Can you get Sky F1 for free?

I’ve had various emails on the subject of Sky’s 2012 F1 coverage in the UK along these lines:

I have discovered a site which allows you to watch all Sky Sports channels including HD for free! The site is: (link removed)

Please could I have your expert view, will they have Sky F1 HD as well when it is launched, and do you really think this is a solution?

There seems little point in pretending that the disappearance of half of this year’s races behind a paywall in the UK is not going to result in a massive increase in demand for and supply of illegal pirate streams.

But the mass sharing of links to such sites usually ensures they have a pretty short lifespan. Be warned that they also tend to be choked with adverts and malware.

As regular readers will surely know by now, I believe the new arrangement will be bad for F1′s popularity. Legalities aside, I suspect trying to watch this year’s races via online feeds is going to be a frustrating experience as some sites get taken down and those that remain crash as they are hit by massive traffic spikes.

If you want to watch the ten races that aren’t on the BBC live on your TV, Sky F1 will cost £363 per year.

Readers on the forum have been exploring less expensive but still legal alternatives including Sky’s internet services and using a cheaper satellite service. See those threads for more information.

Alonso on Hamilton and Vettel

Recent stories about Alonso's views on Hamilton and Vettel weren't all they seemed

Rick wondered why a story he saw reported on some other sites did not feature on F1 Fanatic:

Very surprised that you have not reported Alonso comments this week regarding Vettel and Hamilton’s driving threat/prowess?

Was looking forward to people’s comments.

Following Ferrari’s Wrooom media event – the one where Alonso donned his natty new wig – some sites attributed quotes to him in which he allegedly described Hamilton as being “very fast, aggressive and totally focused” and Vettel having “not reached that level yet”.

However, as Joe Saward pointed out, these quotes were actually over a year old. What’s more, they’d been edited to disguise the fact they were 12 months out of date.

So remember where you read them, and bear it in mind next time you spot another ‘sensational exclusive’ on the same site.

Jarno Trulli in 2012

Joseph Miotello asks the question a lot of people are asking about Jarno Trulli:

Is Trulli definitely 100% confirmed as the second driver for Caterham?

The Trulli rumours are nothing if not persistent. First he was going to be replaced by Daniel Ricciardo. Now that Ricciardo is confirmed at Toro Rosso, Vitaly Petrov is being touted as Trulli’s replacement.

Caterham (then Lotus) announced in September last year that Trulli’s contract had been extended.

We all know that contracts in F1 are often not worth the paper they’re written on. But it’s one thing for a driver on a multi-year deal to be kicked out a year early – as Kimi Raikkonen was in 2010 – quite another for a driver to be given a contract for the coming season and then lose his place just five months later.

Caterham are due to reveal their CT01 in two days’ time and the first day of testing is two weeks away. If there’s going to be any pre-season changes to their driver line-up I’d expect an announcement very soon.

Going to F1 testing in 2012

Rubens Barrichello testing at Jerez last year

Are you going to any F1 tests this year? Darren is heading for the Circuit de Catalunya:

Just thought I would email you as me and three friends have booked to go to the final test at Catalunya on March 2nd, we’ve actually managed to negotiate a corporate deal that includes a grandstand view, pit walk, paddock walk etc… for £200 each.

It would be great to know who is going from the UK to the test and to find out if anyone has an tips or suggestions that we hadn’t considered. We fly on Thursday evening, spending Friday at the track, Saturday in Barcelona, flying on Saturday night.

If you’re heading to an F1 test session in 2012, join in the thread here:

• Going to testing in 2012

James is also considering going to testing:

I will be in Spain at the end of February and was thinking of going to watch the Barcelona test. It would mean a bit of a detour to my plans, and I was wondering what you thought about it?

On the plus side it seems cheap, and easy to get to from Barcelona. The problem I have is getting tickets seems a last minute affair, and I read it can be very popular with Alonso fans. Is there a chance it will sell out?

Also I was wondering about what access is allowed. I presumer the main grandstand is accessible?

I wouldn’t worry about the test selling out, though it does get busier on days when Alonso is expected to appear.

The main grandstand is usually open and gives an excellent view of the pits. However bear in mind this is testing so most teams will have their garages closed most of the time.

