F1 Fanatic round-up: 10/4/2010

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After back-to-back races we have a weekend off, so what will you be doing instead of watching F1?

I’ll have one suggestion soon as part of a new feature called “Why you should watch…”. If you want to make a case for why people should watch a particular form of motor racing, why not write a guest article? Find out more about how to do that here.

Links

Flavio: I’ll be back

“Briatore – who has made much in recent years of the need to make F1 more entertaining and accessible to the fans – has now revealed in an interview with Italy’s Sky Sport 24: ‘I was thrown out as though a criminal. I will never come back to Formula 1 as team manager, but perhaps [I will return] after 2012 in another role.'”

F1 cars coming to Laguna Seca in August (Formula 1 Blog)

“As part of this year’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, which runs August 12-15, 38 historic F1 cars will roar around the undulating concrete strip, the track announced this week.”

Comment of the day

Enigma makes a good point about the strange logistics of the world championship, and where costs could be cut by putting the races in a different order:

The logistical problem can be easily reduced. Race calendar should be made the way that races are close to each other. Let’s say, start in Australia, then Malaysia and Singapore, Japan, Korea, China, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Spain (both races), Turkey, Italy, Monaco, Hungary, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Canada and Brazil. That would be much easier and cheaper for the teams, and also for journalists, TV crews, fans who go to many races etc…
Engima

Happy birthday!

It’s Roberttty’s birthday today so happy birthday to him.

On this day in F1

Four years ago today Bernie Ecclestone confirmed F1 would be racing at Valencia in the near future. Though at the time we didn’t know the race would be held in the city itself, rather than at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, which would probably be an even less suitable venue than the unloved street track.

Unloved? Very much so – it was one of the most popular choices for tracks to drop in yesterday’s poll.

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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52 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 10/4/2010”

  1. ” I will never come back to Formula 1 as team manager, but perhaps [I will return] after 2012 in another role.’”

    Is he thinking in Bernie’s role?

    Well I think his previous records (and not only in F1), will help him to apply for!

    If Bernie was able to take out more than 50% of F1 TV rights revenues for him, I don’t know how far will Briatore go.

  2. Happy birthday robertty!

    1. Thanks! I’m the only birthday boy today? Aww…

      1. Happy birthday! Hope you have a really terrific day :) Glad you’re on this site!

      2. Happy Birthday!

      3. Happy Birthday Roberttty! Hope you enjoy your day :)

  3. I’m still laughing at the Mark Webber video yesterday.

    1. Glad I’m not the only one! Haha I get embarrassed for him everytime I see it lol

      Very logical suggestion Enigma but the weather would probably mess it up for some places..

  4. the comment makes sense theoretically but i don’t know that jumping from the northern to southern hemisphere (such as canada to brazil) would work too well given the seasonal difference. i think if that was to work, there would have to be lots of thought and planning into the timing of racing and we may find ourselves waiting several weeks for a grand prix.

    1. Jose Arellano
      11th April 2010, 0:49

      the reason for this is because if you have 2 races close to each other you split the audience that is close and can go to the race….

  5. While Enigma makes a good point, you cannot possibly race in Canada in October, otherwise you’d be racing in snow.

    1. No Snow in Canada in October, Temperatures between 5 and 12c.

      1. If you go by the current calender, it’s more like November. Even if October, it would be REALLY late in the month, when it is considerably colder. Oh, and FYI, the average low for Quebec is closer to 3C than 5C, making frost on the track during morning warmup to be exceedingly likely. When you combine this with a good chance for freezing rain or snow (they get about 2.2 cm of snow in October, on average) and no one in their right mind wanting to sit in absolutely miserable weather for a race, it’s not going to happen and someone stating it would be a good idea says that they have NO idea on how to think beyond one simple variable. Regardless, the teams will need to refit and retool during the 3-4 months of proposed Asian racing, making the entire idea silly from a cost savings standpoint. Also, most of the Asian races are a nightmare logistically due to crooked port authorities and asinine import/export laws.

  6. The season was start in the south progress to the north, and then head back south again. But then someone added a few boring bits in the middle, and his moneyed friends wanted their races first and last.

