In the round-up: Michael Schumacher says the new rules have made F1 “fantastic”.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Michael Schumacher hails 2011 Formula 1 rule changes (BBC)
“To me there is more justice as the quicker driver should be in front. And it is more spectacular. There is fantastic fighting and I have to say I’ve enjoyed it big time.”
The Horse Whisperer – Spring, the time of allergies (Ferrari)
“The final form this allergy can take – and it almost floored the poor old Whisperer – can now be considered a chronic one, as it latches on to which driver might replace [Felipe] Massa at the wheel of the Red car. […] Needless to say, it is just rubbish, the sort that gives you really bad allergies.”
Barrichello: Change at Williams is needed (ITV)
“In my opinion we need to definite a little bit better what is what, and what people do what, because right now the [wind] tunnel is bringing great things on the paper and we are having evolutions every day like a normal team?óÔé¼?ª but not all the time [do they] translate to the race track. When you put it on the car it is not all the time better, or it’s just a little bit [better] or is not what the tunnel [is] saying.”
Q & A with Eric Boullier on F1’s future (Autosport)
“I think this little war inside the paddock is maybe fun for some journalists and some people, but to be honest for me it’s not because we need to think a little more globally. As F1 we need to realise that the rest of the world has changed, and if you want to be successful as a show and a sport and a competition we need to think a little bit differently.”
Ferrari’s involvement in consortium puts top teams on red alert (The Times, subscription required)
“Red Bull, the world champions, will meet Ferrari and McLaren, probably at the headquarters of Mercedes in Stuttgart. Although the meeting was set up to discuss the terms for a new Concorde Agreement, the financial deal that binds the 12 Formula One teams to Bernie Ecclestone’s CVC Capital Partners, the commercial rights-holder, the concerns of the leading players have changed dramatically in the past 24 hours.”
F1 approach could send Ecclestone veering off track (FT)
“But perhaps the most potent element of the combination is something about which – for all his own wealth, experience and force of personality – Mr Ecclestone can do absolutely nothing. John Elkann, Exor’s chairman, and James Murdoch, News Corp’s deputy chief operating officer, are both personally backing this project. Their combined age is less than Mr Ecclestone’s 80 years. This adds a flavour of generational shift to the proposal that is perhaps its most powerful asset.”
F1 fans against NewsCorp’s bid to takeover Formula One (Facebook)
Only six members – so far.
“PR understatement of the day from Red Bull: ‘our drivers had contrasting fortunes here last season with one podium and one DNF.'”
Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app
Vitaly – ready for Istanbul (Renault)
“It is clear Red Bull has had the fastest car so far but you can see from the last race (in China) how McLaren destroyed the others with the tactics. For example, last year we would spend 20 minutes discussing what to do and what strategy to use, this year we spend longer.”
“I’m happy. Sebastian Vettel came up to say he loves the commentary and offered me Toblerone. I broke two pieces off by mistake. Didn’t offer me any more”
Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app
Craig Scarborough comments on Red Bull Racing’s batteries & KERS situation (YouTube)
Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.
Comment of the day
Macahan thinks the changes introduced to F1 with year are no more artificial than what happened in other series:
Every racing series (except short tracks, drag racing or sprint racing) there is tyre management. You want refuelling then you can watch Le Mans, ALMS, Indycar, NASCAR just to mention a few.
Artificial, well look in any series where different manufacturers are allowed GT1, ALMS, Le Mans, Moto GP, AMA Superbikes, NACAR they have one form or another to level the playing field, be it restrictor plates, or additional weight payload.
You think it’s fair when a GT1 team and car mfg is successfully gets an additional 50kg weight put on their car to slow it down?
From the forum
An unusual idea from WelshF1: Is it time to reset the lap records?
Site updates
The deadline for getting your Predictions Championship entries has been extended.
You can now enter and your predictions up to the start of qualifying on Saturday. After you make your predictions you can edit them up to the deadline:
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Brakius and Elly Parker!
On this day in F1
Alain Prost won the 1984 San Marino Grand Prix for McLaren.
Meanwhile his future rival Ayrton Senna failed to qualify for Toleman. He hadn’t run in the first qualifying session as the team were in dispute with their tyre supplier Pirelli, who had discovered they were planning to switch to rivals Michelin.
Senna made it out in the second session but was delayed by a misfire. It was the only time in his career he failed to qualify for a race:
Image © Mercedes
RIISE (@riise)
6th May 2011, 0:03
You can’t snap off TWO pieces of Toblerone!!! Martin just give up on life.
Sushi Meerkat (@sushi-meerkat)
6th May 2011, 0:08
The good news is that something finally worth reading has been published on twitter.
Congrats Brundle, I salute you.
