We’ve got a guest post coming up today from an F1 Fanatic reader who was at both the back-to-back races in Germany and Hungary. For now, here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Good weekend, bad weekend (ITV-F1)
My latest article for ITV-F1: “Red Bull continues to impress not just with the outrageous speed of its RB6 but also with its ability to find innovative ways of throwing points away.”
Schumacher under attack (Joe Saward)
“Michael’s apology was, by all accounts, ordered in Stuttgart rather than being from the heart and a long string of top drivers of yesteryear have waded in with their comments.”
Button back at the London Tri (220 Triathlon)
“Button will look to improve on his impressive 2009 time of 2 hours 7 minutes in the Olympic distance on the course that takes in famous landmarks such as Big Ben, Tower Bridge and the London Eye.”
Comment of the day
Loads of F1 Fanatic readers are heading to Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix. If you’re going check out the comment on the 2010 Belgian Grand Prix discussion including this one from Buzinator:
I’m trying to decide between Gold 4 (Eau Rouge) & Gold 7 (La Source) grandstands ?óÔé¼?ª G4 appears quite spectacular, but G7 seems to offer a little pit action, a longer viewing time of the cars overall, and of course turn 1 incidents.
Would love to hear if people have opinions, especially if anyone’s had both and can compare.
Buzinator
From the forum
Was Mark Webber’s 43-lap run on super-softs a great piece of driving or proof that the ‘super-soft’ tyres aren’t soft enough?
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Katy and Paul Gawne!
On this day in F1
Jack Brabham entered his own car into a Grand Prix for the first time on this day in 1962.
Brabham, at that point a two-times world champion, qualified his Climax-engined BT3 qualified 24th on the grid and covered slightly more than half the race distance before the throttle linkage failed.
Unlike today, this was not greeted with grumbling about the worthlessness of the new teams coming into Formula 1.
Four years later Brabham became the first and so far only driver to win the world championship in his own car. It’s hard to imagine that record ever being equalled.
TommyB (@tommyb89)
5th August 2010, 0:10
Happy Birthday Paul
And of course Happy Birthday Katy/Peachy :)
LAK
5th August 2010, 0:29
Happy Biirthday Peachy & Paul!! Hope you have many happy returns :D
It seems Bridgestone’s option tyres wasn’t soft enough, he shouldn’t be able to go 43 laps without stopping, I guess others thought his strategy is too risky so they opted to switch to the harder tyre earlier, plus the safety car must have kept him out longer
paxdog57
5th August 2010, 2:12
Kudos to Joe Saward, he also has an excellent blog. Keith can you do an article on the next 2 european race circuits and their characteristics suiting certain teams? Also comments on the rest of the fly away would be timely after monza.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
5th August 2010, 11:21
That sort of thing will be covered as a matter of course in the pre-race previews. There’ll be a piece on the championship situation during the break too.
Hamish
5th August 2010, 4:51
Keith, nice comment in Joe Sawards blog.
f1yankee
5th August 2010, 5:47
i never heard anyone complain when webber did (to a slightly lesser degree) the same move on massa(?) a couple years ago. thank goodness we have michael schumacher to vilify at our leisure.
Patrickl
5th August 2010, 9:29
Massa had no room when he dived next to Webber. Webber had closed the door and Massa blew in anyway.
Massa went over the edge of the track by himself. Which is not allowed by the rules. If anyone should be penalised for that incident it should have been Massa.
Schumacher was in the middle of the track when Barrichello made his move and then pushed Barrichello over the line.
Completely different situation.
f1yankee
5th August 2010, 9:42
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxY_bpUIfLs
by himself?
adam mason
5th August 2010, 12:13
Very interesting,if Im not mistaken you can see Webbers front wheel coming towards Massa.
Patrickl
6th August 2010, 19:59
Actually that’s only after Massa moves onto the pit outlane. I guess they are allowed to drive there and the edge of the track then suddenly moves a lot to the right.
John H
5th August 2010, 15:25
You make a good point.
I seem to remember Rubens pushing Hamilton into the pitwall at Interlagos too (2009), although Rubens apologised immediately after the race.
Patrickl
6th August 2010, 19:56
Yeah that was amazing. You’d expect him to be furious that Hamilton cut his tyre, but in fact he apologized to Hamilton knowing that he went too far.
Patrickl
6th August 2010, 19:54
“went over the edge of the track by himself”
And indeed that’s clearly shown in that clip.
Indeed Webber closes up to the line even more, but Massa had no right going off track to overtake a competitior.