    1. i think the races should take place during the rainiest seasons of each country.

      1. Hear, hear! (This sentence in brackets is to avoid the comment being too short)

  7. There’s MotoGP on Sunday evening, we’ll see whether Stoner can beat the Doctor or not…

    1. I think he will, he always seems fast at Qatar. When is the Indycar race this weekend?

    2. yep and qualy tonight! lets just hope F1 stays away from Qatar. what an awfully boring circuit!

      1. sato113. Qatar is a great circuit, for Moto Gp. It’s a circuit designed specifically to get bikes to ride 3 abreast. Obviously F1 ain’t going there.

        1. yeah i know, but i remember it was suggested by someone official quite recently.

        2. but you got to admit it has no atmosphere. it’s another tesco car park at night. fake grass strips and acres of tarmac run off.

  8. Oh man, I wish I was closer to Laguna Seca so I could go watch…

    Also I love how they point out we’ll never see F1 race there in *Bernie’s* lifetime. He might have a very savvy business sense in how to make lots and lots of money, but the man is plain greedy anymore. He’s lost all connection with the reality of what the fans want. I think if anything, his greediness is what’s going to spend F1 into oblivion, NOT the teams. You can only squeeze so much juice out of the orange before you can’t squeeze any more. What then, Bernie?

  9. I wrote something on a different forum about how i think the calader should be ordered and how it could cut costs, be more efficiant, and would make it easier to shift the gear about, but i was looking more at adding more races onto the calander.

    its far from a perfect idea, its flawed for sure, but i just wanted to make maps!

    Link is here if anyone is interested..

    http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=24457007&postcount=847

    1. Liked how you managed to keep Brazil last! The last one seemed very logical from a travel point of view, and it would please the majority of fans.

    2. You wouldn’t want Montreal that late in the season, it could be snowing.

      1. Its hypothetical….

    3. I like the idea, but maybe some races are scheduled to avoid monsoons rather than merely “wet and cold” conditions? I also like going to North America in the summer to break up the European season, I don’t like how the current season is so heavily book-ended with the Asian (and Brazil) races and only Canada in the middle to break things up. But then that’s more a consequence of what races are on the calendar, rather than the order they go in.

      Personally I’d have made this season: Australia + Malaysia, Bahrain + Abu Dhabi, Spain, Monaco, Turkey, Canada, Europe, Britain, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Singapore + China, Korea + Japan, Brazil. Those grouped together would be back-to-backs, and races would all start at the local time, except for Singapore and Abu Dhabi with their special races (Singapore should be twilight too though, you can see none of the great scenery at night).

  10. There’s no forum so I’m just plonking this here (sorry keith hope you don’t mind!).
    Anyway, it’s no surprise I’m banging on about Massa again-apologies- but I stumbled upon this
    http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/massa-close-to-new-ferrari-deal/
    Saward can be hit and miss at times but I wondered if anyone had any info? I don’t usually like to get caught up in silly season esp this soon but I can’t help it when it’s Ferrari.
    It makes sense with Massa and particularly with Santander and the connections/relationship with Brazil.

    1. Bigbadderboom
      10th April 2010, 15:22

      Seasoned number 2! Massa seems to enjoy the number 2 position in the team, I think its a foregone conclusion. I can’t see Ferrari taking a punt on an up and coming young driver when Massa seems to be such a real team player. Good for Massa and good for Ferrai i think.

  11. Does anyone think Kubica stands a chance at championship fight? Renault is probably the fastest of the other teams, and not much slower than the top 4 cars are. Kubica is extremely fast and consistent driver, which he proved in 2008 when he wasn’t very far from winning the title in a BMW Sauber that was also slower than Ferraris and McLarens.

    In Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes they have two strong drivers, in Renault it’s only one.

    I don’t think we should write him off.

