F1 Fanatic round-up: 1/10/2010

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Got a fun article coming up later today for those of you who enjoy the post-Grand Prix “rate the race” polls.

In the meantime, here’s the round-up:

Links

Some hope for France? (Joe Saward)

“The French Grand Prix might be back on the F1 agenda in the years ahead. It is not yet clear where such a race could be held but it seems that Bernie Ecclestone has been discussing possibilities with Claude Michy, a sports promoter, who has enjoyed much success with the motorcycle Grand Prix de France, which is held at Le Mans.”

At Singapore the gamble did not pay off (Ferrari)

“In the end, I made up a few more places thanks to a couple of stewards’ decisions after the race and although personally, it does not mean much to me, given that obviously my own hopes in the drivers’ championship have gone, it did mean I got a couple more important points for Ferrari in the constructors’ classification.”

Branson confirms Virgin backing for ’11 (Autosport)

“We didn’t spend much money last year and we haven’t spent much money this year. The Virgin brand is strong and it attracts other sponsors, so people want to be involved with the Virgin cars. It has worked well for us both years. Obviously the coverage was more when you are winning, but we were just ridiculously lucky last year and don’t get many of those in a lifetime.”

Ryder Cup’s tweet irony when it comes to the united front of golf (The Guardian)

About golf, but there’s much resonance for F1 here: “The media’s gripes about access to sports stars are well-worn to the point of cliche, but they are shared by many fans, and to a small extent Twitter has mitigated against the trend for 20-year-old millionaires to snap ‘talk to my agent’ when asked for a chat. A big part of sport is the human connection – however imagined – that fans feel with players, and the more you legislate against that, the closer you get to thinking that sport might as well be played by robots.”

Article on potential F1 comeback for Kimi (Kimi Raikkonen)

You’ll have to click through to ‘News’ to find it, worth a look.

Comment of the day

It’s always great to hear from fans who are going to races and this is the first we’ve had from someone who’s going to this year’s Brazilian Grand Prix. If you’re going too please join in the discussion.

Hi, I am going to the Brazilian GP and have tickets for Grandstand A. Hope it was a good choice? I have booked a package with Grandstand Motorsports and have transfers included on the Sat/Sun.My only concern is getting to the circuit on Friday and cause there are no allocated seats, getting there early is a must!
John Millard

From the forum

Alexi wonders could Toro Rosso be sold in the near future?

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

Michael Schumacher scored one of the best of his 91 Grand Prix wins in the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

A consummate win on a wet-dry track in front of his home crowd, capped by a brilliant pass on Jean Alesi, all-but cemented his second drivers’ championship title:

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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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35 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 1/10/2010”

  1. It’s interesting to hear all the differing opinions on Kimi coming back. That article is put together very poorly though, it’s kind of unclear in some places what’s a quote and what isn’t.

  2. Kimi’s website features a pic of him with his eyes looking at you… but they change!

    the looks of that is so creeepy :P! It’s like they cuted his eyes and mirrored them!

  3. I share Button’s and Chris Dyer’s view about it by the way.

    I really don’t think Kimi would be back on an F1 car (even if it would be awesome if he did it) because I’m SURE he’s loving WRC, despite crashing more often than not. He doesn’t care about F1 anymore IMO.

    Everytime you see him at rally, he’s smiling… we never saw that in F1.

    1. I like Kubica’s take on it as well, saying he himself would not want to come back after having a chance with a top line WRC car.

      And i think they are all right. The gift is to stop in time before you dwindle. And Kimi will have us wondering what might have been in F1 for years, and he can live on to enjoy it with some WRC success and fun.
      Sounds like a very good deal to me.

  4. Nothing to do with anything in the F1 news right now, but here are some links to the soundtrack from the old Playstaion classic F1 97! This music was great back then, and it’s still amazing now! Here are some of my favourites:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmLYcT4Wcwc (amazing guitar!)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxXSETC49eA&feature=related (this came on after you finished a race on Arcade mode)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdFyM230aJw&feature=related (Arcade mode!! This song reminds me of blazing down the straights and straightlining the chicanes at the old Hockenheim!)

    1. Best game music ever.

      1. No way, ColdStorage’s Techno anthems from wipEout were superior.

        And KillZone 2’s also, it won an Ivor Novello award which is like the top award in music.

  5. It’s strange that that this Raikkonen comeback feature is on his official website. He (or his advisors) are hardly trying to cool all this speculation. Surely there must be a hidden agenda behind all this…

    Perhaps he is trying to squeeze more money out of Citroen/ Red Bull? Or maybe Renault are talking him up just to squeeze more money out of Petrov and their Russian sponsors? Or maybe I’m just too sceptical?

