Welcome to the weekend! Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Christian Horner Q&A: We won’t interfere in title race (F1)
On Flavio Briatore telling Red Bull to support Mark Webber: “What else should he say as Mark’s manager? My answer is a clear ‘no’. Of course, I can imagine that Flavio would prefer it if we go the Ferrari way and put our efforts behind only one driver, but that would be wrong, as both are right in the middle of the fight for the title. The only thing we expect from them is that they don’t hamper each other.”
BMW to return to DTM in 2012 (BMW Motorsport)
Having quit F1 last year BMW is now going to go up against Audi and Mercedes in the DTM.
FIA: Africa must wait at least 3 years for F1 race (USA Today)
Jean Todt: “At the moment it’s only some rumours about some interest for some countries in Africa to organize a Formula One event but I don’t see any opportunity in the next three to five years.”
Bernie and Russia – the full story (Joe Saward)
Bernie Ecclestone: “In all the Olympic cities I have been to so far these venues are often almost never used after the games. I think it is very important that these things are thought through properly, and, obviously, that is being done in Sochi.”
Formula 1 United States Releases Spanish Version of Official Website
Not a particularly interesting story in its own right but indicative of how they’re courting fans in the largely Spanish-speaking countries south of America, such as Mexico, who will have an F1 driver next year in the form of Sergio P??rez.
Marissa Pace (Kangaroo TV Motorsport manager) on Twitter
“Word from F1 friends already in Korea isn’t good… Not much to do, horrible hotels and Mokpo, is best known for, ahem, nightly visitors.”
“My new helmet for Korea, colours of Virgin Racing.” (Click link for picture)
Formula One, the world’s fastest sport, is here (The Korea Herald)
“Lee, a member of a motor racing fraternity, is planning to spend a weekend with other members in Yeongam next week. ‘I’ve been gathering information about the race. There seems not much about it. Well, I’m a bit worried. But I’m definitely going to see the race.'”
Check out this cool chart sent in by reader Petr Habala which shows how the points were shared between each team in every F1 season.
Comment of the day
Patrick picks one of my favourite underdog triumphs:
Qualifying for the opening race of 1990 stands out for me. Although Pirelli’s one-lap rubber certainly helped. OK, so there was a Mclaren on pole as you’d expect, but alongside Berger’s Mclaren was not Senna’s sister car but Martini’s Minardi…then De Cesaris’ Dallara (y’know, them what made the HRT), Alesi’s Tyrrell… and Olivier Grouillard’s Osella lined up in 8th alongside Prost’s Ferrari. And these times were set in the dry! There was even a Eurobrun ahead of Mansell’s Ferrari
Patrick
From the forum
Interesting discussion on Red Bull’s notorious flex-wings.
Site updates
Yesterday’s work on the server has been completed and no further downtime is expected.
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
The 2005 season ended in Shanghai and four teams contested their last races.
The Minardi name raced for the last time, 20 years since it had first appeared in Formula 1. It was taken over by Red Bull and became Toro Rosso.
After 14 seasons in F1 Jordan was bought by the Russian group Midland. It raced in their colours for the first time in 2006 before being sold to Spyker. At the end of 2007 Spyker transformed into Force India.
BAR went through a similar number of changes. The Brackley outfit was taken over by Honda but they quit after three years. A management buyout put team principal Ross Brawn in charge and they won both championships last year, before Mercedes swooped in to buy the team.
Finally, Sauber contested what appeared to be their last race as BMW took over. But BMW quit at the end of last year and the Sauber name is now with us again.
sato113 (@sato113)
16th October 2010, 0:37
on that points chart, what does the y-axis represent?
José Baudaier
16th October 2010, 0:51
Percentage of total points possible.
inc0mmunicado
16th October 2010, 2:26
How were percentage of points possible calculated for years when race results were dropped?
newnhamlea1
16th October 2010, 0:51
The bit about jordan is factually *ahem* incorrect. At the end of 2007 spyker transformed into force india and midland baught jordan at the end of the 2004 season, but chose to continue as jordan for 2005.
Ned Flanders
16th October 2010, 6:20
Yeah this is true, the team was Jordan in name and livery only in 2005. They should’ve just called it Midland as soon as they bought it, but Eddie Jordan’s ego dictated otherwise…
Magnificent Geoffrey (@magnificent-geoffrey)
16th October 2010, 7:12
I hated the Midland takeover of Jordan so much. Such a pathetic waste of a great part of F1’s character.
