F1 Fanatic round-up: 3/6/2010

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If you’ve not already tried it you can use the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar to get the times of every F1 practice session, qualifying and race throughout the rest of 2010. Find it here: F1 Fanatic Google Calendar

Here’s today’s round-up:

Links

Good weekend, bad weekend (ITV-F1)

My latest article for ITV-F1. Please leave any feedback below!

Button honoured at Buckingham Palace (F1.com)

“Jenson Button took time to reflect on his title-winning success of 2009 on Wednesday, as he was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace in London.”

Horner: Webber asked Vettel to back off (Autosport)

Christian Horner: “Mark had requested the lap before to ask Sebastian to back off a bit. There was no way you could do that because of the McLarens being right there.”

Mark Webber’s future at Red Bull safe despite fallout from Sebastian Vettel crash (Daily Telegraph)

“It is understood that Webber has cleared the air with Red Bull’s management and will stay beyond the current season.” Pay rise, eh?

Comment of the day

Ronan was at the Turkish GP and tells us all about it:

I was fortunate enough to be at the Grand Prix here last weekend. Not sure if it’s been mentioned elsewhere on the site but the race appeared to be quite well attended. Many Russian and Bulgarian fans made the trip to Istanbul and there was a noticeable contingent of Turks too. I understand there were 32,000 fans at the race last year, definitely a better turn out this time round.

Overall the enjoyed the race weekend, excellent value for money considering how cheap the tickets were. I paid 60 Turkish Lira (around ??30) for a three-day general admission pass. Shuttle buses to and from several areas of the city were frequent and cheap.

Only criticism I would put on the organisers is that Kangaroo TVs weren’t available (I was told they were in 2009) and there were fewer large screen TVs at the track than had appeared on the circuit map when I was buying my ticket.

Food was expensive too and there was no way of avoiding it as the track is in the middle of nowhere. Packed a picnic for race day to avoid being ripped off.

Overall a great weekend at an amazing circuit which will hopefully remain on the F1 calendar for years to come.

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Nelson Piquet scored his 23rd and final Grand Prix victory on this day in 1991. Fittingly, it came at the expense of his former team mate and bitter rival Nigel Mansell.

Mansell was comfortably leading the Canadian Grand Prix on the last lap and had already begun waving to the crowd. Suddenly his engine died – possibly, it was said afterwards, because he had allowed the revs to drop too low.

Piquet blasted past to take a surprise win. When asked how he felt when he went past Mansell’s stricken car he confessed, “I almost came”.

Here’s how the drama unfolded live, with French commentary. I don’t know much French, but I do know “catastrophe”.

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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45 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 3/6/2010”

  1. Magnificent Geoffrey
    3rd June 2010, 0:34

    Congratulations to Jenson on his MBE!

    Hopefully it’s not long until Murray Walker receives his long overdue knighthood.

    1. Ned Flanders
      3rd June 2010, 3:17

      Geoffrey… we all know you are the peoples choice for COTD today with your Legard poem… even if you don’t have the official accolade, you poem was a stroke of genius!

      *Don’t get me wrong, I really, really want Legard to do well, but he just hasn’t been up to the job so far. Nice guy, bad commentator…

      1. Geoffrey, great poem yesteray!
        But the information in Ronans post was good to hear and to the point we have been talkinig about last days about overtaking and the quality of the GP.

        1. Ned Flanders
          3rd June 2010, 10:15

          Yes credit too to Ronan, some interesting details there. I noticed quite a few Russian flags in the grandstands which was intersting. I remember Steph mentioned a while back that Vitaly Petrov always draws a few Russians to Istanbul, perhaps that was why

      2. Sush Meerkat
        3rd June 2010, 9:14

        I agree Ned, Goeffrey is the peoples choice, magnificent that he is

      3. graham228221
        3rd June 2010, 9:44

        Agreed, Geoffrey you are in our hearts.

      4. Poem? I must have missed that one. Where is it?

  2. “I almost came”

    HAHAHAHAHA!!!

    1. Ned Flanders
      3rd June 2010, 3:19

      Haha too much information!

