F1 car to tackle Mount Panorama in Bathurst

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McLaren are to set an F1 car loose on the famed Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst, Autstralia.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Lowndes to drive Button’s F1 car ahead of Melbourne Grand Prix (Adelaide Now)

“Moves are underway for V8 Supercars’ Team Vodafone star Lowndes and former Formula One champion Jenson Button to swap cars and race around the famous Mount Panorama street circuit in the lead-up to the Melbourne Grand Prix.”

Thanks to Mike for the tip

Max Mosley fights back (Financial Times)

“Maybe Max Mosley is unusually brave. Or maybe he’s just found that the best way to respond when you are cast as a depraved pervert is to reinvent yourself as a freedom fighter.”

Domenicali: "Let’s keep our feet on the ground" (Ferrari)

“On the reliability front, the first assessment can be seen as positive: the mishap that forced Felipe Massa to spend a long time in the garage yesterday is in no way the sign of some congenital defect in the car.”

James Moy on Twitter

“Seen the new HRT F1 2011 livery. Big improvement on last year.”

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Interesting point from Duchess on the McLaren MP4-26:

You know, I’ve just realized where I have seen similar sidepods before: the Renault R28!

Just the other way around really, but similar enough.
Duchess

From the forum

Debating a major talking point for this season: how well the new Pirelli tyres will work.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Smitty and Chris Gordon-Smith!

On this day in F1

Just a few weeks before the start of the 2009 season, Toro Rosso confirmed Sebastien Bourdais would race for them.

It was hardly a ringing endorsement of the driver who had made his debut for them the year before, and sure enough he was dropped halfway through the season for Jaime Alguersuari.

Image © www.mclaren.com

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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77 comments on “F1 car to tackle Mount Panorama in Bathurst”

  1. F1 car on Mt Panorama?

    EPIC!

    1. agreed, i never thought i’d see it.
      wish it was Button in the F1 around Bathurst

    2. WOW, great news !

    3. I know, can’t wait to see this!

      1. The linked article is so filled with spelling mistakes I thought it was a joke! I am looking forward to it, too. I reckon a 1:30 would be possible. The F1 cars lap Albert Park in 1:23, and the V8 supercars take around 2 minutes I think, so it should be around the same time difference, if they were going for it. But it will probably be a very slow demonstration lap.

        1. If anyone wants a article with better english here a link:

          http://www.foxsports.com.au/motor-sports/v8-supercars/craig-lowndes-and-jenson-button-could-swap-cars-for-hot-lap-around-mount-panorama-ahead-of-melbourne-gp/story-fn2ms9um-1226000572444

          I did post the link in yesterdays round up. And here I was thinking I was to get some credit for providing another article link for the round up. I hate you Mike.

          1. *sad face*

            I was helping…

            How cool will it be if it happens? It’ll be good for F1’s popularity in Australia.

          2. All in good humour mate. Yea it would be good for the sport.

        2. thats The Advertiser for you. The standard of writing, and journalism for that matter, is pretty low (which a couple of exceptions)

          1. no exceptions, its just bad haha :p

        3. As far as spelling mistakes are concerned:

          Accoridng to reseacrh at an Engilsh Univeristy, it does’nt matetr in waht odrer the lettres in a wrod are, the olny imoprtant thnig is taht the frist and lsat lteters be in the rihgt palces. The rset can be a ttoal mses and you can stlil raed it wihtout prolbem. Tihs is becasue the hmuan mnid deos not raed evrey lteter by istelf, but the wrod as a whloe.

          1. I love that :D

          2. I like that LuvinF1 ….. :)

          3. Fab! Maybe COTD…. We could have a non-F1 COTD related section for comments like that.

            :D

            Nathan

          4. Definitely deserves a non F1 comment of the day! I understand that perfectly! The human brain never fails to astound me

          5. UneedAFinn2Win
            6th February 2011, 11:57

            That’s a well known phenomena, and the basis for one the best burns one of my old teachers used on self proclaimed dyslexics during a test back when I was still a student.

            Dyslexics would have just as much trouble comprehending that if it was written “right”.

            Still cool though :)

          6. How much time did it cost you to go and mangle every single word in that post! Great effort, and I had no problem reading it – it wasn’t even annoying, maybe because no single failure stood out among the mass.