Fixy (@)
16th October 2010, 9:31
2005 – Jordan
2006 – Midland
2006 last 3 races – Midland Spyker
2007 – Spyker
2008 – Force India
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
16th October 2010, 9:56
My point was, they still raced as Jordan in 2005 but I’ve tweaked the text to make that clearer.
Oliver Queisser
16th October 2010, 8:13
“At the end of 2006 Spyker transformed into Force India”
It was 2007 not 2006
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
16th October 2010, 9:46
Changed it, thanks.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
16th October 2010, 9:38
The most striking thing about that graph is how few teams have scored points – 61 (not all are on that graph, including for some reason Toro Rosso) out of 165 entrants. I feel the new system gives points too cheaply in respect of that – it was just as hard for Minardi to get 6th as it is for Toro Rosso today, so why should they get one for 10th?
Red Andy (@red-andy)
16th October 2010, 12:02
The reason the points were extended down the field – first to 8th, then to 10th – was because the reliability of the top teams was such that the lower teams hardly ever scored. Back in “the day,” Minardi would occasionally pick up points just by still circulating when other cars retired; reliability is so good these days that such a situation rarely if ever occurs.
In 2002 Ferrari, Williams and McLaren between them picked up something like 85% of the available points, because they were so far ahead and so reliable. Extending the points down the field gave midfield teams something to realistically fight for.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
16th October 2010, 12:10
A quick glance at the records shows that the super-reliability trend started quite a few seasons ago.
I think the real reason is they just expected 4 teams to dominate everything and lock out all the top 8 places. That hasn’t happened.
Personally I’d consider Kobyashi getting one point under the pre-2003 system far more impressive than 8 under the previous system or 27 under the current one. But then points have become pretty meaningless anyway apart from deciding who’s the champion.
Scribe (@scribe)
16th October 2010, 14:40
I don’t know about that, the points and standings this year show us that Sutil and Barrichello are fighting Schumacher for 9th place, that Kobayashi is comfortably beating Petrov in his inferior car, that Torro Rosso truly has mooved to the back of the midfeild.
Infact it shows three distinct championship battles, not relavant to the title as such but interesting none the less.
Best of the Rest.
6 Felipe Massa 128
7 Nico Rosberg 122
8 Robert Kubica 114
Best of the Midfeild
9 Michael Schumacher 54
10 Adrian Sutil 47
11 Rubens Barrichello 41
Best of the Rookies (+Luizzi)
12 Kamui Kobayashi 27
13 Vitaly Petrov 19
14 Nico Hulkenberg 17
15 Vitantonio Liuzzi 13
I don’t think Lotus or Virgin will find their first points meaningless, I don’t think points finishes are meaningless to Torro Rosso these days now their properly back at the back, I think what Nick Heidfeld can produce in the short time he’ll be racing will affect his future greatly and if he overtakes names who have been racing all year, it’ll make a big differance, Luizzi for instance.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
16th October 2010, 18:56
I agree, it’s much more interesting to see drivers get tiny points hauls and fight for each and every point than it would be were there no points available. I think it also motivates drivers placed around 11th-14th in a race to really push and try to get 10th so they can gain a point. If points only went up to 6th, a driver in 11th might just sit there content with where he was knowing there was no chance of making up 5 places.
Maciek
16th October 2010, 9:51
Keith – it’s an interesting point you make about the Spanish version of the US GP website, but I’m not sure you’re right that it’s aimed at “Spanish-speaking countries south of America”. There are nearly 50 million ‘hispanophones’ in the US and Spanish has become the unofficial second language – US government websites are in English and Spanish.
Ok, and not to nitpick, but ‘south of America’ sounds like Antarctica – or is it a British thing to say America instead of United States?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
16th October 2010, 9:54
Hadn’t realised Spanish speaking in America (sorry, ‘the USA’) had become so widespread.
goofy
16th October 2010, 12:31
nearly 30% in Texas are speaking spanish
http://www.mla.org/map_data_results&SRVY_YEAR=2005&geo=state&state_id=48&mode=geographic
US_Peter (@us_peter)
16th October 2010, 19:02
Yeah, as goofy points out the rate of Spanish speakers in Texas is particularly high. It’s highest in border states like California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, but it extends all over the country now. That said though, Keith you are right that they’re courting Central and South American fans. This came out last week after the Perez announcement:
–Tavo Hellmund
BasCB (@bascb)
16th October 2010, 19:39
Although your point about spanish speaking people in the US is very accurate, have a look at the site and at the flag symbol to choose which language to use.
