F1 Fanatic round-up: 27/2/2010

Posted on

| Written by

I’m in Barcelona for the last two days of testing so you should hear more from me from the track later on during the day.

Here’s today’s F1 Fanatic round-up:

Links

Car much stronger this year – Hamilton (Autosport)

“After driving last year’s car here this feels light years ahead. When we came here last year we were way off the pace and the car didn’t feel too good. We’re definitely in a much stronger position, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Mercedes unlikely to win first GP – Michael Schumacher (BBC)

“I can’t make judgements on other teams but we are not perfectly in the position we would like to be, which is competitive to win straight away.”

Comment of the day

Maciek has run out of patience with the Campos/US F1/Stefan GP saga:

Aside from all the brouhaha over the new teams, Ferrari’s comments about them, etc… isn’t it high time (indeed, past time) that the FIA decides to clear up the mess one way or another?

Two weeks ’till the beginning of the season and no one out there, including all the people involved or potentially involved, has any idea of what’s going to happen with Campos, US F1, and Stefan GP?

Site updates

Before flying out to Spain I had a few conversations with people about supplying prizes for this year’s F1 Fanatic Predictions’ Championship. I hope to announce what the prize list will be sometime next week and of course I’m aiming to make it bigger and better than last year.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthdays to Verstappen and Hedgey!

On this day in F1

This time two years ago we were talking about customer cars as Super Aguri struggled to get their cars on the grid ahead of the 2008 season. Had the FIA managed to get customer car rules passed, might we have been spared the budget cap row last year and the Resource Restriction Agreement?

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

20 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 27/2/2010”

  1. Prisoner Monkeys
    27th February 2010, 7:03

    Two weeks ’till the beginning of the season and no one out there, including all the people involved or potentially involved, has any idea of what’s going to happen with Campos, US F1, and Stefan GP?

    Campos should be fine – Kolles has said they’ve got funding in place.

    USF1 are screwed – they have no car, no money and no sponsors.

    Stefan are in trouble through no fault of their own – they’ve been talking with Chad Hurley, but Windsor and Anderson are trying to stop th sale of their grid entry because they’re having trouble accepting that the team is dead. And if the FIA revoke USF1’s entry, Ferrari will block Stefan’s entry.

    1. My point had more to do with what image of F1 this projects for potential fans and sponsors, but even more important: no matter who ends up making it – what does the utter lack of the testing do to the safety of the new teams’ drivers and everyone else’s, as well?

      It’s the teams that aren’t ready, but it’s up to the FIA to ensure that teams are fit to race. If they insist that teams aren’t allowed to miss any races, when will they test?

      1. stefan already have equpment in bahrain, provided they get a grid slot, they should test out there next week.

        1. Plink Plonk Plunk
          27th February 2010, 9:53

          Im not so sure Stefan has cars out there. They’ve only stated they will take ‘equipment’ out there and that they will only take their cars if they get a slot to race.

          What exactly they mean by ‘equipment’ is anybody’s guess.

  2. I hope this kind of mess should not happen again in the future for new teams. FIA should learn from their mistakes in allowing the new teams without thorough investigation (if they can indeed be able to compete from testing till the last race).

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      27th February 2010, 7:29

      It’s not a case of there not being a thorough investigation, but rather that what was true a year ago when the teams were putting their proposals together is not necessarily true now.

      1. I think there’s enough evidence to prove that there were more suitable entrants who were overlooked in favour of teams that were more compliant and politically sympathetic to the FIA. I don’t see why so many people seem to be willing to defend the FIA when the evidence, even from the outside, is reasonably compelling.

        If you’re going to start a team completely from scratch, as USF1 have tried to, it’s always going to be harder to realise than someone who has the infrastructure and funding already in place. 1Malaysia at least had secure funding and their policy of employing staff already highly experienced in F1 ensured they had the technical acumen to be ready. Stefan GP also clearly have secure funding and are not reliant on sponsors or meeting targets.

        I think there were clear errors of judgement made by the FIA in their decision making process, their lack of supervision and their failure to intervene sooner.

        1. When the applications were opened, the recession had already been in full swing for a long while. Yet the FIA expected new small teams to be able to come up with the necessary funds in a climate where sponsorship was going to be tough. Some did, two found it very tough. 50/50 was about as good as anyone could have reasonably expected it to be, yet the FIA somehow thought 100% was a dead cert.

          Imagine if FOTA had broken away, and the FIA had to field 8 new teams instead of 4? F1 would have collapsed and the FIA would have had to run begging to FOTA.

          If the FIA hadn’t been so determined to attract entrants to use as leverage against FOTA as it was last year, and allowed in the likes of Prodirve and Lola, maybe, just maybe, we wouldn’t have been in this mess? Though USF1 would probably still have been accepted.

  3. Here’s an idea. Could something like a #F1Fanatic subject thread be set up so that twittering fanatics could all see what each other are saying when they’re talking purley about F1?

    Just so we don’t all have to follow each other. Especially when what we’ve got to say isn’t F1 based.

    1. You mean just like on the blog?

  4. I think this USF1/Stefan GP mess is not good for F1.I actually think they should merge together.Her’s a link to news that they are in talks.

    http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/9681.html

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      27th February 2010, 11:56

      The problem is that Windsor and Anderson are resisting the merger. They want to be on the gird, but they want to be there as USF1.

      1. Well they should have made a better job of getting to the grid as USF1 then, and actually lined up lots of sponsors, a couple of decent drivers, and built a car ahead of time. They said that the idea of USF1 has been around for 4 years or so. They just need to cut their losses and either merge with Stefan GP, or hand their grid slot over to them.

  5. USF1 should just admitt there not ready, and even if they will be there at the Spanish GP I don’t think it is good enough, considering Stefan GP have nearly sighned 2 drivers, ready to reveal there car in a week and there determination to make it to Bahrain.

    USF1 should just accept the fact there not going to be there and let Stefan GP be there seeing they seem way way prepared. I wan’t to see 26 cars on the grid!

    Oh and why would Ferrari try reject them from competing?

    1. Aleksandar Serbia
      27th February 2010, 12:21

      Because if they get big, they will be in the position to get a slice of the sponsorship pie!
      Ferrari wants less teams on the grid, that is why the proposition of 3 cars per team!

    2. Plus they have Mike Coughlan…

  6. Thanks Keith!
    (still 5 years to prepare for my entry into F1… I’m currently at one 14th of the schedule of Schumacher, swimming half an hour a week…)

  7. Car much stronger this year – Hamilton (Autosport)

    I really do hope the Mac is quick. I just keep thinking they are sandbagging but that’s really because I’m a bit worried about their pace and reliability over their race distance compared to their Mediterranean arch rivals. if all is to be believed, the Scuderia sure looks like the team to beat and at the moment, I don’t know if the Mac’s got enough muscle to slug it out. I sure hope I’m proven wrong. I definitely don’t want to see the Mac dueling for less than 1st or 2nd.

  8. Good news from Lewis and perhaps not so good news from Michael…

Comments are closed.