Due to a technical hitch it seems some people weren’t able to see or comment on yesterday’s round-up. This was because of some work being done on the site to make it load more quickly which caused as problem with the site cache. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Fernando Alonso Bahrain 2010 lap on slide guitar (Youtube)
Mark Jones is running a survey on motor racing in the UK – complete it and you could win F1 merchandise vouchers.
Comment of the day
Can F1 cars ever be ‘safe enough’? Xibi thinks they already are:
Formula 1 lap times have become ridiculously slow. Yes, they might be setting lap records in qualifying, but ultimately during race pace, lap times reveal otherwise. Safety, unlike what the FIA thinks, is not an issue either. These cars have show time over time that they are very safe. Driver testimonies exist too to back up my opinion. For example Timo Glock, a driver who suffered two bad crashes in the space of two years (Hockenheim and Suzuka) said that he feels the safest in the cockpit of his car.
Xibi
Happy birthday!
Many happy returns to Amy who celebrates her birthday today!
On this day in F1
F1’s last race in Argentina was held on this day in 1998 and won by Michael Schumacher.
Any hopes the country had of returning to the F1 calendar suffered a setback earlier this year when Jose Maria Lopez’s promised F1 drive disappeared as the US F1 team collapsed.
Argentina’s last F1 race was held at a truncated and much slower version of the Buenos Aires circuit, which previously held F1 races up until 1981. The FIA GT championship will race at the beautiful Potrero de los Funes circuit in San Luis this year. Sadly, the track doesn’t have a sufficiently high FIA grading to hold an F1 race, but we can dream…
Read more: Ten must-watch races of 2010 (Video)
Icthyes
12th April 2010, 0:10
That guitar lap was pretty good!
I remember the last Argentine GP well, with Schumacher and Coulthard coming together. Some would later say the Spa incident later in the year was Coulthard’s revenge.
Ned Flanders
12th April 2010, 0:45
I love that video- how do people come up with these crazy ideas?! I especially like it when he hits the ‘rev limiter’ in 7th gear.
Also, thanks to everyone for the nice response to my retirements article, my ego really appreciated it! (I’m only responding now because I’ve been away for the last 10 days). I’d encourage everyone else to have a go at writing an article, it’s not as hard as you’d expect
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th April 2010, 9:30
Over 200 comments already, I call that a success!
macahan
12th April 2010, 17:17
Yeah the guitar video is really cool I must say.
Ned excellent article you wrote. Maybe we will see another one in the future (I hope).
Fun to see people start talking bringing up other incidents the article really got the comments flowing.
BasCB
12th April 2010, 22:06
Thanks for writing it, that was a good read.
Wesley
12th April 2010, 22:35
Now I have something new to practise on guitar!
@ Ned
Your article was great Ned!I enjoyed it very much.That is what I love about this site,Keith’s head isn’t so big that he has to control everything and he lets his f1fanatics speak out.Anyone who says this is not the best F1 website has never visited here.
Maybe someone could do an article on f1 driver superstitions.I always find sports stars weird rituals an interesting read.(I will leave the writing to those that are better with words than me…er…I..see what I mean)
Calum
12th April 2010, 1:00
I’ve just realised how early the “round up” article gets posted. Great commitment Keith!
Calum
12th April 2010, 1:05
Also just a head up:
Happy Birthday to formula one “nearly man,” runner up to Nelson Piquet in 1981, 3rd many times, it’s Argentinan driver Carlos Reutemann’s 68th today!
VXR
12th April 2010, 1:32
I wonder if he could do Fernando’s last lap of the Malaysian GP?
J.Danzig
12th April 2010, 6:27
hey how is everyone, does anyone else think that this years McLaren and Ferrari from head on look like the 1997 Williams.
Enigma
12th April 2010, 7:20
No Korean GP this year? http://www.focus.de/sport/formel1/formel-1-formel-1-premiere-in-suedkorea-in-der-schwebe_aid_497587.html
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th April 2010, 8:08
We get this every time there’s a new race on the calendar. They said it about Abu Dhabi last year, and before that they said it about Istanbul, Shanghai, Bahrain…
Scribe
12th April 2010, 11:50
I’m not sure that Tilke himself has ever come out as a concerned party though.