    2. Glad he did n’t! But it goes to show where inner team battles can lead to.

  3. What on earth does Horner hope to accomplish airing MORE team dirty laundry in public?

    Is the man insane?
    Is he desperate to get Webber to leave mid-season?
    Does he want other drivers to be scared off signing for his team forever? (remember how Frank Williams’ stock fell after he dumped Hill mid-season)?

    Worst of all, this doesn’t even accomplish the aims of either:
    a) Rehabilitating Vettel’s reputation
    b) Clearing up why the team “expected” Webber to “make space”.
    c) Making the team management look professional
    d) Proving the team treats its drivers equally and without bias.

    If anything, it does the opposite on all points.
    The mind boggles.

    1. When being cynical, maybe just a bargaining strategy in the contract renewal talks with Mark Webber.

      Talk down his worth for the team to counter Webbers probably feisty income wishes for next year!

    2. Go on Horner, keep digging that hole you’re standing in…

  4. Terry Fabulous
    3rd June 2010, 1:59

    Good Article on ITV Keith.

    Your writing is very good and reads very well.
    I got throught ewhole article on ITV before I realised it was you!

    Great stuff mate, start hassling BBC for Ted’s job.

    1. Or…

      Maybe you should move to North America and pick up a broadcasting gig over here!

      1. Seconding this.

    2. Sush Meerkat
      3rd June 2010, 9:15

      NO way, Ted Kravitz is the comedian of the show.

      1. We would love to have you here in Austin, Keith.

        You may have heard about this Grand Prix howdown we are gettin here.

        1. This South Carolinian says “Yee-Haw!”

  5. Top notch article Keith! :D Wow an article on the ITV website! (Please excuse my daftness if this not your first one on there.) You’re up there with the biggies :) Great review of an eventful GP, brief and to the point..

  6. All those McLaren failing to manage there drivers, an Williams poorly timed sacking stories seem to be repeating themselves with Redbull.

    Spouse thats what comes with F1 success.

  7. From the Autosport article – “They are probably not going to be down the pub for a drink together, but they will continue to work professionally in the manner that they have done in the forthcoming races. They work for the team at the end of the day and they know what the rules are.”

    In other words, get along with each other or else.

  8. Is there anywhere we can veiw the statistics of the attendences for the GP’s this year. In my opinion there has been a larger number at most races this season. I think an article on this topic comparing numbers from this year, last year and when the sport was at its peak would make for quite interesting reading Keith.

    1. that info seems to be one of the biggest secrests in the F1 world. A while back I tried to dig up some info like this and it was pretty impossible. I found some data for some races for one or two year but yeah took a lot of digging and far from even a complete picture for a single GP from year to year (was looking at China and USGP). Some of the info I found was in 2006 there was slightly fewer then in 2005 and another place I found that 2005 had approximately xyz attendees.

  9. Ned Flanders
    3rd June 2010, 3:30

    OK just read the ITV article, great stuff! Can I just point everyone in the direction of another intersting article on the subject of Red Bull politics.

    http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/who-is-helmut-marko-and-why-does-it-matter/

    (yes it’s another Joe Saward article, even though I always seem to be slagging him off! I don’t really like him personally, but I like his F1 news analysis!)

      1. The first article was actually posted in the discussions yesteray and included in the Round up by Keith above.

        The second one is more interesting, for it shows Coulthard is still pretty much connected to the Red Bull team and goes back on his strides from Sunday.

        He probably had a call from either Mark Webber or the team management, to calm it down, as the damage was done and they did not want to discuss it any further in public.
        Not a reliable source so to say.

        1. DC is earning his paycheck as a “Brand Ambassador” whatever that is… Part of it probably entails putting a positive PR spin on a debacle such as this.

    1. Helmut Marko reads like an Austrian Flavio, except with less business acumen and more “toxic personality”.

      Another notable F1 site claims that Mateschitz is lapping up the free publicity for his brand, which makes me question the analytical skills of the writer (this site is famous for their negative editorials)since a brand associated with extreme sports can’t possibly benefit from this.

