F1 Fanatic round-up: 17/2/2010

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F1 testing resumes at Jerez later today – we’ll have a live post up in time for the start of the session. Here’s today’s round-up:

Links

McLaren F1 Merchandise – Don’t Accept Imitations!

If anyone can find a shoddier excuse for F1 merchandise than this, I want to see it! Send pics in by email or upload them to the drop.io

Comment of the day

Bhavesh made a great point on F1 tyre technology:

The fixed size of side wall to wheel diameter mean that what ever is developed in f1 is not relevant to the real world. Not even buses or trucks have side walls in as large a ratio as f1 cars. […]

If we want tyre manufacturers to be interested in serving f1 make it relevant to the real world. Low profile tyres and performance benefits from tyres that save fuel hence weight.

Site updates

The Sauber team information page is up and running and there’s also a list of all the Sauber F1 drivers over the years.

Happy birthday!

We have two birthdays today – or possibly one if it’s the same person called Steve. Anyway, happy birthday to Steve and/or Steve_P83!

On this day in F1

This time a year ago Ferrari, BMW and Toyota were testing in Bahrain. All the cars logged over 100 laps of dry running.

The rain which hit last week’s Jerez test, which are expected to return this week, has led Ferrari to raise the possibility of returning to more reliably dry climates for testing next year.

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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41 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 17/2/2010”

  1. How come on the McLaren model, the santander logo is still unchanged, whilst all the other sponsors have been modified?

    1. Seems like ‘Bestness’ have kicked off the tyre war… who needs Michelin $:)

    2. Yeah, I wondered that too… I think perhaps that toy manufacturer might get a visit from a Santander lawyer sometime soon!

    3. because this model is made in Spain!!! The Volatile is a nailed-on pi55-take surely. :)

  2. Ever considered the fact that the ‘merchandise’ is simply a child’s toy, not meant to be merchandise at all, and that the company who makes it didn’t want to have to pay the real sponsors money and have to push up their retail price? :)

    1. if i had a 5 year old child, i wouldn’t mind buying that fake model.

    2. Yeah, I agree with both of you, not everyone can afford to pay £40 for a tiny die cast model of a car. I always used to get crappy fake cars like that when I was a kid. It may be naff but at least it’s affordable!

    3. and like children care about sponsors anyway! ha.

    4. José Baudaier
      17th February 2010, 2:14

      Yeah, the official merchandise is made for adults, not for children. Children are better off with the imitations.

      1. Mark Hitchcock
        17th February 2010, 3:01

        Agreed. I got given a Ferrari model when I was a kid and naturally destroyed it within a few days by crashing it into things.
        A durable fake would have been a much better idea.

  3. Just drop.io’d some (cameraphone quality) photos of 99p Store F1 cars I spotted in December. The fake Renault and Internet sponsored Ferrari are funny, but the ‘Went Machine-Bens’ McLaren has to be the best/worst!

    1. Nice find LS! The McLaren looks quite realistic actually, and the Ferrari doesn’t look to bad except that for some inexplicable reason it seems to have a ‘walrus nose’!

      But I loved the colour scheme on the Renault! I used to like the Mild Seven Renault’s as they were but this fake livery is so much better!

      1. The tongue in cheek brand names just add that extra class to the toys! RENOWNED and ALF on the Renault for example.

        Rum and Coke in the first thread has it right, Nailed-on indeed. Someone with a sense of humour created these. Even the hideous Williams Walrus nose on the Ferarri smacks of this!

        1. The funny thing is, I think they got the nose on the Renault pretty much dead on.

    2. How did you make links out of words and phrases? I have always wanted to know how to do that! I have to copy and paste full web adressed like so:
      https://www.racefans.net/2010/02/17/f1-fanatic-round-up-1722010/

      Its not as tidy!

      1. There used to be a way of doing it by typing the web address into a link beside the comments section, but for me at least this has disappeared. I also can’t do block quotes or itallics or anything anymore. Presumably Keith is aware of this?

        1. I think those functions were removed along with the Gravatars, while Keith gets on with his behind-the-scenes tinkering. You can still do blockquotes etc. if you know the correct tags to use.

      2. I use HTML tags; to make text bold or italicised, use these tags. To link to other pages, use the “a href” tag, as detailed here. :)

        1. i’m quoting this

          hello

  4. those cars would be ideal presents for kids.. as said above.. who a) don’t care about vodafone, lewis hamilton, renault or Mobil1 and b) have an interest in cars that can be encouraged without spending a fortune on flimsy expensive replicas that’ll just get broken with play anyway.

    At least they aren’t complete ripoffs with real name sponsors on them, these are 100% legal cheap toys. I know my 4 year old nephew (who absolutely loves cars and trucks and all) would love one of these, or even a few of them.

  5. http://www.macsmodeling.com/1-24%20STORE.htm

    Someone was selling decals to convert a 1:24 F2003GA diecast to a Sauber C23!

    The ultimate fake livery on a diecast!

  6. What is really funny is that, in my opinion, the 2010 range of McLaren replica clothing looks really crummy. It was great in 2008, worse last year and even worse this year. Seriously, I won’t spend a dime on it this season.

    1. Best year I thought was 2007…loved the shoulders on the team t-shirts!!

  7. To me the McLaren looks like a Renault with different paint-job. Probalby the same thing with the Ferrari (williams fake with different paintjob).

