Murray Walker diagnosed with ‘mild’ form of cancer

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In the round-up: Iconic British Formula 1 commentator Murray Walker has revealed that he has been diagnosed with a treatable form of cancer.

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Murray Walker: F1 commentator diagnosed with cancer (BBC)

Murray Walker: “They’ve caught it incredibly early. It’s treatable, the doctors say my condition is mild and I’m very hopeful.”

Pirelli warns blocked tyre changes will mean four-stop races (Autosport)

Paul Hembery: “We would have needed to change the hard compound to avoid that, but to do that we would need the agreement from all the teams and we know that is not going to happen.”

145 British Grand Prix tickets leave sales in the slow lane as fans rebel against price rises (Independent)

“The cheapest tickets for next’s Sunday’s race at Silverstone start at 145 – among the highest of any Grand Prix. This appears to have priced out many F1 enthusiasts as the downturn bites, with a course spokesman admitting to The Independent yesterday that sales "aren’t that strong."”

Ellinas to make test debut with Marussia this week (F1.com)

“Ellinas will conduct a scheduled straight-line aerodynamic evaluation with the team at the UK’s Kemble Airfield on Tuesday.”

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff says team ‘can do no more’ ahead of Testgate Tribunal hearing (SkyF1)

Toto Wolff: “On Thursday the judgement comes and we will see whether we can live with it. We have no feelings, neither a positive nor a negative. Our belief is we have done nothing wrong.”

Jenson Button says women will drive in Formula One again (Guardian)

Jenson Button: “It is possible. The big issue is that I don’t think women are given the opportunity at an early age. There are a couple of women racing in Nascar, have actually won races. I think it will change over the years, get women in [at] lower levels but it is a very demanding sport. It is specific training and taking time to get race fit. I personally think it’s possible.”

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After news that Williams stand to lose 20m after Jaguar pulled the plug on a joint supercar project, F1Fanatic reader @Colossal-Squid has sympathy for the Grove team.

Terrible to hear of more bad news for Williams. Not only are they having the worst season in their history but 20m isn’t exactly pocket change for their organisation either. I really hope Williams can find some success and soon. I can’t imagine F1 without Williams, and I equally can’t imagine that a team as big as Williams can survive long while losing both on the track and off it.
@Colossal-Squid

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On this day in F1

Denny Hulme, the 1967 world champion, was born on this day in 1936.

Hulme lost his life when he suffered a heart attack while competing in the Bathurst 1000 in 1992. At the age of 56, he was the first Formula One world champion to die of natural causes.

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66 comments on “Murray Walker diagnosed with ‘mild’ form of cancer”

  1. I hope Murray gets well soon.

    I dont mind seeing 4 stop races if it means they will not change the game (tyres) mid-season. I’d rather a team win it for the car they built than win it because the dice was re-thrown.

    1. I’d much rather they change the tyres because, Not so much because we could see more 4-stop races (Although I do think 4-stop races suck), But more because the tyre management seen with the 2013 tyres is just making the racing no fun to watch.

      Seeing & hearing all the drivers been told to run to a lap delta, To slow down, To not race etc… is just boring to watch as a fan & is a big part of why I no longer watch all the races live, Its also a big part of why im not going to Silverstone this year having gone every year for the past 20+ years.

      The 2013 tyres are just plain junk, Have killed the racing & made the entire sport a complete joke.

    2. @joshua-mesh, You mean win it with the tyres that were built, the teams built their cars without knowledge of the tyres just as Pirelli built tyres without knowledge of the cars, either way its luck more than skill that makes a car that suits the tyres right out of the box.

      1. @hohum The teams did test the 2013 tyres in Brazil at the end of last year, so they should at least have had an idea of what the tyres would be like.

        It’s not Pirelli’s fault the teams didn’t design the cars with the tyres in mind.

        Also, have you ever thought of becoming a Formula 1 Technical Director since you seem to know everything about how to make a car suit the tyres?

        1. Yes the 2013 tyres were tested……on 2012 cars

        2. @andy190, If I did know that my fortune would be made!
          Does anyone out there think that all 4 compounds run at the same temperature on the same Tarmac at the same temperature ? I certainly don’t.

