Kovalainen unhurt after "major shunt"

F1 Fanatic round-up

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Heikki Kovalainen was knocked unconscious after crashing his Audi R8 LMS into a concrete wall at the Race of Champions.

Links

Albuquerque celebrates stunning Race of Champions win – as Kovalainen crashes into concrete wall (Race of Champions)

"Heikki Kovalainen: ‘I am fine luckily, no injuries, and also my girlfriend who was my passenger is fine. It was a major shunt and it started from the touch of the wall just before the finish line. I tried to use every inch of the circuit and I just kissed the wall. Then I was a passenger as I hit the wall at the first corner. It was a decent shunt.’"

Kovalainen upbeat after crash (Heikki Kovalainen via Twitter)

"Had an eventful Sunday, hardcore shunt with throttle jammed and rear suspension damaged, got knocked out, now some medical check-ups…"

Di Resta takes title, Paffett wins race (Autosport)

"Gary Paffett won the DTM season finale in Shanghai on Sunday, while Paul di Resta sealed the title with second place."

USGP Conceptual Design (Friends of Formula 1 Austin Texas on Facebook)

Apparently these are conceptual drawings of the site for 2012 Austin Grand Prix though how these match up to the track map already revealed isn’t clear. Thanks to Rick for the tip.

Montezemolo at Finali Mondiali: "An amazing 2010 season"(Ferrari)

"’Even if there is much to be sad about when you come within a centimetre of taking the title and then lose it, this has still been an amazing season.’

"The Ferrari President, Luca di Montezemolo is in no doubt that, despite the bitter ending in Abu Dhabi, the 2010 season was still a positive one for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. ‘Having been in Formula 1 for such a long time, this was certainly not the first time I have lost a world championship at the final race,’ said Montezemolo"

Red Bull drivers go local this weekend (F1Technical.net)

"World Champion Sebastian Vettel was in Berlin on Saturday where he had the unique chance to turn Berlin’s June 17th Street into a temporary race track and drive a Red Bull Racing Formula One car in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The sport’s youngest-ever World Champion then completed a driver’s parade along Yitzhak-Rabin Street, aboard the Red Bull tour bus.

"Meanwhile, Mark Webber and Red Bull Junior driver Daniel Ricciardo were 8,500 miles away in Perth, Australia, taking part in the city’s first ever Festival of Speed."

Massa denies 2011 is ‘make or break’ (Autosport)

"Felipe Massa has denied that he is under any pressure to restore his reputation in 2011, despite his difficult 2010 season, and pointed out that he had held on to his Ferrari drive for five years despite regular rumours about his future."

Comment of the day

Christian Klien’s comments yesterday about rookies and Nico Hulkenburg in particular, kicked off a good discussion.

Prisoner Monkeys says:

The point here is that the days of pay drivers like Jean-Denis Deletraz – rich playboys who fancy themselves as racing drivers and muscle out the talented, but less financially-secure among the Formula 1 fraternity – are gone. Sergio Perez might be a pay driver for Sauber next season, but look at the way he dominated the GP2 field in Abu Dhabi. He’s got a healthy bank balance, but he’s also got a good dose of talent.

If Klien and Pedro de la Rosa and Nick Heidfeld are missing out on racing seats because young aspirants are dangling wads of greenbacks about, I’m not too concerned. They’ve had their chance in Formula 1, and there’s obviously a reason why they haven’t been able to advance through the midfield teams.

Pay drivers are only going to be a problem again when the likes of Hamilton and Alonso struggle to secure racing seats.

This is really just a case of Klien complaining that he might not be on the grid next year. But naturally, the question must be asked: does he even deserve to be there in the first place?
Prisoner Monkeys

From the forum

The F1Fanatic “Who Am I?” Rolling Quiz rolls on.

Happy birthday!

A big happy birthday to Wes, djdaveyp85 and Alex White – hope you have a lovely day!

On this day in F1

On this day 35 years ago, Graham Hill and Tony Brise were killed in a light aircraft accident.

The former world champion had announced his retirement earlier in the season, making way for 23-year-old prot??g?? Brise to take his seat within the Embassy Hill team. Brise thanked him by qualifying seventh in his first race for the team in the Belgian Grand Prix, followed by a sixth-place finish in Sweden and seventh in Holland and France.

Hill and Brise were killed when their plane, piloted by Hill, crashed in thick fog at Arkley golf course, near Elstree. They were on their way home from a test at Paul Ricard in France.

Team manager Ray Brimble, mechanics Tony Alcock and Terry Richards, and designer Andy Smallman also died in the accident.

62 comments on “Kovalainen unhurt after "major shunt"”

  1. Happy Birthday Wes, djdaveyp85 and Alex White!!

    1. Seconded. Happy birthday all!

      1. I hope you all have a great day!

        1. Woo! , Cheers Guys :)

    2. I second (or fourth) that, happy birthday!

  2. Those “possible concept pictures” are interesting. If true, the circuit and surrounds will be fantastic! The first thing I noticed is that the cars are going the wrong way around the track! This could just be a simple mistake by the artist, though. What I find more interesting is that there are Toyota trucks depicted behind the pit buildings, which suggests to me that these designs are more than a year old.

