F1 Fanatic round-up: 30/4/2010
I’ve had a couple of emails asking for a clarification on how comments are handled here.
I want F1 Fanatic to be a place where F1 fans can discuss and argue, share jokes, ideas and experiences. I do not want the joyless experience I find on certain sites (by no means just F1 sites) where the tone never drops below hysterical and comments are a perpetual slanging match between warring factions.
Comments that do not abide by the comment policy will be removed. That includes obvious things – spam, advertising, swearing, racism, homophobia etc… – much of which is handled by automatic filters. But it also goes further than that in order to try to keep a constructive and healthy debate.
On top of that there are some technical limitations to work around. For example at the moment if a comment is deleted any comments posted in direct reply to it must be withdrawn as well, otherwise they end up orphaned at the bottom of a thread, lacking any sort of context.
It’s not an exact science and I won’t pretend I get it right all the time. The quantity and quality of comments on the site continues to grow and I take that as an encouraging sign things are heading in the right direction. But there’s always room for improvement and if you have any suggestions how to do that please post a comment here and let me know.
Now, on to the round-up:
Links
First flying lap of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit (YouTube)
Pirelli to make tyre offer to F1 teams (Reuters)
“Michelin and American-based tyre manufacturer Cooper have already emerged as possible suppliers for next season with Pirelli now entering the fray having sounded cautious about the idea just a week ago.”
Ferrari F1 barcode a ‘smokescreen for cigarette adverts’ (The Times)
Ferrari: “The bar code is part of the livery of the car, it is not part of a subliminal advertising campaign.”
So Mr. Carroll we meet again! (My name is IRL)
“Adam Carroll really ought to be racing in Formula 1, thank goodness he’s not. It is stupendously good news for IndyCar Racing that Andretti Autosport has secured his signature for a select number of races later on this season.”
No big Williams update until Monaco (Autosport)
Sam Michael: “We do have some stuff for Barcelona, and that’s a good step, but I think the bigger steps will come for Monaco and Istanbul.”
Comment of the day
Here’s Hairs on the new-look Silverstone:
This is shocking, shocking news and spells the end for the British GP, Silverstone and the BDRC as an organisation.
Here’s a group that thought about what would make for a good race, then talked to the racers about what they wanted, then decided to appoint a company to do the work based on the quality of their previous work, then consulted the racers again, and came up with a design that seems to satisfy as many people as possible while maintaining the integrity and history of the GP, all within a sustainable and reasonable budget.
This won’t go down well with the FIA and Bernie at all.
Hairs
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Oliver and ccolanto! Have a great day, guys.
On this day in F1
F1 raced at the revised Imola circuit for the first time on this day 15 years ago. Damon Hill won after Michael Schumacher crashed out on the damp track.
Several chicanes had been inserted into the circuit following the two deaths at the track in 1994. The first of which, Roland Ratzenberger’s was 16 years ago today.
Read more: Roland Ratzenberger biography
Alex said on 30th April 2010, 9:21
Alright there’s one thing I already dislike about the new Silverstone. Did you hear the commentator say: “There’s plenty of space (asphalt) to go wide here.”? That space shouldn’t be there. It should either be gravel or grass.
steph said on 30th April 2010, 9:26
I’d also like to pay my respects to Roland Ratzenberger. That weekend happened when I was only 3 but as I began to follow the sport more I learnt more about it. However, whenever I thought of the two that died that weekend I could easily summon up images of Ayrton and because he was in the limelight so much I felt I almost knew him or knew of the loss to motor racing but when I thought of Roland I could only think of the name; I knew almost nothing else.
It is ignorant of me and I really want to rectify it so I’ve done a little research which is something I should have done a lot sooner.
I’ve so far managed to find a small interview with Roland where he expresses his happiness at being in F1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW592NQOt7M
I believe that Roland was born the same year as Senna but apparently he used to claim he was in fact born in ’62 so he could expand his career by two years. It does show how long he had to wait to achieve his F1 dreams too and I’m pretty impressed with his determination.
His only finish in F1 was 11th at the Pacific GP in 1994 with Simtek. He had driven that track before while no other driver had but after the previous round where he failed to qualify, this was a pretty good result.
Pre F1, in 85 he won the Austrian and Central European Formula Ford Championships. He managed a podium at the Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival and scored a win when he returned in 1986.
He raced in Le Mans several times(best result was 5th), four years later he was competing in Britain and entered the British Formula 3000 where overall he ended 3rd.
He dabbled in Touring Cars also, he contested in WTCC and the BTCC before he switched to Japan to race touring cars for two years there. He even jumped the start on one occasion when he tried to lead every race he competed in the second season.
He then changed series and cars again to race in the Japanese F3000, he scored a couple of wins but only came 7th overall and stayed for another year but came 11th this time. He was also concerned with driver safety and when fellow driver Reid crashed he rushed to the scene to help his colleague.
His intelligence when it came to his career was clear when in Japan he was fearful that he would be isolated from his home nation, from the press and form sponsors too so he paid a freelance journalist to help keep the Austrian press up to date with his results.
Then finally, he was offered a drive in F1 for 1994. Roland changed his path so many times; not just the countries where he raced but the types of cars he drove and he waited over 30 years to get into F1.
That’s what I could find on Roland and I’d like to apologise to him for not knowing that in the first place. I still feel that isn’t enough. I can only find results and although that tells me he was a dedicated and flexible driver it still doesn’t tell me much about Roland Ratzenberger. However, he got to F1 after years of struggling and I have a huge amount of respect for that; it shows not only was he a very hard worker but his ambition had a certain stubbornness needed to fulfil his goal.