      2. Lotus mentioned that they went from the data supplied by Pirelli before september 1st last year @hohum, I do not think its just luck, but rather making the right choices (you could say that is luck, but then being the first with other things – F-duct, exhaust blowing, flex FW that pass tests, etc, is also a lucky choice)

      3. @hohum +1! The test tyres in Brazil were just that – test tyres. They weren’t a finalised compound and there only was one compound. Data is all well and good from a third party but it’s far better to have proper data on your own car. That’s why I consider it luck of the draw: I’d most definitely not have that opinion if Pirelli actually gave the teams finalised tyres to test well before the end of the season!

  2. Sad news about Murray.

    Here’s one of my favourites of his commentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQC06fWqEn4

    1. ShaneB457 (@shaneb12345678910)
      18th June 2013, 0:51

      Yes, Lets hope it’s a speedy recovery. Here’s my favourite moment – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxAEFEEo-Bo

    2. All the best on your recovery Murray. Our thoughts are with you!

    3. Watch the end of the video, he is clearly a big fan of Mika Salo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuLimB91NOo

  3. Even “mild” cancer can be terrible and terrifying at age 89, I would imagine, and I hope this doesn’t become more serious for Murray Walker. What a legend. Legend

  4. Call me ‘naive’ but why can’t we just have tyres that last lap after lap and bring back refuelling. Limit the cars to a certain sized tank. Therefore cars still have to pit for tyres and fuel but driver can race 100% from star to pit stop to end..

    Can’t be THAT hard can it ;)

    1. Refueling coming back would be awful for the on-track racing as it would just move fuel strategy above on-track racing & move all the passing into the pit lane & off of the track, Just as it did before.

      Overtaking stats plummeted as soon as refueling was introduced in 1994 & went back up as soon as it was banned in 2010. The stats show just how badly refueling hurt the racing.

      1. I’d prefer it if they went back to the way things were in 2010, with decent tyres, but with no EBD/DDD, DRS or KERS. I don’t hate F1 as it is or anything, but that would be my ideal. Also the overtaking stats mean little to nothing for excitement. They’re higher than ever, but a lot of the quality of that passing is low. It should at least be pretty difficult to overtake.

        1. I think I agree with that.

        2. And I forgot to mention that the mandatory pitstop should be removed.

    2. That’s what we had during the Schumacher era, it was boring. That’s why they changed it in the first place.

      1. I would just like to see wheel to wheel racing from start to finish at every race. How to achieve that though is probably quite difficult. Every time someone has an idea, someone else brings up a valid point that nullifies it.
        From what I can see, if we want truly exciting racing, that would mean sacrificing driver safety, and while the drivers themselves might say they are okay with that, society in general would be against it.

    3. I’d rather we went back to no pit-stops as we had in the 60’s and 70’s , Moto GP shows how it should be done.

    4. From a safety standpoint, it is good to not have refueling.

    5. So you would change artificially making stops from the tyres going off for having a stop to refuel? I really fail to see the added value of that @nemo87.
      Drivers will still be told to hold position, to slow or to speed up reacting to what the engineers see in the data, and they will still try to eke out a stop less by driving more fuel efficient if they can.

      Personally I think its good to have tyres that do not last all the race, but before I would go with your proposal, I would prefer what @hohum below proposes by far.

  5. Please please be OK Murray.

    I assume that British GP ticket is Sunday only general admission? Absolutely ridiculous but then the escalator in the contract they signed along with getting the new facilities paid off means this will probably be the norm unless they renegotiate. I’d be in the car on my way to a camp site near Spa with a three day ticket rather than pay those prices.

    1. It’s the inevitable result of dealing with Bernie.

  6. I really would hate to be Pirellie right now.
    They’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

  7. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    18th June 2013, 1:40

    Jenson, Stirling Moss wants to talk to you

    1. @omarr-pepper I predict a hefty phone bill…

  8. – I came here for a good argument!
    – AH, no you didn’t, you came here for an argument!