YES, it is a Mexican flag (the USA flag used for the english version)! Based on that, i think it is accurate to say that is the main aim of the spanish language version of the site.
Doug
16th October 2010, 10:22
Such a sad day to see the end of Jordan, Minardi and Tyrell who may never have been World Champions, but contributed so much towards F1 in the nineties/noughties. With Eddie Jordan, Ken Tyrell and
Paul Stoddart, I felt you got to see the real side of F1 rather then corporate Jean Todt at Ferrari and Ron Dennis at Mclaren.
Nowadays, you don’t see the team managers as much for the lower teams: Torro Rosso, Virgin, HRT and Force India. Exceptiong being Lotus where it is good to see Mike Gascoigne always willing to please the fans.
Hamish
16th October 2010, 12:24
Tyrell were both the drivers and constructions champs in 1971
Doug
16th October 2010, 13:02
Aplogies, indeed they were quite a force back in the late sixties / early seventies.
Tom
16th October 2010, 10:42
“The only thing we expect from them is that they don’t hamper each other”
but isn’t that inevitable? the only outcome is that they will take points of each other. but that will be negated if they show the same dominance they did in japan. otherwise, this will fall nicely into fernando’s favour
Steph (@)
16th October 2010, 12:01
When I first checked the site this morning I was a bit sleepy and thought the Marissa Pace link said “Massa’s Pace”. I was slightly confused when I read the tweet… :P
Icthyes (@icthyes)
16th October 2010, 12:11
“Massa’s pace in Korea doesn’t look good”? Would be too harsh to say you don’t need clairvoyance for that…poor Felipe.
Steph (@)
16th October 2010, 12:32
Thank you for that ray of sunshine Icthyes ;) just kidding! :)
US_Peter (@us_peter)
16th October 2010, 19:05
He says now he’s gonna give 110% for the remaining races. Anyone wanna put some money on more first lap crashes?
RobertG (@robertg)
16th October 2010, 19:35
it doesnt mean he will crash. If he gets good grid place…
RobertG
16th October 2010, 16:45
Sorry, myb this is not the right topic, but how to register to forum?
David A
16th October 2010, 17:21
By clicking on “Forum” (on the top of the page) then “Register” (in the blue on the right hand side)?
RobertG
16th October 2010, 18:53
thanks. looks like im blind :)
Stevo
16th October 2010, 21:00
The points table makes the early 2000s look as boring as I remember them being with the Ferrari dominance. I don’t remember 2003 (I’d turned off so much I wasn’t even following results), but it’s closer than I remember any of those years being.
Dianna
16th October 2010, 21:57
Well boring for some maybe,but memorable to others,it depends on our views.
Toby Bushby
18th October 2010, 3:57
Stevo, 2003 was one of the most exciting seasons on and off track in the last decade and a half! If you can, get hold of the races and watch them.
Three teams – Ferrari, Mclaren and Williams – were all dominant at one stage or another during the season, similar to this year. Something I’ll recommend to whet your appetite; there’s a very interesting (and funny) Friday Press Conference featuring Patrick Head and Ross Brawn going at it on youtube. This shows why it truly was a “tyre war” back then. Check it out.
Toby Bushby
18th October 2010, 4:02
Just found the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asE7AA5_JdM&p=08BF56C93A5D5663&playnext=1&index=12
DGR-F1
18th October 2010, 9:55
Bernie: “In all the Olympic cities I have been to so far these venues are often almost never used after the games,” he said. “I think it is very important that these things are thought through properly, and, obviously, that is being done in Sochi.”
So is there any sign he might have done that in London? Theres a whole Olympic Park that will be doing nothing after 2012……
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
18th October 2010, 10:07
There were rumours he wanted to but the organisers gave the idea short shrift. Keep in mind Ferrari couldn’t get permission to film an F1 car driving through London a couple of years ago, given that I doubt they’d tolerate 24 of them being driven competitively. There was a street demo in 2004 but apparently the council weren’t happy at the speeds being done. Whatever did they expect…
DGR-F1
18th October 2010, 11:52
Thats why, given what he has been able to do in Russia, it seems strange he wasn’t in at the start of the Olympic Park in London in order to get the circuit he wanted, since it wouldn’t be through the streets, but at a purpose built venue, so wouldn’t upset all the Westminsterites, but still have the backdrop of the Thames and the City.
Odd isn’t it? Or is this why the ending of the laws that ban racing in the streets is on the cards? Is this the pro-Bernie lobby at work?