Tomlinson joins Toro Rosso design team

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: ex-Williams aerodynamicist Jon Tomlinson joins Toro Rosso’s latest new hire.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Toro Rosso snap up ex-Williams aero chief Tomlinson (ITV)

Toro Rosso have announced the arrival of former Williams chief aerodynamicist Jon Tomlinson to bolster operations at their Bicester wind tunnel.”

Renault vows to be more conservative (Autosport)

“Renault has vowed to take a more conservative approach to the car Kimi Raikkonen will race in his return to Formula 1 in the 2012 season.”

Robert Fernley: "I think they both did a fabulous job" (Force India)

"I think they both did a fabulous job. I think Adrian’s pass of Nico Rosberg in Brazil was excellent, and it just showed how he’s matured through the year. He had a very strong effort at getting past him, didn’t quite do it, backed off, took his time, and then made it stick the next time round. Maybe he wouldn’t have done that a year ago, so good for him."

Champions go head to head at RoC (Race of Champions)

“Formula 1 world champions Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button have been drawn together in the group stages for the Race Of Champions.”

The search for Rubinho’s heir (MotorSport)

“Barrichello’s reluctance to walk away smacks of that same spirit, of a greater love for the sport than for the win. There’s no harm in that. But pending win 102 is pressing. It might yet be Brazil’s most important since Emerson Fittipaldi opened its account in 1970.”

Youth charity wheels out F1 veteran (The Guardian)

“Princess Anne entertained celebs including ex-Formula One champion Nigel Mansell at St James’s Palace on Wednesday night at a bash celebrating the work of UK Youth, a charity that helps young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

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Comment of the day

Girts on the conspiracy theories over Vettel’s gearbox failure in Brazil:

Colin Vearncombe, aka Black, a musician from Liverpool, once tweeted this:

“Wondering if what really scares conspiracy theorists is the thought that maybe things are as unnervingly prosaic as they seem.”

As I was thinking about Vettel’s gearbox problem and the possible conspiracies behind that, this tweet came to my mind.
Girts

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to KateDerby and US Williams Fan!

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 Renault name will no longer be used to refer to an F1 team next year as the team becomes Lotus.

Ten years ago today the outfit was looking forward to the return of the Renault name and aiming for a top-three finish in the 2002 championship.

This seemed a lofty target for the team which, as Benetton, had finished only seventh in 2001. But Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli amassed enough points for Renault to end 2002 in fourth place.

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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52 comments on “Tomlinson joins Toro Rosso design team”

  1. “…so good for him, he can do it again in another team next year” ?

  2. Yay for you @Girts :D CotD… now if we can come back and talk about Massa and Hamilton´s hug… I think they are finaly acepting their feelings for each other… ;)

    1. I was thinking about the Lewis Massa rivalry & how it just does’nt make sense, and then just the other day I thought about < I think it was Sepang 07 and Massa made a bit of oops at turn 3, Lewis then passes him I think, then says after the race that he tricked Massa. Maybe this all goes back to that little battle.

    2. I think they are finaly acepting their feelings for each other

      They are merely exchanging long protein strands. If you can think of a better way to do it, I’m sure they’d like to hear it!

      1. I don´t know why that reads so dirty in my mind…

        1. It’s a quote from The Simpsons. I was expecting that there would be a YouTube video of it, but I can’t seem to find it.

          1. And once they collide again, they’ll be twirling, twirling, twirling towards armco.

          2. don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos.