I’ve never really been a fan of Max Mosley’s politics or methods but one thing I will always respect him for was going to Roland’s funeral. It was a thoroughly decent and very human thing to do.
Sorry for banging on! Happy birthday Oliver and happy birthday ccolanto! Hope you two have a wonderful day :)
greg76 said on 30th April 2010, 10:11
I don’t think Mosley is very popular among F1 fans but we still have to respect how much he did for safety.
DanThorn said on 30th April 2010, 10:40
Great info Steph, thanks for sharing. I particularly like the story about deliberately jumping the start so he could lead every race!
I always hugely respected Max for going to Roland’s funeral too, although I recently read that he went because he was banned from Senna’s funeral. I can’t remember where I read that though – it might have been on Youtube and therefore hugely wrong, but if anyone has more info on that I’d be grateful.
RIP Roland.
rampante said on 30th April 2010, 16:51
Mosley went to his funeral because he felt that nobody would be there and as he said” everyone was going to Senna’s “.
It was a bad weekend for everyone. I was at Imola on the Friday and Saturday. I had to leave on Saturday night and I’m glad in many ways I did.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 30th April 2010, 10:40
Did you read the biography link above? Interesting story about him and Anthony Reid in there.
steph said on 30th April 2010, 10:47
Nope was on my mobile at the time and it is the slowestt hing on earth. Will check it out now. Thanks Keith :)
ajokay said on 30th April 2010, 9:42
I’m looking very much forward to checking out the new Arena layout in the flesh (Tarmac?) this weekend at the GT1 Championship.
graigchq said on 30th April 2010, 10:35
..did u see the yas marina race? grosjean literally blwing the doors off all the competition.. was he perhaps stripped of his F1 drive a bit prematurely? He was the only driver out there to be faster than the corvette’s, and towards the end was pulling over 1.5-2s per lap over EVERY other car..
lookin forward to silverstone, this year’s new GT1 world championship looks like something well worth following
catch up on highlights of qualifying as well as full replays of the championship races here:
http://gt1world.com/gt1tv
Mersault said on 30th April 2010, 9:43
Nice decision on the comments, Keith. The hysterical and overly partisan comments on other sites, while initially entertaining in a ‘car crash’ kind of way, soon become rather nauseating.
I’ll be very interested to see if your moderation policy actually results in a greater volume of contribution as well as a more constructive and reasoned tone. On the evidence so far, this may well be the case.
IDR said on 30th April 2010, 10:27
“I’ll be very interested to see if your moderation policy actually results in a greater volume of contribution as well as a more constructive and reasoned tone.”
I think this site is “pretty safe” of partisans and bigotry is not due to Keith moderation policy, but his own behavior with the articles.
He will surely have his own preferences in terms of drivers and Teams, but he always manage the posts with a very professional (and objective) attitude.
He shows the way to us for posting comments here, attracting people who truly love this sport, not people who only wants to rant against others (drivers, teams and bloggers).
sato113 said on 30th April 2010, 11:08
great comment hairs!
Hairs said on 1st May 2010, 1:38
I know, I was just thinking that to myself as I re-read it a fourth time.
God I’m good.
DGR-F1 said on 30th April 2010, 11:14
Its good to see that three tyre companies are now interested in F1. I wonder if the FIA would be brave enough to let them all supply different teams?
Although it might be down to which deals can be done, I don’t see why agreements couldn’t be made so that each Manufacturer supplies a mixture of top, middle and bottom teams.
And why just stop at three suppliers? Lets have four or five, since it needs something like this to help keep the connections between F1 cars and what the rest of us drive.
BasCB said on 30th April 2010, 11:18
No shortage of Marshalls to choose from in Korea:
http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/formula-1-news/233384/korea-receives-1-600-marshal-applications/
Looks like there are quite some fans in Korea, if they had that much applicants for it.
I know several people visiting this site have experience on marshalling from comments in the posts. Do you have any tips what the organizers should look for when choosing from the applicants and is this such a popular activity in other countries?
By the way good job all of you making racing possible and safe. Good job, and good luck to those being at GP races.
BasCB said on 30th April 2010, 13:40
what about this for a different driving experience. It reminds me of the first laps with the HRT in Bahrain and Virgin and Lotus during testing.
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/1002018.article?cmpid=TE01P&cmptype=newsletter
claudioff said on 30th April 2010, 14:52
Have you realize that the car Brundle drove could have an empty seat? What you would give to be in that second seat? Has any one here had this kind of experience? I once attended to a Stock Car race where passanger seats were adapted and some very luck guys/girls had the privilege to do some laps with the professional racers. Unfortunatelly I wasn´t one of them.
matt90 said on 30th April 2010, 14:55
Bit off topic but I just saw this example of swerving to break a tow. Not as extreme as Hamilton, but still ‘more than one move’ yet it gets no mention from the commentators or the stewards as far as I know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFiJLCKzUdA&playnext_from=TL&videos=fyFswGR36mU&feature=grec
bx said on 1st May 2010, 5:16
It’s more of an example of a couple poor attempts at ‘blocking’ by Kimi on Klein rather than ‘breaking a tow’. Klein isn’t in his slipstream.
BasCB said on 30th April 2010, 15:49
some good news for fans of Donington:
Lets hope they make it and close the holes in the track to have cars racing there in the summer.
http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/formula-1-news/233411/donington-hoping-to-reopen-in-august/
ccolanto said on 30th April 2010, 15:57
Thanks for the birthday wishes!!
Chaz said on 2nd May 2010, 8:35
Thanks for all the hard work Keith. It is really appreciated…