Calum
12th April 2010, 12:41
Is this years Korean GP in the communist state or the other Korea?
ajokay
12th April 2010, 14:02
South Korea. The ‘good’ Korea, as it were.
Ned Flanders
12th April 2010, 14:43
Hah, a North Korean GP would be hilarious. No TV companies and journalists bar Korean state TV would be allowed to cover it, so they’d probably try and claim Kim Jong Il entered and won…
(for those who don’t know what I’m on about, the media in North Korea is so government biased it’s ludicrous. Kim Jong Il was reported to have hit 5 hole in one’s in his first ever game of golf and written a load of operas and 1000 books!)
steph
12th April 2010, 14:57
Isn’t it believed that Kim Jong Il (and I’m not joking here) can control the weather by whatever mood he is in? Better than doing a rain dance I suppose…
Ned Flanders
12th April 2010, 20:13
Haha that too! I suppose he could get really angry, cause a flood and race in a boat!
Enigma
12th April 2010, 8:07
Is the driver’s license required to drive in f1 and therefore get a super license?
Patrickl
12th April 2010, 8:58
Wasn’t it Montoya who lost his drivers lincense and still ran races in F1? Could have been Villeneuve too.
Either way, an F1 driver was speeding through France and lost his driving license and he still could race.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th April 2010, 9:13
Nelson Piquet (senior) was disqualified from driving in 2007 and, hilariously, had to attend driving classes to get his license back…
Button and Hamilton both got ticketed for speeding in France. Montoya did but I don’t think he lost his license, though they might have wanted to take it off him after he said this: “Who doesn’t go at 200 clicks on those motorways? I tell you, that car does 240kph no problem. I was taking it easy.”
https://www.racefans.net/2007/12/19/speeding-hamilton-joins-fisichella-button-montoya/
Patrickl
12th April 2010, 17:04
He did lose his license and indeed it was Montoya:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3020617.stm
“Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya has had his licence confiscated for speeding in the south of France.”
“The offence will not affect his world championship campaign, on behalf of the Williams team, as a regular driving licence is not needed to drive a Formula One car.”
Maybe you only lose your license in a single country.
I think there were Dutch people who lost their driving license and who then applied for a German driving license which then allowed them to drive in the Netherlands again.
Anyway, the races are driven on closed circuits so normal driving rules do not apply. You can even race when you never had a driving license to begin with (ie kids).
John H
12th April 2010, 9:11
Don’t think so. I believe Hamilton hadn’t passed his driving test before Melbourne 2007.
ajokay
12th April 2010, 12:14
He very much had. A friend of mine attended the same college course as Hamilton back in 2003-4 (ish) and he would drive to college in a top of the range Mini. That soon got upgraded to a Mercedes, obviously.
Patrickl
12th April 2010, 9:01
To add to Xibi’s remark. What I find odd is that Mosley kept on insisting that car weights could not be increased due to safety issues. He claimed that safety measures around track were calculated for the current weights of F1 cars.
No low and behold, this year they add 15kg to the base weight and on top of that they add about 100kg of fuel extra.
Where is the safety issue in weight now?
PJA
12th April 2010, 12:40
From Autosport
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82835
US F1 trailers put up for sale on eBay, bought from Brawn GP by US F1 and still in the Brawn livery.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th April 2010, 12:48
Posted it on Twitter this morning:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Formula-One-Motorsport-Trailer-1-OF-2-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ260583097200QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item3cabf68370
Didn’t think it was worth a story.
Calum
12th April 2010, 15:51
Ultimate F1 Fanatic’s memorabilia, I’m happy enough with my Brawn GP Jenson Cap thanks very much!!
Calum
12th April 2010, 15:59
#22, Button – http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Formula-One-Motorsport-Trailer-1-OF-2-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ260583097200QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item3cabf68370
#23, Rubens – http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Formula-One-Motorsport-Trailer-2-of-2-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ260583102086QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item3cabf69686
These originally cost £300000 each!!
Ratboy
12th April 2010, 19:54
ok why werent they just re-sprayed and used by Mercedes?? thats just a waste of two good trailers surely? all the extra cost.
sato113
12th April 2010, 15:17
when will the forum (and our beloved avatars) be back keith? it’s been a couple of months now!
glue
13th April 2010, 19:44
also, remember glock’s crash at Australia 2008..not that dangerous, but still a ‘decent’ one in terms of felt impact