Joey-Poey (@joey-poey)
6th May 2011, 2:09
Sadly I had to look up what that was…
Sushi Meerkat (@sushi-meerkat)
6th May 2011, 7:53
You had to look up what a Toblerone is?, where are you from?, its a chocolate you can’t eat without hurting yourself.
In Europe its customary to buy Toblerone at the airport with some duty free cigarettes.
James
6th May 2011, 10:51
Or, just Toblerone…
BasCB (@bascb)
6th May 2011, 11:15
Just a shame those don’t go duty free anymore!
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
6th May 2011, 13:34
I don’t suffer much with Toblerone. Lion Bars always catch me out, it’s like eating tarmac.
George (@george)
6th May 2011, 19:29
I wouldn’t offer anyone my toblerone, you cant take a piece off without getting your grubby mits all over the damned thing
Calum (@calum)
6th May 2011, 0:08
^^
7 members now!
Icthyes (@icthyes)
6th May 2011, 0:11
I’d like to think that’s because F1 fans are intelligent enough to know joining facebook groups isn’t going to do anything ;-)
snowman
6th May 2011, 0:47
Well it worked for x factor christmas number one haters! lol. suppose itz least we can do, once people get to know about it will soon grow! cheers to whoever created it.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th May 2011, 6:07
And I bet the facebook page had an effect on getting Trump dumped from that planned safety car drive at the 100th Indy Brickyard 500 this year.
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
6th May 2011, 1:38
I won’t bother joining because 1. Like Icthyes says such groups achieve nowt, and more importantly 2. I’m not entirely sure I’m against it yet. I’m still trying to decide whether my hate for Ecclestone and CVC is stronger than my hate for News Corp. (And yes, I know hate is a strong word bla bla bla…)
Jay
6th May 2011, 3:06
I dont see any reason why we should be against it.
Its not as if the current ownership is doing a great deal. News Corp is a media company, if anything they could stand to push for improvements in the media content of F1. The quality of the broadcasts could be improved, with the audience getting access to more of what goes on..like NASCAR for example.
If you’re planning on fighting The Man, well it doesnt make any sense, because CVC is also an “Evil” Corporation.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th May 2011, 6:13
While I do not think it has huge effect, it is a way for fans to expess what they are thinking of this (it had effect on IMS and Trump).
If its kept from too much rant and gives some clues as to what fans do expect, it might be very good.
I bet Newscorp has people monitoring that page to get some tips on how to approach the fans, at that is exactly what their strategy to get more out of it means.
I think is formulated a bit too much just against on the idea it will be a move to pay-per-view. I would really hate to see F1 going ppv, but then again, I expect these companies to have a bit brighter ideas than just that for making money.
snowman
6th May 2011, 10:08
So what if CVC is actually evil?? With them in control EVERYONE with a TV in Britain and Ireland anyway, dunno about the rest, gets to see F1 race, practice sessions, qualifying all live and even classic grand prix’s on run up to F1 weekend with NO ADVERTISMENTS! We have an hour preview and hour review with every race.
What exactly needs improved??
– we want loads of advertisments most likely at key race moments
– we want to have to buy a sky dish
– we want to pay a sky subscription
– we want to pay more for pay per view
– but most of all we want to take F1 away from the young kid growing up that’s parents won’t or can’t pay for sky.
PJ Tierney
6th May 2011, 11:03
In Ireland you need to buy a Sky/NYTL/Freeview-type box to watch BBC as it’s not broadcast natively over here.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th May 2011, 11:07
Sure, CVC is evil, they are in it only for the money! I never said that nor given any hints at feeling they are.
Great that the British and Irish coverage is as wonderfull as it is. Thanks for that BBC and licence payers. Just not all of the rest of the world is lucky enough to have that great coverage available for free.
Its probably available for most cable customers in the Netherlands as well as many European countries(they pay for cable). In other countries we have to pay for access to the BBC TV stations. And no legal possibility to acces the web feeds.
I do not know of many TV-stations who are both free access (apart from mandatory viewing payments, fees for digital tv, sattelite access etc) that do not have ads during the GPs in the rest of the world.
Therefore looking at the world in large, the BBC feed is a marvelous exception to a world suffering ads and questionable comentary quality, if indeed its possible to watch at all. Or having to pay for an extra sports channel to show it.
Lucky bunch you British (and Irish). Just don’t say all of us are as lucky snowman and tell me I have no argument. And be happy while it lasts.
What a new owner should be able to do a lot better, and what I was alluding to, is actually use the internet TV channels, access via mobile devices and combine it with track activities and demo runs to actively promote and get the sport to new customers worldwide.
snowman
6th May 2011, 11:27
BasCB, was Jay above who sounds very like he works for sky or newscorp saying cvc was evil!! PJ Tierney, I live in Ireland and get all BBC through aerial, only thing need freeview box for is red button practice sessions and forum after grandprix. Guess we are lucky but only few years ago F1 was on another free station that had advertisements and was a disaster.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th May 2011, 11:42
Ha, get it snowman. No hard feelings.
