Horner awarded OBE for services to motorsport

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In the round-up: Red Bull boss Christian Horner has received an OBE as part of the Queen’s Birthday honours list.

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Paul Lawrie & Christian Horner get OBEs in Birthday Honours list (BBC)

Christian Horner: “To be in the company of men and women who have achieved such great things for the country is something very, very special. This is right up there with what I have achieved in motorsport.”

Farewell Caberzon! (Ferrari)

Luca di Montezemelo: “The news of the death of Gonzalez saddened me greatly. Over all these years, he was always very attached to Ferrari and, as a driver and a man, he played an integral part in our history. His death means we have lost a true friend.”

Sam Michael admits the Canadian Grand Prix was a ‘brutal weekend’ for McLaren (Sky)

Sam Michael: “To be lapped by the top cars, that is probably the most important thing for us to concentrate on. We are still developing the car and it is responding, just not as fast as we had hoped.”

Derek Warwick open about challenges facing Silverstone this year (JAonF1)

“We’re struggling to keep up with our debt. We spent 42m on the circuit and the wing – so all we need now is for Lewis [Hamilton] and Jenson’s [Button] car to get quicker and that German driver [Sebastian Vettel] to go a bit slower – along with that Spanish driver [Fernando Alonso].”

VIDEO: Ron Howard’s Formula 1 film ‘Rush’ – New featurette (GeekTyrant)

“Go behind the scenes of Ron Howard’s great looking Formula One film Rush in this new featurette.”

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Comment of the day

News of the passing of Jose Froilan Gonzalez has been met with great sadness throughout the Formula 1 community. Reader @Fer-no65 remembers his own encounters with the Ferrari legend.

RIP Pepe?? :( such a sad day. A member of a golden era in our country’s motorsport history.

To think, also, that I met him plenty of times walking around his FIAT dealership near my dad’s shop. Always cheerful, willing to say hello to anyone.

You will be missed, Pepe.
@Fer-no65

From the forum

The British Grand Prix is up next on the calendar and F1Fanatics who will be attending this year’s event are planning their weekends here.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Plushpile and Jennikate Wallace!

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

Ron Flockhart was born 90 years ago today. He made sporadic appearances at races in the fifties and gave the Connaught team their only podium finish in a world championship race with third at Monza in 1956.

After F1 he turned his attention to setting aviation records but lost his life in an aeroplane crash in 1962.

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48 comments on “Horner awarded OBE for services to motorsport”

  1. all we need now is for Lewis [Hamilton] and Jenson’s [Button] car to get quicker and that German driver [Sebastian Vettel] to go a bit slower – along with that Spanish driver [Fernando Alonso].

    I don’t think he quite realises the magnitude of how stupid he sounds.

    1. Like a lot more cars would have to be slower……?

      1. @spinmastermic that and the use of “that German driver” and “that Spanish driver” – maybe it was just a joke, but he sounds incredibly ‘simple’ if you ask me!

    2. @vettel1 Maybe he was joking at the time, as with all written media, context is all important.

    3. @vettel1, it could well have been a tongue in cheek comment, but no doubt with a basis in truth, more importantly though I hope Silverstone will not be another of Bernies victims.
      @prisoner-monkeys claims I depict Bernie as a vampire sucking the lifeblood out of F1, that “lifeblood” of course is money, a read of Warwicks comments and the answers from the fans is pretty illustrative of that viewpoint and highlights the biggest problem in F1 today.

      1. LOL Alonso and Seb better watch out for nails on the track next weekend

        1. So if either Lewis or Jenson wins this Race , everybody will assume that the race was rigged to save silverstone and a show was put on to please people.

          If every race track can survive only if their countryman can win the race, it would be ridiculously shameful for F1.

          1. @tmax this was a joke without an ounce of seriousness, I just thought the way Warwick put things to be very funny

          2. If every race track can survive only if their countryman can win the race, it would be ridiculously shameful for F1.

            He really doesn’t sound like a visionary leader, does he? I’m not too sure if he deserves the benefit of the doubt, given the fact that he already made similar comments a few weeks ago. On a side note, he has a biased view against Vettel from the get-go.