For those considering going to the test in Barcelona, Jordi Mateu from the Circuit de Catalunya has joined us on F1 Fanatic recently and may be able to help you with enquiries about attending testing there.

Quizzes

A question on F1 Fanatic Quizzes from Marc:

I really like the quizzes. They’re hard but it’s great to score some points from memory.

Even though you say, “Make sure you submit your answers before the timer runs out or your score will not count,” I often run out of time pondering over that one question that I know I know, but can’t think of at that moment.

If you scroll to the bottom of the screen, the timer is out of sight, you forget about it and the quiz is cancelled spoiling my result, even if I have filled in most of the questions.

Please make a small modification to show the timer always on the screen. Or even an duplicate timer at the bottom. Thank you!

I agree there’s room for improvement here and it’s something we’re working on at the moment. When the change is made I’ll make sure to let everyone know so keep an eye on the daily round-up.

An F1 race with no champions on the grid?

No world champions on the grid at Spa in 1994

We’ll end with a trivia question from Darren Smith:

Has there ever been a F1 season when there hasn’t been a F1 champion on the grid or when was the last race when there wasn’t a world champion on the grid?

The untimely death of Ayrton Senna in 1994 gave us the most recent series of races without a world champion on the grid.

Nigel Mansell, 1992 world champion, made sporadic returns later that year, including at the final three races. The last race without a world champion on the grid was the 1994 Portuguese Grand Prix.

Since then there has always been at least one world champion on the grid. This year a record six champions will contest the season: Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel.

There have been two seasons in which every race started without a world champion on the grid. These were 1950 – the first world championship – and 1959.

Since then, races without world champions have occurred in 1958, 1959, 1960, 1975, 1982 and 1994. But there has never been a race in which none of the competitors either previously won a championship or won one subsequently.

Got a question for F1 Fanatic? Send it in via the contact form. Please include your real name.

Your questions answered

• 'Sky for free', Alonso on Hamilton, Trulli in 2012 and races without champions
• Schumacher in the rain, surprise wins and visiting McLaren
• The driver who started an F1 race illegally
• Engine use in 2011, Button's Canada penalty and car numbers
• Fake winners, DRS and the manhole cover that stopped a race
• The engine situation with two races to go
• Your questions: "F1 2010", overtaking, pit lane penalties and more
• Your questions: Lewis Hamilton, F1 tickets and races in the snow
• Your questions: Most champions in a seasons and Massa's team mates
• Your questions: anthems and Glock-gate

Images © Red Bull/Getty images, Pirelli, Williams/LAT

McLaren Technology Centre

It’s time to tackle another clutch of correspondence from the F1 Fanatic inbox.

The latest crop of questions include how to get a tour of the McLaren Technology Centre, going to the Indian Grand Prix, and some interesting trivia topics.

Here’s the latest selection of your questions answered.

McLaren Technology Centre tours

First up, a couple of questions from McLaren fans:

I’m the girlfriend of a ridiculously huge McLaren fan. At the end of September we’ll be in Paris and I wanted to surprise him by taking the train to London where I was hoping to take him to the McLaren Technology Centre.

Would you happen to know any information about visitors being allowed in? Or even if there’s anything else that a huge McLaren fan would enjoy in London? I’ve tried looking up info on their homepage but there is no one to contact!

Thank you so much for your help.

Kind Regards,

Jessica

My son Steve is 21 on the 6th of October and has been an absolute fanatic of F1 since he was five and can tell you about any lap in any race over the years.

He seems to know everything about every driver and car in F1. He’s a great lad, I think I know what the answer is going to be, but would it be possible for him to have a look around the McLaren site. I know it would be a great day for him.

Warm regards

Tony Hampton

The McLaren Technology Centre is a stunning building, the nerve centre of their racing operation, and showcases many of their great F1 and other racing cars.

Tours are arranged on a limited basis and to have the chance to go on one you need to become a ‘Tier 2′ member of McLaren’s Membership Programme. A 12-month ‘Tier 2′ membership costs £50 for an adult, £60 for a pair of adults, and £10 for children.