    1. Not really. Kubica has scored so high because he is good but he has benefitted massively from circumstances. Wet Aus race, good start and fortunate to have Felipe stuck in the pits then he put in a solid performance in quali at Mal but Ferrari and Mclaren were knocked out early on. He’ll do well and this is a good opportunity for him to showcase his talent but unless things keep swinging Renault’s way I doubt he could mount a full on bid.
      He does make mistakes too such as Bahrain 08 and I don’t think he’s the driver say Alonso is but he should do well this season and he’s not going to be challenged by his teammate any time soon. If Renault get a good qualifying, start and strategy (Kubica is a great defender)then the points should keep adding up. I wouldn’t write off a win but I don’t expect to see a championship bid but being F1 it may well happen

    2. Realistically I think Kubica has to pray Renault gets better or a seat opens up at a top team.

      1. Last I looked, Renault was a ‘top team’.

        1. kinda… (this sentence in brackets is to make the comment long enough)

        2. Not on pace, they’re not. Those back-to-back championships are getting ever more distant in the past too.

      2. Kubica’s best hope if he moves would be Ferrari or Red Bulland there are links with the latter.
        He does seem at home in Renault and he can mould the team around him to some extent with only Petrov as his team mate so this could be his best option. Plus, Renault struggled as soon as they switched to Bridgestone so maybe if they do leave it could be a good chance for Renault to take a step forward and Renault have sounded ambitious for where they want to be in the next few seasons.

    3. Seriously, stop with the 2008 “Kubica was a WDC contender” nonsense already.

      He simply never was in contention for the WDC in 2008. When could he ever win a regular race?

      Kubica was only mathematically “close” to the WDC. In the sense that if he scored 30 points in 3 races and all other contenders failed to finish, then he would win.

      Much the same way how he briefly led the championshp after the first few races when Massa spun off twice and Hamilton rammed out (himself) and Raikkonen and Kubica managed to win that race.

      It’s incredibly unlikely for a whole season to keep going on like that and then only for the opponents. Kubica himself had plenty off weekends too.

      For instance, immediately after his Canada win he had 4 races where he hardly scored a point.

      Of course we get the “BMW didn’t develop the car any further” blah blah, but if anything, that was because by then they were so far behind already (and obviously lacking in pace for every race) that a WDC was something that only Kubica’s mom (and fans with the same attitude as his mom) would still believe in.

  12. I saw my first F1 car today! Red Bull had a demonstration drive in Bogota, Colombia. David Coulthard drove around the city centre. I’ve got crappy amateur footage if anyone wants to see it.

    1. Would love to see it if you don’t mind Paper Tiger :)

  13. Black day for Poland.

  14. A question: if Ricardo Tormo circuit is even worse than the street circuit (which obviously is terrible), why did the teams test there?

    1. its good for testing an f1 car. but it’d make boring processional races.

  15. I agree with Enigma, if people in F1 are talking about saving money then this is probably the way to start it.

  16. when will the forum (and our beloved avatars) be back keith? it’s been a couple of months now!

  17. The only way we’ll see Flav back is as a spectator, and by that I mean he will be on his boat in Monaco Marina sitting with the girls, having a smoke and a drink rather than paying attention to the race!

  18. I think that if Flav comes through his battle with the Piquet’s relatively unscathed, then we wlll see him up for candidancy at the next FIA Presidential election.

  19. The only thing Flavio knows about F1 is how to crash it during a night race with your Number 2 driver when your Number 1 driver has just pitted so he will make up lots of ground and win a race.

  20. Herman Tilke says he fears Korea won’t finish the track in time to german FOCUS magazine:
    http://www.focus.de/sport/formel1/formel-1-formel-1-premiere-in-suedkorea-in-der-schwebe_aid_497587.html

    1. Is there any contingency if it isnt ready? Will there just not be a race at all that weekend? Or does the FIA have a reserve track, i presume there would be an inspection a few months before. I think the MotoGP has a back up track incase these things happen.

      1. I think if it is not ready then we won’t have the race & then we will only have 18 races this season.

  21. I for one (probably be in the minority) would not mind seeing Flavio back in F1. I think many have been to quick to pass judgement without seeing his full record. Few news outlets have mentioned all he has done for F1 (which would be nice if they do) but several big names have said it is significant (it would be nice to say what it is). All he did was get caught. Yes lives were put in danger which is not acceptable but I bet many other teams have done similar or worse. They just have not been caught, yet. F1 is so high profile and there is so much money involved it would be naive to think others have not been up to shenanigans…

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