      2. I depict Bernie as a vampire sucking the lifeblood out of F1, that “lifeblood” of course is money

        So why isn’t Formula 1 dead yet?

        the answers from the fans is pretty illustrative of that viewpoint and highlights the biggest problem in F1 today

        I agree entirely: the biggest problem is the fans who don’t understand and aren’t privvy to what happened behind the scenes, but nevertheless fashion opinions that the sport is surely doomed simply because they disagree with choices that have been made and claim they know they would do things differently if in a position of power. Take, for instance, the Sky-BBC deal. Everyone was up in arms over it, demanding to know why Bernie didn’t intervene and keep the sport on free-to-air television, given that Channel 4 expressed interest in acquiring the broadcast rights. The problem is that the contract between FOM and the BBC meant that in order for FOM to move the broadcast rights to another channel, the BBC had to give up complete control of the rights first. Since they held onto them to work the deal with Sky, FOM was powerless to act.

        1. Add to that the fact that despite what they promised, Channel 4 would have been a big step down in terms of coverage quality & they also don’t have the sort of budget required to really do F1 justice.

          One example is the interactive side. Both Sky & BBC have online/red button platforms to show the extra video feeds been put out by FOM (in-car, pit-lane, timing, driver tracker etc…), Channel 4 could not have carried these extra feeds.

        2. @prisoner-monkeys at his best, trawling a red-herring to direct attention away from the real problem. Evolution ensures that no successful parasite kills its host outright they just sicken and debilitate it but not beyond the point where they can no longer gorge themselves.
          PM claims “F1 is stronger than ever”, and here’s silly me thinking F1 was suffering a financial crisis, what with engine development being banned, teams and tracks going bankrupt and talented drivers losing their drive to make way for pay-drivers, all no doubt part of a strong, profitable, business plan.

      3. @hohum – Capital reference there I see.

  2. OBE?!? Services to motorsport?!?
    Horner did a lot of service to Red Bull, but he has probably brought more disservice than service to F1 itself.

    1. I don’t think you’ve quite seen the point (unless you’re joking): the award is more for outstanding achievement in the field, hence why Adrian Newey also has an OBE (you could argue he’s made F1 boring)!

      1. (you could argue he’s made F1 boring)

        They gave an OBE to Ross Brawn a few years back, so at least they are consistent in that respect.

    2. Previous to F1, he created and managed Arden, a team that he’s still principal of, and helped give many a driver a seat in the lower formulas. He then came into the paddock as the youngest team principal ever and took over RBR.

      On the basis of that, I’d say he’s done quite a lot for motorsport. His work in the lower formulas shouldn’t be overlooked.

      1. he’s done a lot for himself and his partners, but exactly what has he contributed to the sport? i’m inclined to say “nothing”

        1. @f1yankee that’s not really the point though: he’s left his mark on the sport, which is what he’s being credited for. Few could deny he’s been an excellent team principal.

        2. @f1yankee so are drivers. They only race for their team and themselves. But so many have been knighted. U can do a lot to the world by just working for ur organization

  3. Sam Michael: “To be lapped by the top cars, that is probably the most important thing for us to concentrate on. We are still developing the car and it is responding, just not as fast as we had hoped.”

    Is McLaren taking a Williams-esque nosedive? It wouldn’t surprise me, the car is a dog, the drivers line-up is average at best, and the management isn’t exactly getting any better either.

    1. @kingshark It is interesting to me that Sam Michael took over at Williams when they were going into decline, and here he has done the same thing with McLaren. I think that the Aussie is a great guy and seems to be popular, but it isn’t a good resume at the moment.

      1. @dragoll
        Williams were in trouble before Sam Michael took over – they hadn’t won a Championship since 1997, four years before they hired him, and their decline is far more likely to be a result of Adrian Newey leaving them to join McLaren.

        1. @beneboy
          Williams were still a strong championship contender in 2003, they didn’t really seriously decline until around 2005. The loss of BMW was the final shot in the arm.