          3. It doesn’t matter which one of them wins, either way we’re all doomed.

      2. I saw that episode yesterday @prisoner-monkeys! :D

    3. Hey @celeste , congratulations on your COTD, too! Looks like we’re on a winning streak :D

      For sure, it’s sooooo moving to watch both sweethearts together again. I wonder where they are going to spend Christmas? I think that Felipe might give Lewis a spare front wing as a Christmas present unless he thinks of something more romantic ;)

      1. @Girts Yes!!!! The romantic team is on a roll…lol

        Now that you mention it… Maybe SWITZERLAND… You know, snow, near to a fireplace… hot chocolate… soft lights or some candles… very romantic…

        I was thinking matching pair of tyres will be a nice gift… ;)

        1. @celeste Haha, I just think they might need to change the teams, Ferrari and McLaren are probably too conservative to tolerate this! :)

          1. @Girts I agree Ferrari Mclaren wont allowed it… they both should go to Force India, there both will be free to share their <3

  3. Here’s a picture of the Hamilton-Massa (partial) hug, they both seem happy. http://en.espnf1.com/brazil/motorsport/story/65747.html

  4. From the MSC v. BUT RoC link:

    Race Of Champions (Sunday December 4)

    Group A
    Filipe ALBUQUERQUE, DTM star and reigning ROC Champion of Champions
    Andy PRIAULX, three-time World Touring Car Champion
    David COULTHARD, winner of 13 Formula 1 grands prix
    Travis PASTRANA, four-time Rally America winner and X-Games legend

    Group B
    Mattias EKSTROM, DTM star and triple ROC Champion of Champions
    Martin TOMCZYK, 2011 DTM Champion
    Jan KOPECKÝ, three-time Intercontinental Rally Challenge runner-up
    Sébastien OGIER, winner of five WRC rallies in 2011

    Group C
    Michael SCHUMACHER, seven-time Formula 1 World Champion
    Jenson BUTTON, 2009 Formula 1 World Champion
    Brian DEEGAN, 13 X-games medals including Rally Cross gold in 2011
    Juho HÄNNINEN, 2011 S-WRC champion and 2010 IRC champion

    Group D
    Sebastian VETTEL, 2010 and 2011 Formula 1 World Champion
    Tom KRISTENSEN, eight-time Le Mans 24-Hour race winner
    Vitaly PETROV, Formula 1 driver for Lotus Renault GP
    Romain GROSJEAN, 2011 GP2 Series Champion

    1. One of these is not like the others

      1. Congrats on your future CotD!

      2. Mmm, yeah, he stands out like a sore thumb for his lack of success.

        That’s right. David Coulthard, you’re the only one who has already retired and never won the top honour in his discipline! :)

        1. Why didnt they just say “2002 Lada cup champion?”

          I have attempted to search for what exactly the Lada cup is, but have not really had any success. It looks a bit like a budget rally car experience championship.

          1. I think putting that would be almost patronising. They may as well put ‘came 2nd in a school talent show’.

    2. Race of champions live possibly for the uk only sorry if it is <3 freecaster

      http://uk.freecaster.tv/autosports/1018916/race-of-champions-2011

    3. To be fair, he is sitting in the current GP2 champions’ former seat, so he’s one up on somebody. And I’d rather be mid-field in F1 than top of GP2.

  5. There’s nothing wrong with Barichello’s scalp – if anything William’s should be looking for Maldonado’s hair!

    Oh, right, it says heir…. :D

    1. Epic. Just epic. :D

    2. @Calum HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA XD

    3. @Calum Dreadful. Absolutely dreadful ;)

  6. “Renault vows to be more conservative”?

    Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t sound like a winning attitude, Kimi or no Kimi.

    1. well, look what their “aggressive design” brought them this season.

      Considering their problems with the radical design of the R31, I can see why they want to be a bit more conservative.

      1. Not one ‘radical’ design paid off this year. Kudos for them trying though.

    2. It’s actually a bit funny that those teams who have gone wrong by being too conservative promise to be more radical next year (like Ferrari), while those who failed despite being innovative, say that they’ll be more conservative in the future.

      1. It’s all about trying to find the happy medium.

  7. Sutil should now talk either with Williams or with Caterham.

    1. @wasiF1 Why don’t people seem to understand that Trulli and Kovalienen are in Caterham?

      Sutil would be making a mistake to leave FI in my opinion…

    2. I think Sutil will join Williams, FI is expected to announce Hulkenberg and di Resta as their driver line-up soon, Bottas is going to be just the reserve driver and Raikkonen has joined Renault so it looks like Sutil is the best option for Williams and vice versa.