Personally I think the whole way the rights are sold will change in a few years. What’s the logic in selling country bound rights to companies broadcasting worldwide. But CVC with Bernie at its helm is not going to be the one thinking of these new concepts, I guess. Just look at the pathetical FOM website.
I know it won’t happen, but I would love it if BBC could give people from elsewhere acces to their content (probalby not for free though), as its really good quality.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
6th May 2011, 0:12
Was this in the days of aggregate qualifying? The rules have changes so much even in ten years it’s hard to keep track!
David-A (@david-a)
6th May 2011, 1:57
Aggregate qualifying returned in early 2005 but was quickly scrapped (thank god).
Icthyes (@icthyes)
6th May 2011, 9:41
There was definitely aggregate qualifying in the early 90s too.
Tim
6th May 2011, 13:19
No there wasn’t – there were two qualifying sessions, one Friday and the other Saturday. Grid positions were determined by the fastest time from either session.
Occasionally one session would be faster than the other (e.g. one wet and the other dry), so a driver failing to set a time in the faster session would have little chance of qualifying. This helped Rubens Barrichello to his first pole at Spa in 1994.
Scribe (@scribe)
6th May 2011, 0:29
Haaa, well then, first Horse Whisperer of the new season, an it’s a good. Moaning, dismissing well founded sources out of hand, xenophobic finger pointing and it’s own baseless speculation to dismiss others alleged speculation. I’ve missed it, really I have.
Also, when was the last time Jenson Button was ever linked with Ferrari? Possibly 2004? Are Ferrari interested or something?
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
6th May 2011, 1:47
I’ve never heard Rosberg or Webber linked to Ferrari either. I wouldn’t read anything into it, it seems to be the usual Ferrari nonsense
Scottie
6th May 2011, 3:05
maybe Biancchi got it off the whisperer?
Journeyer
6th May 2011, 3:17
Webber has been linked to Ferrari – as early as last year. But I haven’t heard Button or Rosberg.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
6th May 2011, 4:18
And like Webber, I think Button is a long shot. Probably longer than Webber even. Rosberg going there could be more believable, but still unlikely.
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
6th May 2011, 8:26
Rosberg was linked to Ferrari in the latest Autosprint in Italy.
kowalsky
6th May 2011, 12:28
interesting! if autosprint says something about ferrari is usually right. Unless they were talking about several driver linked to the italian team.
But being at mercedes, it’s hard to believe he would switch.
He is flying now in p2, and the german car seems to be on the pace.
Tom
6th May 2011, 16:13
I think RBR will be after him too
BasCB (@bascb)
6th May 2011, 6:22
I found it a bit tame this time. Must be feeling sick then :-D
Pretty sure I heard nothing about Button, safe him feeling fine at McLaren. Rosberg was apparently approached by Ferrari to see what the options were, but Nico apparently made clear he was not interested.
topdowntoedown (@topdowntoedown)
6th May 2011, 10:39
I know I said Button was mad to go to McLaren – and he’s proven me wrong. But he’d be a lunatic to go to Ferrari. :D
kowalsky
6th May 2011, 14:20
and it could prove you wrong a second time. Yo must agree.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
6th May 2011, 9:42
Trying to talk up interest as no-one good really wants to go there at the moment, perhaps?
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
6th May 2011, 1:45
Even though technichally the words all make perfect grammatical sense, every team I read the Horse Whisperer I get the feeling that something has been lost in translation!
US_Peter (@us_peter)
6th May 2011, 4:20
I get the same feeling, though I don’t think it’s lost from Italian to English, I think it’s lost between brain and mouth. Or maybe in this case it’s lost between brain and keyboard.
ajokay
6th May 2011, 8:54
Either that, or the only thing that the horse whispers is brown stories
King Six
6th May 2011, 10:56
Sometimes it feels like a work of literary genius, full of metaphors and all that mysterious stuff that means other stuff. But it also has that badly translated quirk to it, I’d say it’s abit of both.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
6th May 2011, 11:09
You’re far too generous. It’s a load of self-indulgent tripe.
If I wrote as badly as that I’d get torn to shreds in the comments, and rightly too.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th May 2011, 11:45
Mostly it hilarilously badly written both from language use and the content itself.
You just have to laugh at it for wanting to cry at how a serious team can put something like that on line in the official website.
Mike
6th May 2011, 11:01
What annoys me is he’s trying so hard to sound mystical he finds it impossible to call his own team by it’s actual name…. The red team… Bah! That’s how five years olds recognise it.