    I agree, that these are nice toy for kids, but a shame, that they want to give the impression of giving you real merchandise.
    I once had an Aunt giving me something like this. She was really happy to give me something special. It war hard not to show my dissapointment!

  8. After reading about Campos giving some sort of statement, i was not even suprised, nothing happend there.

    Instead we had the designated USF1 driver Lopes telling us, he would like to have Valles as a team mate.
    Lets just hope for him, that he will have something to drive then.
    Might it be, that some of the Campos rumours are true and they are targeting Valles as well?
    I like Joe Saward’s musings on this here: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/why-stefan-gp-wants-more-grid-slots/

    1. I’ve just read the article- it seems a bit speculative to me. He usually adds 2 and 2 and comes up with 5, although occasionally he gets 4 and stumbles upon the truth

      1. This article i just read on Automobil-total gives it even a further twist, suggesting Chad Hurley is talking with Campos and Dallara to take over their car to save the money he invested in USF1 and get to the grid.
        http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news/2010/02/Campos_und_US_F1_Aus_zwei_mach_eins_10021611.html

        Sounds interesting, I just wonder weather this is only far feched or an to be expected turn of events!

        The same story appears here http://www.crash.net/f1/news/156910/1/youtube_to_swap_usf1_for_campos.html

  9. “Low profile tyres and performance benefits from tyres that save fuel hence weight”

    No, no , no! Aesthetically, low-profile tires are the worst thing that has happened to cars since….. the AMC Gremlin? (http://allworldcars.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/06-1972-gremlin-xlt.jpg). I think low profile would look awful on F1 cars.

    Plus, on a more serious note, wouldn’t it prohibit cars from aggressively attacking kerbs at chicanes? Though I guess further developments in suspension could compensate…

  10. There are rumors that USF1 could use the Dallara chassis.

  11. I have 2 RC fake F1 cars. The ’06 Renault MockSun (Mild Seven) & Ferrari Martian (Marlborough). Got them for $5 each & they’re heaps of fun

  12. This is a bit off all them topis bt here is a link to a good f1 manager game.. when I went on it was confusing at first, but after a week I got really use to it.. its great!!

    http://www.f1-tm.com

  13. Bhavesh made a great point on F1 tyre technology:

    The fixed size of side wall to wheel diameter mean that what ever is developed in f1 is not relevant to the real world. Not even buses or trucks have side walls in as large a ratio as f1 cars. […]

    If we want tyre manufacturers to be interested in serving f1 make it relevant to the real world. Low profile tyres and performance benefits from tyres that save fuel hence weight.

    The tyres walls also act as a damper, something you wont get on a low profile tyre.

    1. A road tire will never experience the conditions (heat/gforce/life expectancy) seen in F1 anyways. I hate those people that think they know better than the ones actually working in the field.

  14. LOTS of fake replicas with made-up sponsor names (similar to actual) here in Argentina, even radio controlled semi-expensive models! You can find them in every Wal-Mart (or any other supermarket, for that case). Most of them Made in China.
    :-(

  15. Hi Keith,
    Just to say the developer of Yas Marina circuit has sold the whole Yas Island including the “state of the art Circuit.” There will still be a Abu Dhabi GP though.
    Out of interest why is it not called The United Arab Emirates GP, afterall that is the country. Is Abu Dhabi not just an emirate?

    http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81547

    1. I just read this on GPUpdate. The government bought it, so just a way of pumping money into the (mostly government owned) ALDAR company.
      Or maybe save this venue, just in case Aldar tumbles over its massive depts.

  16. Update from Pitpass on the Nick Fry story: He is off the board, as are all the other “management buyout” shareholders. Fairly unprecedented for a CEO not to be part of the board, but now he can concentrate on what he does best: Find Sponsorship. Err. no, sorry, that should be “Lead the team to victory”. Oh wait. Er… Contracts? No…. ummm. PR! wait they barely used twitter last year… Ah… he’s… hmm.

  17. Bhavesh’s comment about F1 tires is not entirely accurate. Current F1 tire dimensions put them at about a 55-profile for the fronts, and about a 45-profile for the rears. This is not really considered low-profile by road-car standards, but it is certainly lower than truck or bus tires, and probably right around the profiles that bridgestone sells the most of to the public. Regardless, F1 tires arent relevant to road car tires for many reasons, (such as cost, compounds, durability, etc) but Im afraid that the profile of Formula 1 tires has nothing to do with it. Also, can you imagine an F1 car with low-profile tires riding up over some trackside curbing at 125mph? It would be a disaster!

  18. Thanks for the Birthday shoutout. Steve and Steve_P83 are both me. I just started making my name more unique a few weeks ago. I guess the 83 gives away my age!

  19. HounslowBusGarage
    17th February 2010, 22:10

    I’VE JUST DONATED TO THIS SITE!
    And I hope the rest of you b*ggers have beaten me to it!
    I want to make sure that Keith Collantine has a fighting chance in preserving a very objective and intelligent approach to Formula 1 that is independant of team, driver or national support or bias.
    Please support this valuable F1 resource.

  20. Regarding tires, with two tons of downforce pushing the them into the tarmac and upto 5.5 lateral G to contend with, there are good reasons why they are not low profile.

    How many aircraft use low profile tires?

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