Welcome to the weekend everyone! For those of you in Britain it’s one week until the Autosport International show opens to the public in Birmingham so if you’re planning to go make sure you’ve got your tickets sorted.
Links
Kovalainen: McLaren stint made me better (Autosport)
Heikki Kovalainen talks about how his two years at McLaren made him improve as a driver: “I am a better race driver. I can drive the car quicker than when I drove the Renault [in 2007]. I have learned many things – how to work with a team, how to set-up a car, how to go racing. I think I am better in every area.”
GM seeks to close Saab despite offers on table (The Guardian)
“General Motors, the American motor manufacturer, has infuriated potential bidders, including the Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, by appointing liquidators to begin a formal shutdown of Saab, less than 24 hours after receiving at least three offers from buyers keen to rescue the ailing Scandinavian car brand.”
Comment of the day
Mark Shen has some excellent advice for anyone planning to go to the Chinese Grand Prix this year.
1. According to my experience, drivers and team boss and staffs will stay in Shanghai Four Seasons Hotel (5 Stars) and Shangri-La Hotels ( 5 stars) instead of the trackside villas. So if you choose these hotels, there are a high probability to meet some famous guys.
2. The metro Line 9 is completed this year and now you can take it directly from city center to the circuit. I highly recommend you not to take the shuttle bus because you can avoid the heavy traffic and save time if you take metro.
3. Don’t miss Shanghai World Expo 2010. It will open on 1st.May and just some days later than the Grand Prix. You can visit both Grand Prixs and World Expo and make your trip much more valuable.
From the forum
Yes, we had a snow F1 car the other day but the BBC’s Jake Humphrey liked this one and who am I to disagree? Here’s thestig84’s effort.
Site updates
Not much today apart from a small update to the Flavio Briatore biography.
Happy birthday!
First time we’ve had two in a row – happy birthday to Romulo Shortback.
On this day in F1
It’s 33 years since the Wolf team made history by winning the first race they started, when Jody Scheckter triumphed in Argentina.
I remember the first time I read about that I thought “well, that’ll probably never happen again.” But of course it did – last year when Brawn scored a one-two finish at Melbourne.
If you’ve got any suggestions for comment of the day, links to share or anything else to say about the site, please post it in the comments.
Zahir
9th January 2010, 0:10
Kobayashi: McLaren stint made me better (Autosport)
Im guessing you meant Kovalainen!
And wow Keith its barely turned the 9th, you dont waste anytime do you.
Great stuff about Jake Humphrey posting the link…I wonder who else on the BBC team reads F1Fanatic
sato113
9th January 2010, 0:17
‘And wow Keith its barely turned the 9th, you dont waste anytime do you.’
yeah keith, so is each round up actually about the day before the stated date?
Macca
9th January 2010, 0:30
It’s good that he posts them so quickly because here in Australia it is about noon when they first pop up on the site. Great work Keith.
Ratboy
9th January 2010, 0:39
Huh I never thought about that Macca! all the news updates must happen during the night for you then does it?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
9th January 2010, 9:33
Yeah that’s partly why I started doing them earlier.
Tom L
9th January 2010, 1:02
That’s why Kobayashi was going so fast last season – he was driving a McLaren painted with Toyota livery! The secret is out!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
9th January 2010, 9:32
Fixed it, thanks!
SoLiD
9th January 2010, 2:17
About the wolf victory, was it this day? or this year?
Because then I ask, did they ever have an f1 races this early?
sato113
9th January 2010, 16:53
yep they did. i think keith mentioned in a previous article championships starting in janurary and waiting til may for the next race!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
9th January 2010, 18:57
Yep they did. The last F1 season to start in January was in 1982 at Kyalami, January 23rd followed by a two-month wait for the second race in Brazil on March 21st.
Often with these January races teams wouldn’t have their new cars ready and would race the previous year’s model instead.
IDR
9th January 2010, 6:24
“In 1974, while living in Milan and working on the stock exchange, he met Luciano Benetton. That encounter set him on the path to F1.
By 1982 he was working for Benetton in New York as the business sought to establish itself in America.”
1974-1982 big “empty gap” in his biography, Keith.
For those who can read Italian, I would recommend to have a look at this link:
http://wingbeatman.blogspot.com/search/label/Facce%20di%20merda
It’s very detailed explanation about Flavio Briatore’s life before he joined Benetton and how he made money (laundering) before he had to scape from Italy to Virgin Islands for avoiding a sentence of 1,5 years in Bergamo and 3 years in Milan for game fixing (poker, and others) “plucking” several naives billionaires, pop stars and politicians.
In the words of Luciano Benetton, talking about Briatore: “He’s a little bit hooligan, but a very amusing and nice person”
Luciano did not like poker… obviously.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
9th January 2010, 9:34
Thanks IDR, I’d looked around to find some info on what happened in those years but couldn’t come up with much.
thestig84
9th January 2010, 9:16
Thanks for a note in the round up Keith! Seems Lee Mckenzie likes it now too. Probably more as case of seeing it on Jakes twitter than here though.
Becken
9th January 2010, 14:00
This one bellow is, for me, the ‘Comment of the Day’ written by Jason in the post “Hamilton: “I blew Alonso away”:
dsob
9th January 2010, 14:36
I’ll have to object to the nomination for Comment of the Day. Hamilton came in third in his first race in his rookie season. (At Australian GP)
He did not win until the sixth race of the season, in the Canadian GP.
Sorry to steal Jason’s thunder. He is obviously a great Hamilton fan. He just needs to get his facts straight.
Becken
9th January 2010, 14:48
I dont think that be a “Hamilton fan” is sin that our friend Jason — or any f1FANatic — would be ashamed, anyway his comment is well balanced, trying to dismiss all the bash around Lewis monologue at Johnny Walker´s site…
dsob
9th January 2010, 14:59
Saying he is a great Hamilton fan was not meant as an insult. I find nothing wrong with being a fan of any driver or team. That is the way of the following, to have favorites.
My comment meant only that he is a great fan for Hamilton, but his statement was in error, Which it was, and he needs to get his fACTS STRAIGHT. (fUNNY, i THOUGHT i’D SAID THAT.) No argument there.
If any part of a post is factually incorrect, I would oppose it for a nomination for “Comment of the Day”.
That was the only agenda for my post. Nothing I said should be taken as anything for or against Hamilton, McLaren, or fans thereof.
(I’m going to have to start putting in disclaimers, lol, can anyone recommend a good barrister? )
verstappen
9th January 2010, 14:53
It depends how you read it:
won his first race…
…the very first he was in
or
won his first race in his rookie season
…in his rookie seaon he won for the first time
dsob
9th January 2010, 15:06
well, the text as typed in Jason’s post reads as follows:
Alright, I see how you read it. I read it differently. Since you pointed that out, I’ll give Jason the benefit of the doubt. But I’d ask him to be a bit more exact in his syntax in future.
sato113
9th January 2010, 16:56
dsob, i think you read it wrong actually. he is saying that Hamilton’s first F1 victory came in his rookie season. not the first race…