Eric
5th August 2010, 6:33
if Vettel hadn’t fall-in so far behind the safety car and had not got penalized it would have been even more interesting.
why?
because Vettel would have stayed right up there with Webber, now that might have slowed Webber down some what due to the fact he would have only been racing for second, interesting, shame on you Vettel for getting penalized.
BasCB
5th August 2010, 6:34
Here’s James Allen’s thoughts on the background of having LeeMcKenzie for the JapanGP replacing Humpfrey.
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2010/08/bbc-changes-f1-presenter-with-an-eye-on-the-2012-olympics/
He expects this to be a forebode of what’s to come from the Olympics onwards.
BasCB
5th August 2010, 6:35
Happy Birthday to Katy and to Paul. Enjoy it today!
Calum
5th August 2010, 8:16
Yeah on jake hunphrey’s profile at BBC F1, there is a video where he says he used to do kids tv, does athletics which will hopefully mean he goes on to do 2012 Olympics, and he also uploaded a pic of the 2012 Olympic stadium on Twitter to which he commented something along the lines of “I’ll hopefully be working there in 2 years.”
while I’m going on about f1 related Olympic stuff:
is triathlon an Olympic sport? How good is Jenson Button, I mean I know it’s a hobby for him but could he compete for gold at the Olympics?
It’s a shame an F1 event couldn’t take place in London 2012, a special non calander Olympic race around the streets of London would have been great!
gabal (@gabal)
5th August 2010, 9:36
Triathlon is Olympic sport since 2000. Sidney Olympics.
I don’t think he will ever get on Olympics as maximum 3 athletes from one country may qualify to the Olympic Triathlon.
LewisC
5th August 2010, 11:17
I can report that the streets of East London and the Stratford area are so shocking badly surfaced it’s almost impossible to drive my road car there!
A Red Bull demo around the one-way system could be done though… http://bit.ly/d5D3yC
Ilanin
5th August 2010, 11:46
Last year’s London Triathlon was won in a time of 1h 42m 08s. Button is a good triathlete but not an international standard one.
W154
5th August 2010, 15:03
If they can have synchronized swimming as an Olympic sport surely they can have F1 motor racing too !? Bernie could present the medals!
Maciek
5th August 2010, 8:19
Perhaps those comments from former F1 drivers on Scumacher’s move will clarify things for people who seem to think that there was nothing wrong with it.
adam mason
5th August 2010, 12:26
My thoughts don’t need clarifiying, If I have to choose between being entertained by Schumi and being infuriated by Vettel’s inability, in a car that all weekend has been superior by a long margin, to put a move on Fernanda, I’ll choose M.S every time.
Chris P
5th August 2010, 10:34
“It’s hard to imagine that record ever being equalled.”
Whilst this maybe true Jacques Villeneuve might be the next person to have the chance.
LewisC
5th August 2010, 11:23
Jacques Villeneuve, world champion? Pull the other one, it’ll never happen.
(PS: I believe 1997 was a hoax).
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
5th August 2010, 11:20
I’ve decided to change the running order of the guest posts – the Hockenheim and Hungary one will go up later, a different guest post will be up today.
Lucas.M
5th August 2010, 12:43
Hey Keith, I am very confident that Hamilton will retain his lead in the drivers championship in Spa, his car suits the circuit and Spa is his type of circuit. The Red Bulls WILL struggle at Spa. The Red Bull has a lot of downforce and Spa and Monza are the two circuits that have very low downforce. I think Lewis will win at Monza as well, he was on pole last year, in the “Worst” car he has ever driven, he now has the “Best” car he has ever driven, he only has to drive and there will be nobody within striking distance. As for Singapore onwards, Lewis I think has a chance but only if the Red Bulls break, Japan, not so sure, Korea, could have a chance after looking at the layout of the circuit layout with those long straights, Brazil, podium (Webber could win that after that drive last year and his recent form) and in Abu Dhabi, a win for sure. Go Lewis, if he or Jenson dosen’t win, I think Webber deserves the title. Lucas.M
David-A (@david-a)
5th August 2010, 23:48
He was on pole last year, but two other Mercedes powered cars beat him. I would watch out for Rosberg and Button at Monza too, and not write off the competition this early on.
BasCB
5th August 2010, 17:08
It seems Epsilon Euskadi is pretty much resolved to have a serious try at getting into f1 next year.
They have their design prepared and ran it in the wind tunnel, now they need a desicion and get started with building the car, contracting the drivers and the race team and get going.
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/240501/epsilon-euskadi-completes-first-wind-tunnel-test/