NW
6th May 2011, 19:42
I wonder what did you read. You can find “Ferrari” twice in the text when you say the author finds impossible to write it. Also there is no “red team” in the text (it does say “the Red car” once). Anyway, it’s true that voluntary blindness is an incurable disease.
sato113 (@sato113)
6th May 2011, 1:46
i think it was better before because you could predict rain for qualy and enter a longer, more unique pole time…
US_Peter (@us_peter)
6th May 2011, 4:25
Now the gap between the final practice session we see before the deadline, and the deadline itself is extremely short, whereas previously it was nice and long. People in some parts of the world will be at a disadvantage now, as they may not be able to watch FP3 live, and will have to make their predictions earlier than everyone else with less current information. I know I’ll be missing most FP3 sessions live during the European season, and I would imagine many Europeans will miss FP3 in a number of the flyaway race.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th May 2011, 6:25
But then again, there were quite a few of us who planned on updating their prediction before watching FP3, only to forget it until the session was running.
I think this is great, it gives a bit more time to enter your prediction and take in account some of the events in FP3 (watched live or just from reports). But yeah, I am from Europe.
bosyber (@bosyber)
6th May 2011, 8:11
Well said, feel much the same myself.
topdowntoedown (@topdowntoedown)
6th May 2011, 10:51
I just guess anyway, and always enter as my time the pole time from last year :)
US_Peter (@us_peter)
7th May 2011, 0:48
You might not feel that way any more when we reach some far Eastern fly aways.
Macca25
6th May 2011, 2:57
Restrictor plates aren’t used to level the field, there used to lower the speeds on the Super-speedways to reduce the risk of serious injury. They are only used at Dayton and Talladaga
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
6th May 2011, 3:16
Both Red Bull & Ferrari can exchange Massa with Webber between them.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
6th May 2011, 13:36
Well Webber’s not going to stand for being a blatant no. 2 is he?
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
7th May 2011, 2:32
I doubt he will take Alonso that easy,I want him to give Alonso a hard time in the team if that happens.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th May 2011, 6:26
Happy Birthday Elly. And the same to Brakius.
IDR
6th May 2011, 6:39
Happy Birthday also to Elly and Brakius!
verstappen
6th May 2011, 7:25
I can’t remember the Horse Whisperer being ‘allergic’ when there was speculation about Kimi. So I read his collumn as an endorsement for Massa.
AlexT (@alext)
6th May 2011, 9:51
1. If my memory serves me well, Keith posted just a few days ago an article about “driver market” on wich many of you speculated heavily about Massa being sacked if he doesn’t deliver this year and who is the most likely driver to take his place, although the subject seems pretty old to me and I’m sure for you too.
2. “Hamilton and Alonso are the best-paid sportsmen” – another “fresh article” which you can easily review.
3. I was reading just the other day on ESPN that Autosprint and Bild were suggesting that Rosberg could switch to Ferari from 2012.
All that said, the Horse Whisperer isn’t that far away from the truth as some of you think.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
6th May 2011, 10:37
The thing is, I don’t remember any serious speculation about Massa’s future before last year. He didn’t even race for half of 2009 and the majority feeling was that Raikkonen would be the one to leave!
Horse Whisperer’s usual Horse sh…enanigans
AlexT (@alext)
6th May 2011, 11:25
I didn’t quite get the 2006 starting point either, but in the end my statement was that they are not that far away from the truth
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
6th May 2011, 13:35
Agreed with Macahan’s COTD totally. I think many people are a little naive…and whether you like it or not the raft of changes brought to F1 at any time always make for interesting debates which is half the fun!
PJA
6th May 2011, 14:00
I don’t know if anyone has heard about this but Jaguar are planning to build a hybrid supercar with Williams
http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/91144
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13307919
kowalsky
6th May 2011, 14:23
schumacher was never a purist. He was not an f1 fan, until the very moment he entered it. So he is all for it, because it’s more fun, and he is having a lot of fun. Now he is getting closer to the front, and that must feel so good.
PeriSoft
6th May 2011, 16:04
Bleah. Schumacher’s massive fighting spirit in the face of certain mid-packery, after a career of domination, gave me huge respect for him.
This quote diminishes that considerably. I can only hope he’s being diplomatic.
His argument that it puts the ‘faster’ driver up front is immaterial. Racing is about more than that – if it was just about the faster driver, we’d do qualifying and be done with it. If you want to make a racing series that does that (Circuit rallying?) then fine – At least it would be honest about what it is. But whatever it was, it certainly wouldn’t be F1.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
7th May 2011, 0:51
He kind of contradicts himself. It’s like he’s saying the faster driver should be up front, but on the other hand, strategy is more important now. So which is it, the faster driver, or the more strategic driver?