    1. It did strike me as a bit odd as well that it was on his official site. If he really is interested in a return, it seems like an obvious move to be contributing to hype by posting something like this. I hope it doesn’t turn out that he genuinely wants to drive for Renault and that they’re only using him to leverage Petrov.

      1. Maybe signing some personal sponsorship deals?

        Or just being open about it, that it all comes down to weather Kimi wants to do another year of F1 or not (with his management probably in favour of F1).

    2. To me the tone of the whole website, including the eyes, and that small clip of him saying in his usual tone to check his official website if you want to, looked like the site is not taking itself entirely serious. Maybe that is just saying the website gives mixed messages though :-p

  6. ” Michael Schumacher scored one of the best of his 91 Grand Prix wins in the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.”
    which year did that race happened?

    Looking at Kimi’s bike I won’t be surprise if he comes back in Moto GP in 2011.

    It’s sad that dispite becoming the president of FIA Jean couldn’t arrange a home GP.

    1. It’s said that it gave him his second World title, so I would say 95 ;)

    2. 1995, when he was still driving Benetton. Alesi had good lead after a gamble (starting with slicks) and also due to Schumacher making three stops against Alesi’s one. Schumacher then passed Alesi only few laps before the end.

    3. I would love to have Kimi’s bike – it’s phenomenal. I might have to paint it British Racing Green and over the Ferrari logo though!

  7. That Video reminds me just how much F1 has changed in the last 15 years.

    In that video, you can still get a sense of men covered in oil in dodgy overalls trying to get the car working before the start of the race… Which I think, is something other series (Like the evil NASCAR) can still capture.

    F1 has become so professional, so perfect, so modern.
    Of course this isn’t actually a bad thing, it’s just a pity the people in charge haven’t changed in the same way.

  8. It still feels weird having France almost completely left out in F1, yet they can champion some of the greatest pioneers of motorsport.

  9. HounslowBusGarage
    1st October 2010, 8:45

    The DTM series is going back to the A1 ring in Austria when it re-opens next year, and I wonder if they will try to resurrect the Austrian Grand Prix there too.
    France might want its Grand Prix back, but I think there will be even more competition from other countries for Grands Prix in Europe and around the world.

    1. Dietrich Mateschitz has said he has no plans to bring the Austrian GP back yet.

  10. That video shows very well just how important a skill passing back-markers was before the blue-flag syndrome set in. Aside from all the technical factors, this was one of the major elements of racing that distinguishes previous F1 eras from today. Without taking anything away from the great season we’ve been treated to so far this year, as far as I’m concerned, on balance, taking the need to work at lapping cars out of F1 made the racing less intense – by an important degree. Put that element back in and you’ll instantly increase the frequency of more interesting on-track action – not artficially, either, but by putting more of racing back where it should be.

    1. You make quite a convincing argument.

  11. When looking at that golf on twitter article, i feel relieved the F1 community started to open up a bit and communicate with its fans.

  12. “It does not mean much to me, given that obviously my own hopes in the drivers’ championship have gone, it did mean I got a couple more important points for Ferrari in the constructors’ classification.”

    So if we had a repeat of the Hockenheim controversy in the next race, Massa giving up the lead to Alonso at some point, presumably everyone would be ok with it as Massa has admitted his chances are slim to none?

    But that would still be breaking the rules right?

    And he’s still in mathematical contention, which seemed to be the “tipping point” when debating the team orders rule a month or so ago.

    I hope that Massa does yield to Alonso in the next round, because it will show everyone how stupid the team orders rule actually is and why it should be dropped.

    1. Bit a self-defeating argument – his hopes of winning the drivers’ championship have diminished partly because he started giving up points to his team mate four races ago.

      But, yes, teams should be forbidden from sacrificing one drivers’ championship chances to another as long as their drivers are both able to win the championship. Teams have their own title to win, they should not be allowed to interfere in the drivers’ championship.

      1. *his hopes of winning the drivers’ championship have diminished partly because he started giving up points to his team mate *

        Perhaps, but on a race by race basis the situation would be the same: Driver yields to teammate under coercion from team. The only difference would be the lack of uproar from fans and other teams.

        The thing just seems totally arbitrary to me, there’s no concrete rule defining when, how and where team orders are allowed and are not *shrug*

        1. The only thing here that’s arbitrary is your idea that Grands Prix are ever considered “on a race by race basis” without one eye firmly fixed on the implications of any outcome on the world championship.