          7. By reading your very comment, I can confirm it works!

            Doesn’t mean I don’t prefer using spelling to make it easier though. This depends a lot on the reader knowing enough words to find what is meant.

          8. Yeh, because people who spell incorrectly always get the first and last letters correct e.g. affect v effect, specific v pacific, accept v except…

            To turn Orwell’s quote around, lazy spelling is lazy thinking, or at least, lazy presentation. If you can’t get the spelling right, that’s not a good sign for the rest of it.

    4. I suspect this will be like Heidfeld taking the car around the Nurburgring. Sounds great in theory, but the car will be jacked right up, on super-hard demo tyres, and will probably be more concerned with getting video than doing a proper lap.

      Will still be good to see, but you’ll definitely get the sense its not a ridgy-didge lap. But I supposed an F1 car circulating at 80% is still a sight to behold.

      Fact is Mt Panorama is way to undulating and bumpy for an F1 car to have a proper crack at it.

      1. The only tricky point might be the esses and the dipper, but if they track a line down the centre of the track, it should be okay.

    5. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
      6th February 2011, 5:35

      EPIC Indeed, this is going to be so massively awesome, can’t wait to see it

  2. For the max mosley story see this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qg1vy#p0069t0k

    For those of you who are legally minded his case is extremely interesting.

    1. ah the link doesn’t work apologies. I’ll see if I can find a working one

  3. Re comment of the day…
    True only in the transposed profile of the inlet, if I can remember how it looks, other than that, there is no similarity as regards the entire sidepods.

  4. The F1 car will have trouble around Mt. Panorama I think. The undulations in the track surface are a lot worse than even the worst F1 circuit – not to mention the Dipper – and although Craig Lowndes does have a good history in open-wheel racing, it was only in the lower formulae. I am curious as to what the V8SC organising committee thinks about it as well, considering they are afraid to directly compare the Holdens and Fords with other V8 sedans (aka, haven’t allowed any other make into the sport since it started in 1992).

    Anyway, I do hope it goes ahead because it would be super interesting (like this comparison run done some years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAkcR561Sno). Let’s wait and see!

    1. Those bumps must mean they are best of not using the MP4-25 then, it never seemed to really like undulations much.

    2. Craig Lowndes does have a good history in open-wheel racing, it was only in the lower formulae

      Yes, but he was tagged our next F1 driver for a long time…it was that season in Europe that killed it because he was expected to subsidise his teammate’s (Montoya’s) seat as well as paying for his own. He didn’t have enough money.

      What is it with Helmut Marko and screwing over Australians?

  5. “Seen the new HRT F1 2011 livery. Big improvement on last year.”

    You could throw up on the F110 and it would be an improvement on the livery. Although in Hispania’s defence, they did improve the livery when they removed the white early on.

    Anyway, seeing the livery implies that a car is ready.

    1. Anyway, seeing the livery implies that a car is ready.

      Not necessarily. He may have seen a rendering…

      1. By “ready”, I mean it is at a stage where, at the very least, it can be built. Hispania wouldn’t commission a livery for a car design that was not finalised.

        1. I suspect large part of the car is already packed to be shipped to Bahrain by now.

          But the livery might be painted on the 2010 car.

      2. Without being rude, I hate the way everyone is so quick to criticize HRT.. They have the right to be an F1 team, and if you look at the times last year, they wern’t any more embarrassing than Minardi were, and they finished ahead of Virgin in the championship.

        Yeah – there may be worries about how much money they don’t have.. But Colin Kolles has a record of keeping teams alive on a thread of a shoestring.. I think Hispania will do a bit better than last year, This year :)

        1. I do hope so. I think Kolles is a bit of a wheeler dealer, but he does keep teams running. I was impressed last year with how well they kept up without (m)any updates on the car.

          To me, it also showed that not changing the car but instead working on understanding what you have and improving the setup can get quite good results for a lot less money than bolting on new bits all the time.

        2. “They finished ahead of Virgin in the championship” literally means “they had one more 14th place finish”.

          And *that* was Chandhok in Australia, five laps down but last car running.