    Serves me right. All this silly talk and even sillier suggestions. As someone pointed out some time ago, you don’t have a right to demand anything. You can turn off TV if you don’t find F1 amusing and don’t want to watch it, but I think the worst thing F1 could do is to listen to fans.
    Unless it is some extremely thorough and careful global market research, done with an aim to improve the F1 as it is, not to change it in order to improve its global reach, it will only make it worse.

    1. Listening to fans is probably what created the current formula of artificially creating overtaking opportunities.

  9. indeed, i dont think the nhs gets the credit it deserves. millions of people owe their lives to the organisation. best wishes to murray though.

  10. Zantkiller (@)
    18th June 2013, 3:02

    The combined price of mine and my little brothers general admission tickets for Spa were £114.
    So no wonder people are turning away from going to Silverstone.

    1. @zantkiller – does the cost of getting to Spa vs. getting to Silverstone, + local transport, food and lodging even it out at all for a UK-based fan?

      1. At least you can see free practice and don’t drawn in your camp site.

      2. Zantkiller (@)
        19th June 2013, 0:15

        I don’t know the camping prices for Silverstone but mine for Spa were £137 which I think might be cheaper.

        Those £145 tickets were sunday only, mine were weekend tickets. (Little brother who is 14 cost only 20 euros for the weekend).

        So overall I think it might actually be cheaper to get ferry and drive to Spa.

  11. Get well soon superstar champ Murray

  12. This appears to have priced out many F1 enthusiasts as the downturn bites…

    @keithcollantine – Do Most / Few / None of the current FIA Formula 1 championship race promoters make profit on their events?

    1. I am pretty sure none have a positive balance (if you count out state subventions) and the best of them run at about break-even level.

      1. They do the hard work, Bernie harvests the gold.

        1. @losd, they and the teams!

  13. “Pirelli warns blocked tyre changes will mean four-stop races”

    Well this is until Hungary, I expect. I think Hembery just wanted to warn people for what’s probably going to happen at Silverstone.
    Pirelli have been really pushing for the implementation of a tweaked hard compound as well. After testing the development hard tyre at Montmelo drivers confirmed that the new compound was at least more durable than the Medium compound. My fear is that Pirelli hasn’t got enough confidence on the current hard compound to survive the lateral g’s of Hungary even, let alone the barrage of high lateral G tracks from that point onwards.

  14. Οh, no! Very sad news, get well soon!

  15. why didnt williams fight tooth and nail to keep their exhausts like ferrari or red bull would of ??

    instead they just laid down and accept it and probably wasted a fortune.

    1. not sure what you are talking about there q85.

      If you mean the gimmick on the exhaust exit during pre-season testing, that was not something Williams ever intended to use. Its purpose was more to both attrackt attention to it, and away from the blowing hubs, and to have the FIA clear position on these kind of things to make sure teams would not go the route Caterham were trying there.

  16. If i saw sunday general admission tickets for 60 pounds or a seated ticket for 80 id snap one up and attend. But charging a small fortune really does price us out. And that upsets me.

  17. To be honest, Silverstone ticket prices have always been astronomical if you miss the earlybird rates. No one is mentioning it, but might it be the Sky effect starting to creep in? The downturn is 5 years old now so I’m not sure its because of that specifically.

    1. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
      18th June 2013, 9:08

      Sky effect? No, I call it the “Vettel effect” or even “the-effect-of-British-fans-realizing-that-Hamilton-isn’t actually-as-good-as-his-first-two-years-would-suggest effect”.

      1. “or even “the-effect-of-British-fans-realizing-that-Hamilton-isn’t actually-as-good-as-his-first-two-years-would-suggest effect””

        Your not really that stupid, are you?

        1. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
          18th June 2013, 13:40

          No, it’s called s a r c a s m or being f a c e t i o u s. I’d Google them first if I were you before you try and quote them back to me.

          1. You must be new to the intarnets, sarcasm dosnt convey in words.

          2. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
            19th June 2013, 8:37

            I am new to the intarnet, but I have used the internet before. Surely if sarcasm is so blatantly overt, it is apparent to even the most hopeless, unperceptive, wide-eyed wonder? Do you spot it? Oh no, you didn’t did you.

  18. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    18th June 2013, 9:03

    sales “aren’t that strong.”