          1. But he’s got a point, though: can you realistically draft any rule whose application would depend on how many points a team’s drivers have accumulated? I understand your logic, but really it’s splitting hairs, no? Seems to me like either team orders are wrong, or they’re not. The uproar over Hockenheim, going by what people were saying immediately after the race (according to my selective memory anyways) was more about fans feeling they had been denied an interesting conclusion to that particular race, more than anything to do with the championship overall. Later, when attention turned to the impact on the WDC, very few comments were invoking the fact that Massa was denied the chance to continue fighting towards the championship; the main point of contention was Alonso having benefitted unfairly. So it seems to me, going my fans’ feelings, like the major issue is not taking points away from the one driver, but rather the fact that the other is given ‘free’ points – thing is, this doesn’t change whether the one giving up the points is still in the running for the championship or not. The benefitting driver still gains an unfair advantage over drivers who are fighting it out not only with other teams but with their own team mates. So if you start basing a rule on how a particular championship develops, how can you draw the line on what’s fair?

          2. That’s precisely how rules should be applied though, surely? Why should the rulebook advantage/disadvantage one driver because of how they are doing better or worse in the championship?

            I don’t really get your point, but I do think it’s clear that pretty much everyone the complete opposite opinion to myself on this issue. Although I have a worrying feeling the FIA will actually share my opinion.

      2. Why not just change the wording of the rule to, “Team orders that interfere with the race result are permitted as long as teams don’t make it blatantly obvious?” That’s basically what the rule has been since 2002, anyway.

        1. That’s such a tiring argument.

          A lot of team orders ARE permitted (safe fuel, conserve tires, don’t attack) That’s been clarified since the Monaco 2007 precedent.

          And drivers CAN decide on their own to let their team mate past.

          The problem is when a team orders their driver to let his teammate past against their will.

          If they had told Massa just once that he was holding Alonso up and he let him by, no one whould have complained. Well not much anyway.

          In fact most people were angry that Massa had held up Alonso so much in Australia. I still think he should have let Alonso past. that really would have been for the good of the team.

          When they need to tell Massa 10 times to let Alonso past AND they need to mess with his engine settings while allowing Alonso to go at full speed, and then lie about it like the rest of the world is insane, THEN people feel disgusted and violated. Rightly so.

  13. Do you think Bernie wants the French GP to be held at Paul Ricard?

    1. yes, if some company wants to pay big money to FOM to organize the race at Paul Ricard …and to Bernie as track owner, to hire the track for the event… and this is more then the next wannebe F1country is willing to sink in, then he would want it, I’m sure!

    2. With the demise of the Flins-Les-Mureaux project, Paul Ricard would be my favourite choice. So long as pre-season testing was banned there – it used to have a Barcelona syndrome when it came to race quality.

  14. Mercedes’ Suzuka preview quotes, nothing particularly exciting but here they are anyway:

    NICO ROSBERG
    “Suzuka is a great race track and personally I think it is one of the best on the calendar, along with Spa. It is technically challenging, really quick and just a real drivers’ circuit which demands the best out of you and the car. The first sector is definitely the highlight of the lap and part of what makes the whole layout so demanding. We’ve had a decent run of results, considering our performance, with one sixth place and two fifth places so we will be hoping to continue that at Suzuka.”

    MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
    “Suzuka was always one of my favourite circuits of the year as driving the track is simply sensational in parts. Suzuka is technically demanding and has interesting corner combinations so it was a really good feeling when you got it together. I am heading to Japan with some good memories in mind as the track in Suzuka was the scene of some great races for me. Obviously I hope that we can add more and I am definitely up for the challenge. I am sure we will try to get the maximum out of our weekend.”

    ROSS BRAWN
    “Suzuka has hosted some great races over the years and it is one of those tracks that is considered a real classic by drivers and fans alike. The improved circuit and paddock facilities were very impressive last year with the organisers putting on a great show. The last three races have been particularly good for us with regard to our work at the track as a team and our run of points finishes so we will be aiming to continue this trend throughout the final four races.”

    NORBERT HAUG
    “The layout of the Suzuka circuit is one of the drivers’ favorites on the Formula One calendar. This race in Japan is very special and very demanding for the drivers, teams and cars. As in the last races, our target is to score points and to do the best possible job. We know that we are not yet in a position to win but whilst our technical developments are concentrated on next year’s car, our team at the track will be fully focused on the last four races of the season.”

  15. There has been a slight set back at the Korean GP. A construction crane has toppled over and has ‘made contact with the main grandstand.’ I don’t know how damaged it is, but this is the last thing they needed. I am looking forward to the South Korean GP, so hopefully they are able to finish on time!

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