  8. “Renault has vowed to take a more conservative approach to the car Kimi Raikkonen will race in his return to Formula 1 in the 2012 season.”

    Last year they vowed to be more aggressive…

    1. And they were, it just didn’t work out which is a shame as the car had a lot of potential

      1. They overcompensated…

  9. Thanks for the recognition @keithcollantine

    I’d like to take the opportunity and dedicate this nice award to Colin ;)

    1. Thanks for the comment @girts, always nice to know about an independant thinker!

  10. Ferrari and Red Bull have quit FOTA, is this the end of F1 as we know it??

    http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96614

    1. That’s very important news! Incredible!

      1. Boy oh boy, where are the people who go on about RBR having a small budget.. haha.

        I think this is ridiculous and the FIA should sanction some sort of compulsory resource restriction. F1 is the most expensive sport in the world, and having two pre-madonnas wanting to splash the cash just isn’t healthy.
        Especially seeing as a lot of the RRA regulations were major reasons for teams such as Virgin, HRT and Caterham to join the sport.

        1. Ferrari may be pre-madonna but Red Bull definitely is post 8)

    2. As soon as I saw that one, my heart sank for F1.

      This will mean Bernie probalby signs up both Ferrari and Red Bull to a nice deal 1st of januari and then goes ahead with his divide and conquer strategy to get his terms for the new concord agreement accepted.

      Oh, and be prepared to see Red Bull interpret the RRA libarally not to include some of their aero development, Ferrari to do more testing instead of tunnel work (or just add to it) and Mercedes start to rethink if FOTA is the right thing for them as well.

  11. A couple of things in the news at the mo, that I’m surprised haven’t made it in recent round-ups (apologies Keith if I’ve missed them, or you deemed them not worthy enough!).

    1. Vettel’s opening lap(s) pace – there’s been speculation as to just how SV manages to open up such a gap in the first few laps and it makes for intersting reading – if I can remember where I first read about it, I’ll post the link.

    SV’s tyre troubles on the opening lap of the Abu Dhabi GP got everyone wondering why and how. This led to speculation that RB (or certainly SV) were using hot exhaust gasses to heat the inside of the wheel rim and therefore the tyres. The thinking behind this, is that SV can then do a relatively slow formation lap, not needing to get heat into the tyres, all the while forcing everyone behind him to run slow and also not get heat into their tyres.

    SV is sat on the grid, waiting for the lights to go out, he’s got tyres up to temp and the other drivers don’t – consequently, when the lights do go out, SV pulls off into the distance whilst the others struggle around the first few laps until their tyres have reached optimum temp.

    Of course, this might all be nonsense, I don’t know, but it would certainly go some way to explain how SV’s first few laps see him stretch his lead so much – and why the others get up to his speed after x number of laps. If it’s true, that’s a pretty sneaky (but clever) way to get an advantage over everyone else.

    2. Ferrari and Red Bull have pulled out of FOTA due to problems with the RRA. Are we to assume this was simply down to Ferrari and RB wanting to spend more money than was agreed? Would certainly back up some of the paddock rumours during this season about RB over-spending.

    1. Interesting theory, could see it happening.
      However, I put it down to having the fastest car, clean air, and not losing any time in first lap or two defending or avoiding collisions. Who knows

      1. @timi

        Absolutely, it’s just a theory… not mine I hasten to add, though it does sound plausible. I guess the big question is why doesn’t Mark (Webber) benefit from the same set-up? Or does he have the same set-up?!! Only joking, I’m not opening up that debate again!

        It’s quite interesting looking at the formation lap for Brazil (the only race to occur after I’d read the article), SV does drive incredibly slowly… I’d quite like to see all formation laps when SV has been at the front of the queue.

        But yes, occams razor would suggest it’s just for those exact reasons you listed @timi.

    1. oh gosh I forgot the tag!

Comments are closed.