    Yes! Not as many people to compete for Alonso’s autograph with!

  19. Well first of all get well soon Murray.

    But I have to say the tickets at Silverstone are very expensive.
    I and a friend of mine go to the GP at the Nurburgring in a few weeks time.
    We have weekend tickets for standing places in front of the chicane, and they cost us £76 per person (89 euros).

    Furthermore we sleep at a camping for £60 (70 euros) per person, including parking the car.

    So for the whole weekend we pay only £136.
    And even that is cheaper than the cheapers tickets at Silverstone

    1. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
      18th June 2013, 9:09

      I’m paying £840 for Silverstone…although the seats are rather first rate.

      1. I’m sorry, but that’s plain ridiculous. No three day sporting event is worth that kind of money if you’re anywhere near normal people income levels.

        1. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
          19th June 2013, 8:42

          @maciek – It’s incredible just how easily you can blow money on events. It’s not £840 just for me, two friends of mine are coming too, and it seems that I’ve been handed the bill. Once you’ve booked three decent hotel rooms and got a respectable hospitality package, it could easily have exceeded £1000.

          1. I guess we can only congratulate you on being able to field that bill then @willaim-brierty!

            Have a great time at the Silverstone race

  20. Lucas Wilson (@full-throttle-f1)
    18th June 2013, 12:01

    @William-brierty

    I almost chocked on my own spit when I read that.

    1. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
      18th June 2013, 13:54

      The cash I’m forking out or my glee at the dwindling British GP tickets sale all for the sake of my own greed? Let’s leave my selfish nature as a topic for another day by saying, if you nearly choked when you saw the cost, guess how I feel. There’s me, ordering early, the very first week the tickets became available and, er yep, got rather carried away. I completely forgot about Mr Osbourne’s austerity as I was gleefully selecting my hospitality pack, apparently blind to the ever fattening figure in the right hand column of my screen, and now I feel rather idiotic. For the price of sitting in a field in Hampshire with a glass of champagne I could have gone to Monaco and sat next to the best track in the world with a glass of Appletiser. I mean, let’s face it, overtaking or no overtaking, you’d obviously choose Monaco! And let’s not even mention what I’ve selected for my summer holiday to Spa! I am the stupidest man alive; or the biggest petrolhead alive, either or. No more Waitrose and John Lewis for me this year, instead it’s Aldi and Ikea!

      1. Lucky William, I’m always an Aldi and Ikea guy.

  21. On this “secret” versus “private” Pirelli/Mercedes test, I don’t remember seeing any press coverage, even by the specialized F1 media — and I have a lot of respect for their ability to “snoop things out.” Can anyone point me to any coverage during the three days in question?

  22. i wouldn’t be surprised if astronomical ticket prices doom f1 in the states. COTA is asking for superbowl price points, and frankly the demand will taper off after a couple years – not because there aren’t f1 fans here, but because it’s tough to justify a massive spend like that over and over, and they aren’t doing much to generate fresh interest.

  23. Thought are with Murray Walker, one of the all time greatest motorsport contributors. £145 for Silverstone? Only a few years ago, well 7years its was £75. I used to go every year but since the steep increases I just cant justify it.

  24. Murray Walker ‘The Legend’ get well soon

  25. According to the WHO, the UK ranked 27 and the US 33, with life expectancies of 80 and 79, respectively. Albania ranked 77th with an wxpectancy of 74. This is a 2012 study which they say is more accurate than the previous studies including the 2009 CIA study, but who knows. My point was that using the life expectancies as your argument for why Mr. walker shouldn’t come to the US is, in my opinion, wrong because they’re not that different. Our murder rate alone drops us below you and that has zero reflection on the healthcare system. Also, were dealing with 5 times the population, making it more complex than simple WHO and CIA statistics. That said, I also think that saying Mr. walker should come to the US for treatment is also wrong. I’m not trying to debate the 2 countries healthcare, I don’t know anything about yours. Looks like they could both improve. Our issues aren’t really with the standards of the care provided and how long we live, they’re mainly financial and ‘for sure’ the system is corrupt. Luckily, we’re reforming our system. Lets talk in 5 years to see if it worked.

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