      1. hey this will give you a better idea is the 3d model of the track

        1. cheers for the link, looks an interesting track… would rather have a big dip at T1 than the massive hill…. would make for a really tricky breaking zone…

        2. like abu dhabi, there is a tight hairpin before a long straight. also there is a long sequence of aero demanding corners before this hairpin, spreading out the field. so no overtaking there then.

          the pit straight is (somewhat) preceeded by a long ‘turn 8’ style aero corner. separating the cars of course. no overtaking there too… c’mon tilke, learn from your mistakes!

          1. Hopefully there’s still time to make some modifications there before it goes into construction. So far I like the look of the Indian GP better: http://www.autocarindia.com/files/images/NEW%203D%20INDIA%20GP%20TRACK_0.jpg

          2. you’re right, this is really silly, if only there was competition for designing tracks maybe we would get a better result

          3. @ US Peter –
            man, the track in India looks equally flawed like Abu Dhabi or Austin.

            Too slow corners *before* long straight is overtaking fail.
            I truly hope for all F1 fans in US and beyond that guys in Austin watched Abu Dhabi GP carefully and made proper conclusions.

          4. I feel sorta sorry for Tilke, he has made some great tracks and some fantastic corners, but like all artists he only has so much creativity and inspiration.

            I wish that venues looking for new tracks would take some inspiration from the re-modeling of Silverstone and look beyond Tilke for their circuit design! There are other companies capable of building tracks that are upto the requirements of F1, so why not give them a go and lets have some different tracks!

    1. I think the Toyota liveried trucks are just probably what the artist had available from a previous project. It’s just a visualisation. At the F1 Grand Prix in the United States their won’t be team trucks, given it’s a fly away round so really it’s just illustration to give people an idea what the paddock might look like at any given weekend.

  3. Happy birthday to the mixmaster genius that is DJ Davey P! And Wes and Alex too.

    And to answer Mr Monkeys’ question- no, I don’t think there was anything in Klien’s 3 years with Jaguar/ Red Bull to suggest he was deserving of an F1 seat.

    In fact my very simplified way of looking at the hierarchy of Red Bull drivers is this: Klien was beaten by David Coulthard, who was comprehensively outpaced by Webber, who isn’t on the same level as Vettel

    1. Will Ricciardo outpace Vettel to stick with the true theory of yours?

  4. Oh, and having just watched the Kovalainen crash, I think we need more Tecpro barriers in F1… It makes crashes look even more spectacular than usual!

    1. Problem is the techpro barriers weren’t where they would have been useful; alongside the concrete wall that Heiki hit, which caused him to be unconcious and an injury to his girlfriend who was a passenger.

      1. You make a valid point Pinball, Heiki and his Girlfriend have suffered some injuries (luckily not life threatening), just goes to show that the FIA rules with regards to circuits are justifiable.

        Is it more exciting to have such a crash?
        Yes it is

        Would we be recoiling back and retracting our sentiments if Heiki and his GF was even more hurt?
        you betcha!

  5. hey guys these are much better and you can see how the track will look with the elevation changes. This is the 3d model they made of the austin track. The one pic at the end thats shot low to the model you can tell how it will be lots of change let me know what you think http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44263&id=157330087614878

    1. Yes, that does seem to give a better impression – I can’t really figure out where the other track concept pictures are on this model, seems others are right that that was an early concept and they changed it a lot – it almost looks like a mirrored bit of the “hockenheim stadium” sort of, but enlarged.

      1. i think they ended up changing the track after the concept art bc the start is in the wrong direction and everything so ignore them thats y i gave the other post to really see the track

    2. Interesting to see two additional corners in this physical model, compared to the track map presented in September, closing out this weaving complex in the first half of the lap.

  6. why is it taking FOM so long to make the Abu Dhabi race edit for f1.com? it’s been like two weeks to string a bloomin 2min video together!

    1. haha on2 m8, and i hope they dnt use stereophonics as the song. i dnt hate them, its just they always use them lol

      1. they always use brit pop-rock, indie or emocore as their music! why not try something different? electro, dance, something else!

        1. I’d be up for an Irish jig. Just to mix it up a little, you understand…

          1. Or some grind core, black metal, drone/doom, or… or Vanilla Ice? :-)

          2. @Peter
            Just so long as they don’t use that bloody aweful jedward vs vanilla ice version!

        2. Haha, whats the betting they’re waiting for a song to be recorded for them?

          Worryinly I’ve now just imagined chico doing a “it’s vettel time” song…

    2. Exactly dude, how long could it take…they should put up the season review too

    3. Yes! They have to make the Abu Dhabi and 2010 season edits. I imagined the season’s race edit would have taken time, but the Abu Dhabi one, no!

      1. FOM are still looking where the overtaking moves are they missed. Good luck finding them, we did not see more than 3-4 during the race!