  6. No offense to Lowndes, I know he is a great V8 supercar driver, but I really hope Button would be the one driving the F1 car around Bathurst. I have always wanted to see an F1 car go through those twisty corners at full speed :(

    1. There’s not a chance McLaren would let them drive the car anywhere near the limits in this run anyway so it doesn’t really make much difference

      1. Yeah, it will never happen. There’s practically no access to the circuit for safety vehicles from the Cutting up to McPhillamy Park, and again from the bgeinning of the Esses down to Conrod Straight.

      2. plus the car will be jacked right up and on super-hard demo tyres.

        And imagine the pressure to thread it through the dipper without knocking a wheel off.

        Full speed? Not a chance.

      3. Don’t forget it will be a previous years car, not a 2011 car. Did the same thing last year when Whincup drove. So won’t matter if he smashes it up – actually Vodafone would probably prefer if he did, it would get plenty of coverage then

      4. Anyway, a dastardly Ferrari fan will likely toss a plastic shopping bag into Craig’s radiators at the top of the Mountain :)

        1. LOL That was a good day!

    2. Plus i doubt button has ever raced this circuit before, so i think Lowndes track experience would make up for his lafk of F1 running

      1. Experience will help, but a V8 Supercar is vastly different to a Formula 1 car.

  7. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8af2ef8a-2e70-11e0-8733-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1D8ODVEbd

    “If someone is a role model and they’re doing something they shouldn’t do, the last thing you want to do is expose that. You have to ask, does what this person say achieve the objective of persuading people to behave better? Whether he’s actually doing it or not is beside the point as long as it doesn’t come out.”

    Ah so Masochist Max thinks its okay to be a hypocrite, or he doesn’t believe Team owners and race drivers are role models to the general public, because they are lesser men.

    Did he not routinely hound team principals and drivers in an attempt to destroy their image in the public eye. And of course his selective hounding also was shown to be hypocritical as he later on desired to expose the linens of his dear friends of whom he had fallen out of favour. He might be intelligent but he is also sick and vindictive, and I have no sympathy for him.

    1. “If someone is a role model and they’re doing something they shouldn’t do, the last thing you want to do is expose that.

      How wrong is that? Is he seriously suggesting that if a person is in power, they should be exempt from scrutiny? Wow…
      I mean, I’d have thought that role models, leaders, political and economic mainstays of our society should be held to even higher degrees of scrutiny! Especially role models of which he suggests he is one.

      Now I’ll be honest, I’m not going to criticise what he chooses to do in his own time, As long as it’s legal, he can go nuts, or be whipped, whatever he likes. And no I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business. But he is an important person, I’m sure he’d agree with that, so doesn’t he realise that part of being important is that the media WILL jump on you if you do something that makes you worth jumping on? Surely that can’t be a shock to him. If the Prince Charles did it the media would be talking about for years!

      started being interested when they were about three or four years old – and that’s true of me as well.”

      Wut? I’m sorry Max. No child is aware of that type of thing at that age, Maybe things happen then that lead them to have those interests (the whole learning from your experiences thing) , but the suggestion that there are 3 year olds thinking, “hmmm, pain… I like it.” Is not only ludicrous, but an indicator of how unattached from reality he is let alone the society around him.
      3 or 4? Is he on drugs?

      Listen Max, I have nothing against you amusing yourself however you like, but don’t turn this non issues, into some sort of backwards crusade against reality. I completely agree that you should have every right to express yourself feelings and partake in any legally acceptable acceptable you like. But for christ sake man, don’t use it as an excuse to remove the checks and balances that is the media on those who hold responsibility.

      ——————–

      Lastly, Max, I’m sorry. You are not a role model. And if you are, you are such a bad one that parents would have to be inept or bribed to let their children idolise you.

      1. Well, in a way Mosley is indeed not a general role model, he was just an important figure in motor racing; had he been caught for drunken/hazardous driving, it would have been something relevant (just like Todt’s drive safe campaign now calls for the F1 drivers to behave on the road).

        I do think that his way of ruling FIA with power-plays does sort of make this escapade have some remote relevance.

