F1 Fanatic round-up: 22/10/2010

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Join us for live comments during both of today’s practice sessions for the Korean Grand Prix.

Here’s today’s round-up:

Links

The Yeongam Track Walk (Williams)

Nico Hulkenberg’s race engineer, Tom McCullough, walked the track on Thursday morning and gave us his thoughts. ‘The track surface was very dirty,’ says Tom. ‘When you combine the dirt with the fact that the asphalt is new and still quite oily, it’s going to be pretty treacherous during Friday practice. The drivers will want to take it pretty easy while they’re learning the track in FP1.'”

Inaugural Korean Grand Prix fails to draw crowds (Channel News Asia)

“The number of foreigners attending is likely to be lower than originally expected. ‘We had expected about 3000 people in the beginning but so far we have about 950 people. We think the final tally will be about 1500,’ said [Korea Tourism Organisation director] Kay Sung.”

Korean F1 race ready to thunder (The Korea Herald)

“Chung Yung-cho, the chief of the event’s domestic promoters KAVO (Korea Auto Valley Operation): ‘There is room for improvement as host of the country’s first F1 race but we will do our best to develop the sport in the future. We’ve sold out all tickets to the circuit’s main grand stand and met about 90 percent of our initial ticket sales goal.'”

Q & A with Yung Cho Chung (Autosport)

“The track itself is fine, but the rest I am not very happy with because we are two months behind schedule. So there has not been time to do everything. We are sorry for the audience because when the racing goes on, there will be just black asphalt and cars.”

Comment of the day

After seeing the picture of the five championship contenders together I asked on Twitter for boy band name suggestions. I liked Steve Lyons’ best:

A boy band name? How about ‘For Sure’?
Steve Lyons

From the forum

If every F1 driver and team had a wrestling-style entry theme, what would it be?

Happy birthday!

A very happy birthday to Sasquatch!

On this day in F1

The 2000 championship was concluded at Sepang on this day ten years ago. Michael Schumacher, who had already won the world championship, scored his ninth win of the season.

With Rubens Barrichello joining him on the podium in third it gave Ferrari the constructors’ championship for the second year in a row.

McLaren drivers David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen finished second and fourth – Hakkinen being given a penalty for jumping the start:

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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22 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 22/10/2010”

  1. Hamilton and the slipstreamers?

    1. Alonso and the Fasters than you.

      1. I love that one :-D

      2. The could cover Milli Vanilli’s “girl you know its true”

        “massa you know its true, oh alonso is faster than you!”

  2. Another massive facility with “conservatively” 100,000 attendance for an F1 weekend.

    Friday’s grandstands might be quite barren.

  3. “We are sorry for the audience because when the racing goes on, there will be just black asphalt and cars.”

    black asphalt and cars is all we need!

    1. I was gonna say the same thing, but you beat me to it!

    2. ….. I think this highlights the gulf between the fans and the producers of the races…

  4. Happy birthday to Sasquatch. :) I initially misread the bit about the foreign visitors as the overall attendance figures estimate! But they must be a little bit optimistic to be hoping for 100 000 spectators, surely?

    1. Yes, Happy B-day Sasquatch!

      1. Same here! Who cares about the other things.

    2. Happy birthday Sasquatch!

  5. ‘For sure’? Shouldn’t it be ‘Five sure’… I’ll get my coat.

  6. “Nico Hülkenberg’s race engineer, Tom McCullough, walked the track on Thursday morning and gave us his thoughts. ‘The track surface was very dirty,’ says Tom. ‘When you combine the dirt with the fact that the asphalt is new and still quite oily, it’s going to be pretty treacherous during Friday practice. The drivers will want to take it pretty easy while they’re learning the track in FP1.’”

    Here’s a suggetsion: don’t have free practice. In fact, don’t have qualifying – the grid can be the same as Suzuka. Just race on it as it is right now.

  7. José Baudaier
    22nd October 2010, 1:24

    It is actually impressive that they expected 3000 people to plan a trip overseas to a F1 race that wasn’t even confirmed two weeks before it was supposed to happen.

    Anyhow, now that the GP is confirmed it is probably a great opportunity to score a good position seat for a reasonable price. I mean, prices can’t be very high with what looks like a small attendance.

  8. I have concern over the interest of F1 among the people of Korea & the number of people coming on track during the race day.

  9. Hi guys have a look at this. I am really impressed. Robert Kubica onboard at the Antibes Rally
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19zFJZ62ZS4

    1. better than Kimi’s shakedown at catalunya yesterday :D
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdzVusoNXLw

      1. That’s kind of funny how non-plussed they both look their after the crash. Would be interesting to know what they’re saying.

  10. Thanks for Comment of the Day! Made my day after an abysmal 7 days.

  11. Can you believe it, 10 years ago, the Formula 1 Calendar had finished on 22rd October.

    But on 22/10/2010, we still have 3 more races to go and absolutely anything can happen. Dunno why people want less races. I love a longer calendar, expand to 26 I say.

  12. Something that I love about Chris Horner is his ability to inpire and motivate his drivers, mainly the one that is leading the chamio9nship:

    “…”I’ll say it again, we are building the team around Sebastian. He has a long career in front of him, and I hope it will be with us.

    Mark is on a ending career, he wants to retire being on top, and not when overwhelmed by other pilots…”

    Isn´t amazing?

    LINK: http://www.toilef1.com/Horner-a-t-il-mis-le-feu-aux.html

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