    2. One more article I find interesting:

      http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-mosley-blames-webber-for-vettel-collision/

      Apparently Mosley thinks it was webber’s fault too. What a way to sway public opinion even more in Webber’s favor!

  10. Keith,

    What’s your take on Horner’s comment about Webber asking the team to have Vettel back off? I have never been a fan of drivers asking faster drivers to slow down, but with the Webber-Vettel drama I’m finding this so difficult to believe without more context.

    First the Red Bull team confirms that Webber was in fuel save mode, and now Horner suggests that he was having issues with the rear tires. I wonder if Webber suspected that the change in fuel mix was meant to sabotage his race, and so he asked to have Vettel back off to test this theory. Which is it? Fuel? Tires? Both? Maybe telemetry showed the turn 12 washboard was causing the pin in his leg to come loose and forced his foot to bounce under braking thus progressively degrading his driving line throughout the race?

    It’s all rather suspect…

    1. I think the way he’s only just mentioned int now is a bit odd. As if he’s saying “and one more thing…”

      But I think the pictures is pretty clear now – Webber was saving fuel at that point and Vettel, for some reason, had sufficient fuel to delay his fuel saving for a lap or two, giving him a bit more power.

      It’s possible the reasons for Vettel having more fuel are entirely innocent – he may have backed off more earlier on. You can save a lot of fuel by lifting just before a braking zone – but presumably Webber couldn’t do this when he had Hamilton all over him in the earlier part of the race.

  11. RedBullRacer
    3rd June 2010, 4:33

    Great article on the ITV site Keith :-)

    1. yeah I agree on that to. Nice work. Bit different then what you often write here not sure I would have known it was your article without knowing a head of time or reading the by line but that is nothing bad of course.

  12. Team McLaren Racing is getting to be MBE racing, or the knights McLaren, that would be a nice team name!

  13. Did anyone here read or hear something on RBR changing parts of the rear suspension to be more in line with the regulations?

    I found this reported on the dutch formule1niews.nl site, referring to German “Auto Motor und Sport”.

    Also i read reports confirming that Red Bull will not use the stalling rear wing duct in Canada, still having to manage getting it to work proberly.

    1. You’d expect they’d at least test it again in Canada in practice – unless they think it’s not even worth shipping the parts out there.

  14. Indy have presented their view on the engine concepts for 2012 and furter.
    This might be also the way to go with F1 in 2013, but going further in including hybrid/Kers solutions as well.

    http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/84099

  15. Some thinking and analyses from James Allen on the situatiion in the Turkish GP between Webber and Vettel. Once again, it looks like the team were planning on this with Vettel and without or even against Webber a long time ahead.
    And Webber did react in lap 39 getting back up to speed to counter Vettel (that is after asking the team to avoid them battling it out on track by reigning Vettel in a bit).

  16. How not to do PR of the day. It should have never made the news.

    Helmut Marko said on Austrian TV that Mark Weber was not informed properly by his engineer on Sunday:

    “The message to Webber should have been ‘You’re too slow. At this rate, Hamilton is going to be straight past you. If Vettel is faster, don’t fight against him, concentrate on Hamilton’.

    “That is not a team order,” Marko said.

    http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-137128.html

    1. Hamilton wasn’t coming any closer to Webber at all.

      Hamilton was at a pretty much steady 1.2 seconds behind Webber for at least 9 laps. In fact the gap was rather steady since their pitstop.

  17. Will there be a change of the wheel size next year, as requested by Michelin and Pirelli?

  18. Q1 – What are Webbers realistic options as to which other F1 team he could go to if he were to leave RedBull?

    Although I think Vettel was more at fault with the Turkey incident, I am disappointed to hear Webber having asked for Vettel to back off. This is F1 and fans do not want to see victories handed over on a plate. Mark should know better and will hopefully drive harder faster and more agressively.

    Congrats Jenson…

  19. Keith,The 1991 Canadian Grand Prix was held on June 2nd not June 3rd.I got a link here
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Canadian_Grand_Prix

Comments are closed.