F1 Fanatic round-up: 29/1/2010

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Yesterday was a record-breaking day at F1 Fanatic which saw the most visits in a single day as people flocked to see the new Ferrari F10.

Unfortunately some people weren’t able to see it because the new server wasn’t accessible from every location. However that problem should be fixed fairly soon. There will be some further maintenance within the next couple of hours which will cause a few minutes of outage.

We’re set for another busy day as McLaren pull back the covers on their MP4-25. More on that soon – for now here’s the Friday round-up:

Links

Singapore considering layout changes (Autosport)

The Singapore Grand Prix organisers are considering making the track quicker for 2011. This makes sense as last year’s race was pushing the two hour mark (there was a safety car period) and this year’s will almost certainly be slower now refuelling is banned.

Comment of the day

Lots of discussion about Luca di Montezemolo’s view of technology in F1. Robert McKay’s made an interesting analysis of the problems with making teams build increasingly identical cars.

The worst thing about F1 is that everything is standardised yet unique, which is the worst of both worlds. […]

If you are going to level the playing field then have the balls to level it by simply having everyone run the same thing. Sure, stick different manufacturers badges on it if you wanthomologating different things to the same level is simply pretending, and a more expensive way to achieve a similar objective.
Robert McKay

Site updates

The other two problems which remain from the server move are the loss of the forum and the corruption of characters on some pages. As I’m at the Mclaren launch today I will probably not get to look at these until Saturday.

Happy birthday!

It’s a bumper birthday round-up with four people getting birthday greetings. Happy birthday to Shery, MPJ1994, Hazel J and Graeme.

On this day in F1

F1 went to Jacarepagua in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the first time on this day in 1978. It largely served as a replacement for the original Interlagos until 1990, when the Brazilian round of the world championship returned to a shorter version of the Sao Paolo track.

Sadly Rio’s successful bid for the 2016 Olympics was the death knell for the track, much of which will be destroyed to make way for an Olympic Training Centre. How has this come to be in a country with such a fine racing heritage?

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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35 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 29/1/2010”

  1. ‘Rio’s successful bid for the 2106 Olympics’
    they’re thinking ahead!

    1. Typo Its suppose to be 2016.

      1. i’m sorry, but: duh.

    2. Terry Fabulous
      29th January 2010, 1:06

      To be pedantic, the olympics will actually be held in 2104 and 2108.

      Maybe they are going to bid for the 2106 World Cup. Or maybe Brazil is going to surprise us all, join the Commonwealth and host the 2106 Commonwealth Games.

      1. Winter Olympics, obviously :)

    3. Yeah and if they do hold the Olympics again in 106 years’ time, I’ll be the one who’s laughing…

      For now, I’ve fixed it :-)

      1. Future generations will acclaim you as an 21st century Nostradamus

  2. Sorry but I feel I have to report this:

    My favourite quote of this day is from Alonso, reported on Crash.net..

    “I’ve always had strong team-mates and I never had any problems with them”

    *cough*bullsh..*cough*

    ALWAYS had strong teammates, and NEVER had a problem with any of them??? What, where, how? eh?

    The article is here : http://bit.ly/alonso-teammates

    1. piquet and grosjean?! lol

    2. More like 1 strong team-mate and huge problems with him.

      1. Haha exactly!

        And happy birthday to MPJ1994, Hazel J, Shery and Graeme

        1. Thanks Ned :)

  3. Terry Fabulous
    29th January 2010, 1:09

    Robert McKay always has a great turn of phrase eh!

    It is terribly sad to hear about the pasing of Jacarepaqua. My earliest memories of Grand Prix feature the mighty battles between Piquet, Mansell, Prost and Senna at this fine motor racing track.

    They used to drive fire trucks up and down the main straight soaking the crowd in water to cool them down!

    One of the features of the race was the number of drivers who had only ever driven F3 races for forty minutes suddenly having to race a F1 car for two hours. Brundle spoke about this at leangth in ‘Working the Wheel’. I remember after the race one year (89?) Mansell looked like death warmed up!

  4. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO Shery, MPJ1994, Hazel J and Graeme.

    1. Thanks alot wasi :)

    2. Thank you! And thanks to keith as well for the shout!

  5. Does anyone knows whether the mclaren livery will be altered, given the fact that the livery of the silver arrows now belongs to Mercedes GP?

    My gut feeling says they’ll go back to Red and white. Seems to be an iconic colour scheme for McLaren.

    1. And can we have a live blog or chat?

      1. There’s an article up here: McLaren MP4-25 launch today

        1. Terry Fabulous
          29th January 2010, 10:16

          I hope you have a great time at the unveiling Keith.
          And Headlong as much as I agree with you that Red and White would be a great colour for McLaren, I have a suspicion that they only did that when they used to disguise their car as a pack of smokes!

          So they probably won’t go back! Boo Hiss

    2. Prisoner Monkeys
      29th January 2010, 6:22

      They’ve already said they’re keeping the chrome, at least for 2010.

  6. Prisoner Monkeys
    29th January 2010, 6:21

    I’m glad Singapore is changing. It’s in dire need of a re-fit, especially along the waterfront.

    1. HounslowBusGarage
      29th January 2010, 8:37

      I’d like the organisers to ingnore that waterfront diversion completely – it’s only so that they can use the pre-existing grandstand after all.
      But to shorten the overall time taken by the race, don’t you think they will just cut the number of laps?
      And Happy Birthday to you – MPJ1994, Hazel J and Graeme. Is that the most birthdays on a single day?

      1. The grandstand is there to for the floating platform which will be taken down in 2012. I doubt they will keep the grandstand just for F1.

        The two changes are exactly what I wished for! The removal of Turns 8 & 9 will make the straight before Turn 7 longer and more overtaking friendly. And I always hated the series of 90 degree turns at the water front.

    2. @PM

      yeap, now they get to keep the waterfront grandstand and have a longer straight leading to the final turns.

      also, the new Turn 7, where most of the overtaking happens, now has a longer straight leading to it

  7. Happy birthday Shery, MPJ1994, Hazel J and Graeme, I wish you all the best!

    What did you lot wish for for you birthday?.

    1. Thanks Sush :)

  8. WD for the new affluence record Keith!

    I’m awaiting Mc Laren’s unveiling (and all the comments about it) eagerly.

  9. UneedAFinn2Win
    29th January 2010, 12:29

    Not sure if you consider this Formula 1 news, but Kimi Räikkönen revealed at the press conference ahead of todays Tunturi-rally that his contract is with Red Bull, not Citroen, and a large part of his motivation to go rallying this season is the fact that it’s the last season of WRC -spec cars.

    article here: http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/ralli/uutiset.shtml/arkistot/ralli/2010/01/1044271

    new here, just thought i’d share that interesting tidbit with the english speaking world, as i’ve enjoyed f1fanatic’s coverage in this offseason.

  10. Hope the forum comes back soon, i’m missing my main area of F1F!

  11. hi thanks for the wish guys..

  12. @Scibe

    Im sure it will be, its a busy week for Keith!

  13. Does the new server mean the death of the mobile friendly pages? If so that’s a great shame as it was handy to catch up on my ‘fanatic on lunch breaks!

    1. No, they’ll be back soon, hopefully this weekend.

  14. Great news on the popularity of the site Keith. It is much deserved. Can you tell us what the new record is…

Comments are closed.