14
……..this goes to eleven.
Keith Collantine said on 17th May 2009, 20:44
Spinal Tap quotage on F1 Fanatic. Sweet
F1Yankee said on 17th May 2009, 22:01
don’t touch the guitar!
i was just pointing…
don’t point! don’t even look at it!
scunnyman said on 17th May 2009, 15:05
Well as we were not in the meeting along with the FIA and FOTA then we can only summise what really happened with John Howeet and the rest of the teams. So far it’s just Mosley’s word.
I doubt he was being chiildish though, maybe just sick of the way Mosley is handling things.
If you take that bbc interview on it’s own merits then the man makes a lot of sense. But really you need to look at it in context with everything else that has gone on in F1 regarding Mosley’s regulation changes every 5 minutes.
As has been said by several people on here, myself included, constant regulation changes are one of the biggest causes for teams raisng expenditure. The teams are forever chasing the regulations and that costs a lot of money. You only have to take the KERS situation as an example. There was no need to rush this regulation in for this season, and look what it has caused, several teams struggling to get on top of the technology and others not even using it yet.
Another thing to think about is the wording of any regulations and possible loopholes. I know that anyone can work around any regulations put forward, but if they were tightened up so it made it even hard for the likes of Brawn to get around a regulation, then we wouldn’t have the case, like this season with the diffusers. If the regulations made it impossible for teams to make things that other teams belive are illegal, then you wouldn’t have several teams racing to catch up and spend possible millions in the process.
Stabilising of regulations would, to my mind, be the best way to reduce costs in the sport. The teams would use their own resources to make their cars better each season so the costs would come down. And these costs could reduce dramatically.
scunnyman said on 17th May 2009, 15:16
I would have to agree with what Ross Brawn is saying about the Mercedes Kers package. Just because it seems to work fine on the Mclaren does not mean it will work as well on the BrawnGP cars.
The BrawnGP cars are designed differently so adding the kers may make their cars slower and handle less efficiently.
Like i said in a previous post, having new technologies in Formula One does not neccessarily benefit the teams and cost a fortune to implement.
Yes maybe KERS is good technology that can be used on road cars in the future, but i think maybe it would have been better tested in some other motorsport like DTM or WTCC, something more relevant to road cars.
I have always thought it was more of a video game gadget to have a KERS button for a boost of speed. More akin to an arcade game.
I personally would prefer to see 2 guys racing each other using their own skills and the car to enable overtaking or to rebuff an overtake.
Just my humble little opinion.
F1Yankee said on 17th May 2009, 19:55
the merc batteries are a very awkward shape, prob custom fit for the mclaren chassis. i have no idea if it’s possible or legal to repackage the system in a different shape.
scunnyman said on 17th May 2009, 15:28
The onboard ride with Schumacher was a great watch. Alothough i do not respect the man you could definitely see the skill he has behind a wheel.
And the Ascari resort track is awesome, Update it to F1 standards and we have a new and exciting track, much better than Barcelona and Valencia.
F1WOLF i am so jealous of you, though i’d have liked a go in the car after Schummi lol Just to see how many times i’d spin lol.
F1Yankee said on 17th May 2009, 19:47
that was really good. it’s incredible how easy schu made that look. to demonstrate how alcohol effects your driving, they should have gone back out after putting down bacardi for an hour
scunnyman said on 17th May 2009, 15:38
Right i’ve asked this a couple of times with no replies from anybody, so i’ll ask again.
Am i thick as 2 short planks????????
If the budget cap, (if a cap remains at all) is raised to say £100m does that mean that the likes of Lola HAVE to come in with that kind of money and spend it? Can they not Spend £40m and do just as good a job as the rest?
Surely if the regulations are the same for everyone the new teams should be able to cope.
But like i say am i thick???? am i missing the point?
Do i just not understand? Am i getting it all wrong.
Alianora La Canta said on 17th May 2009, 18:45
At the moment if Lola come in using the cap they’ll get disqualified.
If they don’t accept the cap, they’ll be able to come in, but competing against £250m budgets on £40m is rather hard…
Bigbadderboom said on 17th May 2009, 18:58
It’s about competitiveness and having a fair level playing field. New teams need assurances they will get a fair run at things. Although I disagree strongly with Max about the caps (I believe a cap will kill the “pinnacle” of motorsport) It is important that the manufacturers do not hold all the cards, they are very important but not individually indispensable. Competition must be encouraged through both new teams entering and keeping the current teams at a comparable level.
Like you say scunnyman, a team can enter for £40 million against teams with £100 millio budgets, but when you take that over 4 years a research and investment gap of £240 million is beyond even the most imaginative of engineers and designers.
There should be a budget cap, but one well over the amounts being discussed. If teams cannot raise the cash to race at the appropriate level then they should stick to what they do, I do not want to see have a go F3 teams, or GT racing teams trying their luck in F1.
Max’s point about runnig out of racing slots weakens his postion and does not do him any favours, he used to be a cool negotiator, but it appears he is now resorting to blunt instruments.
persempre said on 17th May 2009, 19:22
Customer cars would probably have overcome a lot of the budget problems for smaller teams.
F1Yankee said on 17th May 2009, 21:57
customer cars is the exact opposite of what f1 is about. the sport is played on the factory floor.
persempre said on 17th May 2009, 22:58
Yes, but for those who wanted to enter F1 without the funds, customer cars were the traditional way to get in.
Frank Williams (the most vocal opponent of the idea when it was last raised) would never have got into the sport if they hadn`t been allowed back when he started.
DGR-F1 said on 18th May 2009, 13:20
Maybe its time to seek out the loopholes and redefine a ‘customer car’.
I am just thinking that although Scuderia Marlboro Ferrari may pull out of F1, what is to stop the factory from making cars for 2010 and selling them to the likes of Arden, Torro Rosso and iSport for about €40M including spares and assistance?
To me that doesn’t make them ‘customers’ as Ferrari aren’t racing, but the cars on the grid are still Ferraris…..
And I don’t see why Renault and Toyota cannot do the same.
persempre said on 18th May 2009, 14:18
I think the customer car issue would have been a better route but the regulations & payment set-up made it much too complicated.
If payment wasn`t reliant on constructors points & the old CA rule of “all must be constructors” was dropped then the grid entries would probably have risen as quickly, if not quicker, than any budget cap.
There would be nothing to stop individual customer teams making alterations & improvements on their cars in just the same way as happens now.
To me the death of F1 would not be customer cars. It would be standardised cars.
Just my thoughts but we know it`s not likely to happen.