      2. huh? no they haven’t. no on f1.com at least…

  7. Thanks for the birthday wishes! I am already in the state that I plan to be for the rest of the day…. intoxicated!

    Also nice to have a change for the usual F1 Fanatic Round-up to a F1 Fanatuc Round-up!

    1. Hey Keith any chance you can change my forum log in to match my main one? Had some problems when I registered it!

    2. F1 Fanatuc must be the New Zealand version of the site!

    3. LOL!
      My comment was a bit too short.

  8. And congrats to Mr Di Resta, really hope he gets a drive!

  9. Good to hear that both are OK. But why did Kovalainen’s girlfriend get the chance to seat in the passenger’s seat? Is it part of the event.

    1. I think it’s part of the event to have passengers. Schumacher and Vettel had passengers during their race too. http://bit.ly/e2z1CR

      1. All the two seaters carry a passenger at all times, the only time they don’t carry a passenger is in the one-seater ROC buggies…

  10. I just watched the video again. Wow! I didn’t realise the tec-pro barrier knocked the marshal over!

  11. It looks to me that this picture is of the last turn, slightly modified for overtaking.

    Then again this picture makes it look like it’s meant to be Turn 1.

    All in all I don’t think it’s meant to be accurate. It could easily be a mirror image of Turn 1 too.

    1. HounslowBusGarage
      29th November 2010, 11:25

      It’s Photo 6 that really gets me. The one showing the boats mored beside what looks like a boardwalk beside the canal/pond/lake thing. Not sure of the function or relevance of these images at all.

      1. every new f1 track HAS to have some sort of a marina. or it won’t pass FIA scrutiny. lol

  12. I personally think Prisoner Monkey missed the point regarding pay drivers yesterday. I appreciate and accept what he is saying. Pay drivers do appear to have more skill then ever before and the funding is more a result of their and good performance in the feeder series than anything else.

    The issue I have is drivers getting on the grid because they happen to be born in a nation Bernie wants to make money in. A nation with a new Grand Prix coming up. Would Petrov and Chandhok really be where they are if Bernie didn’t want to enter the Indian and Russian markets?

    1. Petrov and Chandhok come from nations that will host a GP, therefore have many sponsors (does Chandhok have them?).
      Sponsors are the base of pay drivers.

      1. Exactly, these aren’t pay drivers that got sponsorship through their performances in the junior formulae but sponsorship purely based upon their nationality and an upcoming grand prix for that nation.

        Which is an issue for the premier motor racing series. Even if, as Prisoner Monkey’s states, pay drivers have more talent these days than they did 20 years ago.

        1. Argh, clearly no one else cares.

          I guess Chandhok and Petrov are the people’s favourite pay drivers anyway. So it doesn’t really matter. :D

      2. I assumed Chandhok’s sponsorship money came partly from Bernie (at least that’s the impression I got at the start of the season).

        It would make sense if it did.

        – India has roughly one billion people.
        – Bernie wants to tap into that market.
        – F1 needs Indian team, circuit and most importantly an Indian driver to do so.
        – Bernie pays a few million to get Chandhok on the grid and the profit from that could be much larger from the potential Indian fan base.

        1. I like the idea, but I haven’t seen any evidence that Bernie is actually backing Chandok or Petrov.

          In fact, Chandok lost his seat because he couldn’t match the sponsorship package of Sakon.

  13. I read on twitter by @MauriceHamilton and @steveslaterF1 that motorsport writer Christopher Hilton has passed away. RIP. Terribly sad news.

    Hill’s accident was awful. I really loved Graham; he was an exceptional character it seems. I loved when he spoke of his F1 debut and said something like “I was running 4th and I thought Formula One: piece of cake …and then my back wheel fell off!”. He was hilarious and a favourite of mine.

    1. Accidental Mick
      29th November 2010, 14:42

      I had the honour of meeting him once at Brands Hatch. He was a reaaly great guy – always courteous and always had time to talk to spectators.

  14. Prisoner Monkeys
    29th November 2010, 11:37

    Yay, Comment of the Day! Thanks, Keith – it makes for an awesome birthday present.

    That’s right. I never got around to telling you my birthday is November 29th. Figures that I’d tell you eighty-three minutes before my birthday is over …

    1. Hope you had a good day!

      Happy birthday to Wes, djdaveyp85 and Alex White too!

    2. A happy birthday to you, the great thing is, here where i am, it’s still your birtday for another 95 minutes, so enjoy them ;-)

  15. The very first overhead picture is so wrong, there is no hairpin so close the the last corner, and if it is a mirror image of the first corner, again the last corner doesn’t come anywhere near the rest of the circuit, and the cars would be going the wrong way!

  16. John Brumby is no longer Premier of Victoria, which could have implications for the Australian GP in years ahead.

    The new premier, Ted Baillieu, seems to support the event, but obviously wants it to improve: “I’d like it to stay, because it’s a part of our events calendar, however it needs to dramatically improve its performance.”
    (from last week)

    1. Melbourne? Improve? How possibly?
      It’s one of the races that has the most twists, and the track is also nice for overtaking.

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