Sutil and Bianchi to test for Force India
F1 Fanatic round-up
In the round-up: Force India will run 2013 seat contenders Adrian Sutil and Jules Bianchi at this week’s test.
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Sutil and Bianchi in Force India test (Reuters)
“It’s not a shoot-out. It’s just two drivers helping the team with this week’s test. I don’t think it should be perceived as such, that’s not the intention.”
Red Bull assures Webber over equality (Autosport)
“Asked by Gazzetta dello Sport whether that meant Red Bull would put its full weight behind three-time champion Vettel, [Dietrich] Mateschitz insisted Webber would have a fair chance.”
CVC revs up for Formula One float (The Telegraph)
“Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is planning to float Formula One on the Singapore stock exchange in October and is targeting a valuation of more than $10bn (£6.45bn).”
Stoffel Vandoorne joins McLaren Young Driver Programme (McLaren)
“Having won the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship in 2012, he will step up to compete in the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship this year, driving for the successful Fortec motorsports team.”
BIC all set for 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix (Bahrain International Circuit)
“BIC hopes to come close to matching its biggest-ever turnout to the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend of 100,000 fans in 2010.”
Ferrari: the world’s most powerful brand (Ferrari)
“Ferrari took the number one spot of the top five most powerful brands in 2013 ahead of the likes of Google, Coca-Cola, PwC and Hermes on a list that includes the 500 most famous companies in the world.”
Tweets
The four-day Barcelona test starts tomorrow. Cloudy conditions forecast and Friday running could be lost to rain: bbc.co.uk/weather/3128760 #F1
— F1 Fanatic (@f1fanatic_co_uk) February 18, 2013
Hola! Guess where we are this morning? twitter.com/redbullracing/…
— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) February 18, 2013
Vuelta al cole..First day at school.. twitter.com/alo_oficial/st…
— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) February 18, 2013
Watching Grand Prix on TV right now. Love this film. Makes me so excited for Rush to come out.
— James Hinchcliffe (@Hinchtown) February 18, 2013
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Comment of the day
Has popular opinion in Melbourne turned against the Grand Prix?
People against the Australian Grand Prix will do anything. I love the Grand Prix but if the majority of people there didn’t want it, then I would think F1 should leave.
The problem comes when comes when people will say anything to get rid of it. It is ludicrous to suggest that it has a real effect on the water levels, and trying to pull on peoples heart strings by including people with disabilities into the argument is a bit of a desperate argument.
@Mike-The-Bike-Schumacher
From the forum
- @Portugoose on teams’ different Young Driver Schemes
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Phildick!
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On this day in F1
Eighties F1 hopeful Stephen South turns 63 today. South won the British F3 championship in 1977 and got his F1 break as a substitute for Alain Prost at Long Beach in 1980. But he failed to qualify and later that year was badly injured in a Can-Am crash at Trois-Rivieres.
Image © Force India
BradandCoffee said on 19th February 2013, 4:16
Maybe they thought Vandoorne was related to Vodafone.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 19th February 2013, 5:09
Or maybe McLaren thought that, since Vandoorne is the reigning Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 champion – which meant he beat Nyck de Vries, who is also in the McLaren Young Driver Programme (as well as Daniil Kvyat, who is a Red Bull driver; and Oscar Tunjo, who is supported by Lotus) – he is actually a talented driver. Have you seen his results? In the fourteen races of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, Vandoorne finished on the podium in eleven of them (and came fourth in two others), with four wins and six pole positions to his name. He contested seven of the twenty races in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, and won five of them, took a podium in another and started from pole position four times.
BasCB (@bascb) said on 19th February 2013, 7:28
Yes, it seems some of the fans now start looking for money rather than fast drivers as well. As you write, a team picking up a talented driver in their “to watch” squad can only be right @prisoner-monkeys.
DVC (@dvc) said on 19th February 2013, 5:39
I’m about to go and look them up, but I’ve never heard of Hermes before.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 19th February 2013, 5:50
@dvc – They’re a manufacturer and retailer of high-end fashion clothing. They’re particularly well-known for their scarves (Grace Kelly was a fan), perfumes and silk ties.
DVC (@dvc) said on 19th February 2013, 6:02
I don’t think my life is any better for knowing that. Thanks anyway.
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse) said on 19th February 2013, 5:58
Typical of a dictatorship to tell lies that are so blatantly untrue. Or did they count all the people protesting on the way to the circuit?
bag0 (@bag0) said on 19th February 2013, 6:48
@adrianmorse
In these statements they usually add up the 3-4 days of the event, so it is possible, if there were 15-20 thousand ppl/day. If I remember correctly last year the Hungaroring stated that there were 160-180 thousand, but they also said “over the weekend”.
BasCB (@bascb) said on 19th February 2013, 7:30
Yes, as @bag0 writes, most of the times tracks add up the numbers for thursday, friday, saturday and sunday to get a total number of visitors (counting you 4 times if you are there all days). Thats how Silverstone gets over 300.000 over the race weekend with a 160.000 sunday crowd.
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse) said on 19th February 2013, 8:27
@bascb, @bag0 I thought I remembered Mark Webber remarking after the race that there were hardly any spectators there; 15000 people would still be a noticeable crowd. Did anyone here attend the Grand Prix?
I think for the moment I will stick by my statement. Even with some very creative bookkeeping (like counting all the people that work at the circuit), I don’t think there were that many people there.
LAK (@lak) said on 19th February 2013, 10:06
Yes I have been attending the GP every year, they do add up the people over the whole weekend. In the Bahrain GP the F1 Village is the most crowded area, something you all watching on TV couches miss.
HoHum (@hohum) said on 19th February 2013, 14:35
@lak, welcome back, all four of you.
HoHum (@hohum) said on 19th February 2013, 14:34
Don’t forget the security personnel .
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 19th February 2013, 6:55
I really can’t be bothered with Sutil. He’s so dull and uninspiring.
Funkyf1 (@funkyf1) said on 19th February 2013, 7:27
+1
HoHum (@hohum) said on 19th February 2013, 14:07
I guess it is not a subject people want to acknowledge, like global warming perhaps but here we are on page 2 and no-one has mentioned the financial state of F1 as listed in the Telegraph article. A basic summary of the facts show that for his own personal gain Bernie has imposed a $10Billion debt on F1 and the owners of that debt (Bernie included) are going to take a 10% ( $1 Billion)annual return on that money, that is $1B that F1 earns that the teams will get no share of.
What does that mean for us, it means pay drivers, restricted development of the cars and traditional circuits being priced out of business to make way for Tilkedromes in the desert and of course higher prices to watch F1 at the track and in the home.
bag0 (@bag0) said on 19th February 2013, 17:03
@hohum
Let him be dude, he wants a nice casket and ceremony, so he has to start saving for it.
But seriously: those are interesting numbers. In my opinion it wont change the situation mutch. F1 has been like that for a while now, earlier the teams payed from their own pocket, and looked for cheap but fast drivers, most notably Williams (Jones, Hill, Button, etc), but recently the teams decided to go with fast and stuffed drivers, so they wouldnt have to spend their own money on things like this. The beautiful thing in Formula 1 is that you can give any set of rules (sporting, technical, or financial, legit or not) to the teams and they will always find a solution as long as they want to be in F1.
HoHum (@hohum) said on 19th February 2013, 17:25
@bago, Yea, I guess HRT didn’t really want to be in F1.