        On the other hand, his style of FIA presidency was bad enough by itself, as can be seen from the feelings about Todt’s very different style. Mosley certainly isn’t shown to be a hypocrite by that sexual play, just a flawed, and cheating human being, so what really is the point of the relevation, other than to smear him.

        1. I Love The Pope
          6th February 2011, 17:24

          Well, none of you, including me, is perfect and exempt from criticism. We all make mistakes and we all are to be forgiven and forgive others. If you don’t think so, life must be pretty miserable for you.

  8. Bathurst amazing! tv footage dosn’t do it justice to the elavation changes…it is a mind blowing road, let alone a race track. the inclines are 2nd gear roads to do 60 km/h not to mention the declines/dipper I can feel my road car load to the limits going throught the esses.

    If it happens i will be thier and I will share the photos

    Spa, mecca, monte carlo, dayton, Bathurst some of the most famous and challenging race tracks in the world

  9. HOLY DAMN HELL YES! I would really like to see Button have a proper thrash at Bathurst, though. When Whincup tried last year, he was about 20 seconds off the F1 pole time because he didn’t want to trash the car, and that was at Melbourne, a place with actual run off.

    1. Whincup was also twenty seconds off the pace because he was compeltely inexperienced when it came to open-wheel racers.

    2. sadly it won’t really happen.. but still, an F1 car thrown around Bathurst in anger would be awesome!

  10. HRT livery may be an improvement will the car be?

  11. How many times have I heard another Aussie saying “I would like to see an F1 car go around Mt Panorama” now its happening! Remember Conrod Straight is nearly 2km itself and V8 supercars get up to 300kmh+..this is gonna be special!

    1. As has been said several times before, it will not be at full speed. It’s simply far too dangerous for that.

      1. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
        6th February 2011, 5:38

        Through the dipper of course not, but on Conrod?, I think we will see some massive speed through there, even if they run a reverse track once with Jenson just boosting it down Conrod for a speed test

      2. i’m sure they’ll give it a go down conrod

      3. But even if not at full speed, and with hard tyres and high suspension, it will still be a sight to behold.

        Actually this sponsor is doing some nice things lately (the Melbourne run last year, the videos online, the McLaren launch in Berlin, now this), keep it up.

  12. i can’t begin to imagine the buzz a F1 going around bathurst will create. Mountain straight is a climb up to the Cutting, and have way up it I think at top speed on F1 would take off. Same down Conrod, coming back down the hill, it could launch itself. Don’t even begin to think about the section from Reid thru Skyline to the Dipper and Forest Elbow, scary stuff with all that concrete and undulations. One driver to give it a red hot poke will be Lowndes. Very good driver,and one who I had wished many years ago did get a crack at open wheel racing, but didn’t. Can’t wait to see this event if it comes off.

    1. he did have a shot at open wheelers in the UK but didn’t make anything of it.

  13. I do like reading the comments on the Seb Bourdais page, especially given at that point in time Button wasn’t even a guaranteed 2009 starter.

    What a difference two years makes huh?

  14. f1 car around Bathurst.. AWESOME!!!

    What kind of time do you think we’re looking at?

    1.35 Button
    1.40 Lowndes

    I think Lowndes will be trying not to stack it :)

  15. Robert Kubica had an accident in Ronde di Andora in his Skoda Fabia S2000. He has been transported to a hospital…

    1. He is said to have multiple leg bone fractures(including femur bone). Damn. Hope he will be alright.

    2. Mister Nillionaire
      6th February 2011, 10:27

      So I guess Senna’s dream came true. Now he will do the testing for Renault for a while :/

    3. awful news, I hope the Fabia’s OK, its a lovely car.

      1. Can I just say thats a crap joke from me, I couldn’t help it.

        Right so if Kubica does have a broken leg, then he’ll probably miss the first two races.

  16. Awesome, my new gravitar is up, 26 – as in MP4-

    1. I saw it, like it Calum.

  17. Keith, I’ve been trying to log in for the past few days and can’t recall my password. But whenever I tell it to send me a new password, it never sends one. I’ve tried both by email and username. Neither has worked.

  18. I’ve just got back from Bathurst for the 12 Hour race, but would definitely consider going back for the F1 demonstration.

    Hopefully they give him some decent time in it, not just a couple of laps.

  19. My thread got a mention :D

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