          1. The similarities are all there. They both lose Newey, the both win a championship and stay relatively competitive for the next 5-6 years, until they lose their engine supplier and drift off into midfield obscurity.

        2. Williams troubles after 97 until 2001 where the result of engines. 2001 they got a powerful but fragile engine and benefited from having Michelin tyres (hence McLarens decision to switch to Michelin in 2002).

          Whitmarsh and Sam Michael are going to destroy this team.

      2. I like your superficial logic and I rise you a potato. You seem to conveniently forget all the other factors that came long before and that were way more important than him. Williams stuffed their partnership with BMW and that was the single most important factor. I’m not saying it was either Williams’ or BMW’s fault, but the fact is they went their separate ways and Williams struggled even more after that. Before that they lacked inspiration. After that they lacked funding, which is single most important thing in F1, sadly.

        1. And how many times have Ferarri been seen in exactly the same light, more than they want to remember, the success of Ferarris road car business is the only thing that has kept them in the game for so long.

      3. i beg to differ, I believe both Michaels and Whitmarsh don’t belong in modern F1

    2. They may have won hardly any championships in the last 13 years, but this is only one poor season out of the last 4. They bounced back in 2009 mid-season. Even if they don’t do the same this year, they will recover next year.

  4. I must admit I’m very disappointed that Keith paid no attention to the fact James Hunt died 20 years ago yesterday. If that didn’t deserve an article I don’t know what does.

    1. Considering the pre-occupation with the movie Rush it is a surprising omission, sadly hardly a day would go by if we marked every anniversary of the death of every F1 driver, Hunt at least managed to survive the racing.

    2. @roald there was a link to an articlein yesterday’s round-up but I’m guessing the focus was on Gonzalez – two people is too much death possibly!

      1. I think that will be part of it, yes. Keith has mentioned a couple of times that he does not like to make the “what happened” part of the roundup fixed on deaths (people went as far as to complain about not mentioning Senna’s death a couple of weeks back)

    3. Shed-loads of articles about him have appeared in the last couple of days. Why do you need another one?

      It’s sad to see so many of them are by old journalists settling scores with a man who cannot reply, or inflating their own egos by writing “I said this and this and this to James, and he didn’t disagree”. Not quite the same as him saying it himself…

  5. The Stig… in an #F1 car. That is all. @TopGearFestSA pic.twitter.com/4bs3RQ3VN3

    — Top Gear Live (@TopGearLive) June 15, 2013

    What’s Schumacher doing in a Red Bull? He is The Stig, isn’t he?

    1. hahahahahha nice one

    2. I would think it is Coulthard. He has been on Top Gear a few times but he has never done a lap. He also works for the BBC.

  6. Derek Warwick ;)

  7. Managed to meet Ant Felix da costa at top gear SA last night

  8. Re: Farewell Caberzon

    It’s actually Cabezón (big headed, stubborn)

  9. Horner isn’t universally liked, but I say well done to him. He has helped turn the old Stewart/Jag team in Milton Keynes into an extremely successful outfit employing many many people in the UK, both directly and indirectly.

    I agree with a lot of people here, in that he can be a hard to character to warm to (for example with the RRA abstention…I still hate that!), however that shouldn’t diminish from his achievements that have been rightly recognised.

    1. I would say Ron Dennis is not universally loved (nor is Ross Brawn really) either, so Horner is in pretty good company there @john-h!

      Personally I am not too sure its the right way to hand these kind of things to people still in their active careers, and its a bit inconsistent that some of the sports heroes have gotten them, but some who would deserve it never did. But otherwise I think Horner is as suitable as any of the others that got them in the past.

  10. They are giving OBE’s to just about anybody these days. Getting one is about the same as me claiming I got a toy with my happy meal.

    1. Not quite: I would expect there to be less than 1% of the British public whom have an OBE – it’s actually quite a big deal!

    2. Or a kinder surprise that’s something with a flywheel in it (the best kind). Actually, that never happens anymore :(

      1. @john-h I used to get kinder surprises all the time, but now they are essentially just expensive rubbish :/

  11. Derek Warwick sounds so dumb with that comment about some German/Spanish driver!

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