After an extended detour back to London I began the F1 Fanatic 2010 Season Preview on the site yesterday. We’ll have much more of that between now and Bahrain.
I’ll be getting in touch with everyone who offered to help out on the live blogs soon so if you want to get involved this year make sure you let me know.
Here’s the Tuesday round-up:
Links
Where do the Formula 1 teams stand after testing? (BBC)
“[Schumacher] sits on the edge of a chair, leaning forward on the desk, engaging an engineer in an intense discussion about some minute detail of the car’s performance. He’s as focused and business-like as he always was, and he needs to be: the Mercedes has not been the quickest car in testing.”
Talking to Jean Todt (Joe Saward)
Jean Todt on the F1 Commissioner role he has created: “I did not say that we would have a commissioner at the start of the season”.
Comment of the day
Paul S provided some useful background to the latest rumours about the Australian Grand Prix:
I have lived in Melbourne for five years now, and I can tell you that Australians have no clue about the added value of the Grand Prix.
The debate is only in terms of how much it costs for the taxpayers, without realising that F1 is a worldwide event that helps put Melbourne on the map. But the Herald Sun prefers to think that the world actually bothers about the Australian Football League.
Paul S.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Kaushal!
On this day in F1
Minardi’s participation in the Australian Grand Prix was thrown into doubt on this day five years ago when Ferrari refused to back the team’s request to be allowed to use its 2004 cars in the race.
In the end Minardi did race its 2004 cars, albeit in a modified form to comply with the 2005 regulations. Its 2005 cars, the PS05s, eventually arrived at the fourth round of the championship in Imola. These were the last cars built by the team before they were taken over by Toro Rosso.
Toro Omrah
2nd March 2010, 2:37
Hi Keith & F1 fanatic readers i posted this comment in the Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes closely matched in race distance simulations post but i think its to late for anyone to read it so please for give for going off topic in this post.
This is awesome information thank you! & great for my fantasy league predictions, I was wondering if you have Red Bulls race distance simulation information in comparison with the the other three? & did Sauber or any of the other teams complete race distance or single lap distance simulations, I know you have covered a lot of data over the last test sessions and prior posts & other posters are asking the same questions but a single graph of the two different simulations would be awesome & informative in a future post, i have tried to compile my own post as you have asked for other people to contribute but i concede I am lacking serious journalistic report writing to post a worth article.
Thanks for all your work!
On another side note (sorry 2nd time off topic)
In my fantasy league (http://f1.virtualsports.com.au)
My picks are.
Cars: Redbull, Ferrari, Mclaren, Sauber
Drivers: Webber, Massa, Rosberg, Kobayashi
pad up people i am sure some of us may be fighting against each other in public leagues but if your comp is set out similar, i would like to see what some other people are coming up with i decided to go for 3 of the top teams & 1 dark horse Sauber for some sort of consistency and i picked the B drivers (except Webber ha!)& once again 1 psychotic dark horse Kobayashi, i tried this method in 08 and got burnt by Kovi as he was so cheap and had a championship winning car.
Bring on Bahrain! I love F1
Icthyes
2nd March 2010, 3:58
Anyone else still think of STR as Minardi?
Mike
2nd March 2010, 5:30
Yup ^^
on an unrelated Ferrari bashing note? Is it just me, or is it always them to give the little guys a hard time?
Lustigson
2nd March 2010, 7:44
I was saddened that Red Bull took over Minardi and renamed the team. Something like ‘Red Bull Minardi Junior Team’ would’ve been better, keeping the team’s history intact.
Patrickl
2nd March 2010, 14:53
Well it’s the Italian “Red Bull” team so “Torro Rosso” makes sense …
Dev
2nd March 2010, 16:27
they should have named it as blue cow!! but i don’t think many would agree :)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
2nd March 2010, 8:43
No, I think of them as Red Bull 2.
Calum
2nd March 2010, 8:28
COUNTDOWN TO BAHRAIN!
11: No. of days until practice!
12: No. of days until quali!!
13: No. of days until GP!!!
maciek
2nd March 2010, 9:14
@Paul S
For all my ongoing criticism of the Grand Prix organisation in Montreal – one thing that they have certainly gotten right, is sustained publicity for all the business that the event brings into the city. GP events in Montreal begin two weeks before the race, with whole swathes of downtown closed or partially closed to traffic for all kinds of promotional events, concerts, sidewalk sales of (sometimes loosely) F1-connected stuff.
When the GP was yanked, business associations raised a giant stink. I don’t remember the exact figures they cited, nor do I know how reliable they were, but apparently there are Montreal medium-sized businesses (restaurants, hotels, etc) who do fully half their year’s business during the period surrounding the Grand Prix.
Is it at all similar in Melbourne?
maciek
2nd March 2010, 11:06
Mind you, I should add that it is a particular thing in Montreal that the summer is basically an unending series of festivals (jazz and comedy, to name the two biggest) of all sorts with lots of free outdoor events – so the GP kind of joins in on the party.
DC
2nd March 2010, 9:42
Unrelated, but interesting, story: A major American corporation has announced a sponsorship deal… with Lotus.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81802
Stefan
2nd March 2010, 10:40
I also think of Minardi when seeing the Toro Rosso, and I didn’t forgot that Jordan has become Virgin. But if I see the Red Bull I don’t think about Jaguar. Everybody will know Honda, Brawn GP which now has become Mercedes GP, I suppose.
I want the season to start, let it be 12/03/2010 tomorrow.
Ben
2nd March 2010, 12:04
Jordan became Force India (via Midland and Spyker), not Virgin. Manor rebranded themselves as Virgin.
Mercedes are Tyrrell really (via BAR, Honda, Brawn). And Red Bull are Stewart (via Jaguar).
Its ridiculous to keep wishfully thinking of teams as their former entities. Companies change names when they get bought out by others, so do teams. Plus these teams have little common identity with what they were under their original names.
I’m all for history and heritage in F1, but this is going too far. Get over it.
Stefan
2nd March 2010, 10:43
I think its great Lotus gets sponsored by CNN, but their logo is red and white while Lotus is Green and Yellow Gold. We’ve already had the ugliest car thanks to sponsor ING at Renault.
Chaz
8th March 2010, 17:55
Lets hope the beeb pull out all the stops with their coverage this year. I’d like to see Brundle do more inserts on cars, people and behind the scenes insights. Shame they haven’t dumped legard…
Pamela
16th March 2010, 0:16
Hi – thanks for the post. I never know what I will come across when I scroll these blogs. But just wanted to let you know I really liked yours. Keep it up.
Pamela