Find out more about McLaren’s Membership Programme here:

• McLaren Membership Programme

Are you a member of McLaren or any other team or driver fan clubs? Tell us about them in the comments.

Television graphics

Olle has some thoughts on how F1′s television coverage compares to NASCAR:

I just read your article regarding radio traffic during the races. I also would like to complain about the graphics.

Watch a NASCAR race and you know what I mean. There you can see a banner that shows the gap in real-time. In F1 a list rolls a couple of times/race and is updated maybe once. Sometimes in NASCAR it is shown with arrows to a pair of cars that shows gap, speed etc…

In F1 it feels like Christmas when the graphics is shown with gear, revs, throttle, brake etc… The broadcast from F1 feels a bit ’80s, sad since F1 is presented as a hi-tech sport.

Olle Hildebeck

I agree that F1 hasn’t explored the possibilities for television coverage nearly as well as NASCAR has. Remember that NASCAR began its high definition broadcasts in 2005 – F1 has only had it since this year.

It is worth bearing in mind that NASCAR races generally take place on ovals that are much shorter than F1 tracks which means they need less equipment to cover them in the first place.

But even so they make far better use of features such as split-screen coverage which F1 is crying out for.

We have started to see some new information on the screens this year including useful information like DRS activation and which tyres drivers have used.

Personally I would not like to see the screen cluttered up with too much information. But there is much unexploited potential in using the internet to supply the kind of real-time information that fans want to see such as car data, more detailed timing and, of course, real-time radio broadcasts.

Some teams like McLaren and Mercedes already offer this on their websites.

F1 emissions

Steve wants to know what steps are being taken to reduce emissions in F1.

Keith, I’m having a discussion with several people on our Austin American Statesman news paper here in Austin about CO2 and Formula One cars. They quoted that Jenson Button’s car would emit over 50 tonnes of CO2 during the season.

I did a little research and found that they had quoted a 2007 story from The Guardian. I still want to prove that F1 is carbon neutral and emits less now than then. Do you have any links that I might be able to use?

Thanks,

Steve Calvert

In 1997 the FIA began purchasing carbon credits from the Fonfo BioClimatico project in Mexico to offset the CO2 produced during a Formula 1 season (see this PDF report). This pays for the planting of trees in a forest in Chiapas.

However work is also being done on the more pressing task of reduce the emissions that are produced in the first place. Last year the Formula 1 Teams’ Association said it would reduce its emissions by around an eighth by 2012.

This includes more than just the tailpipe emissions from the cars, which are dwarfed by the volumes produced in transporting the F1 cavalcade around the world and powering the teams’ factories and wind tunnels.

At the end of last year McLaren was awarded the Carbon Trust standard for measuring and reducing its emissions. They reduced their CO2 output by 1,500g tonnes per year, the equivalent of running their wind tunnel non-stop for seven months.

Watching the Indian Grand Prix

Here’s an F1 Fanatic who’s planning to go to the inaugural Indian Grand Prix.

Hello Keith,

A long time reader of F1 Fanatic here! I am planning to go to my first F1 Grand Prix this October in India. The tickets have just been made available but I was wondering which stand should I go for? Do I prioritise heavy breaking zones or do I look for a birds’ eye view of multiple corners.

Chandrahasa Reddy

As always you’re best place to look for answers on questions like this is the race discussion pages. There are already some F1 Fanatics who are planning to go sharing thoughts on where to watch:

• 2011 Indian Grand Prix discussion

Find the race discussion pages for the other remaining races here:

• 2011 F1 calendar

Schumacher shines in the wet

David is testing my F1 recollection:

Michael Schumacher drove a race some years ago, it started to rain and everybody went in for wets except Schumacher who stayed out on his slicks, he drove really well keeping it on the road but the rest of the field were catching him, the rain stopped and they all had to stop again for slicks, Schumacher romped home miles ahead. Which race and year was it?

David Ashbrooke

I suspect the race you’re thinking of is the 1995 Belgian Grand Prix.

Schumacher started 16th on the grid after a rain-hit qualifying session. Title rival Damon Hill lined up eighth.

Halfway through the race Hill had risen to the lead and Schumacher had moved up to second behind him. But when rain fell Hill pitted for wets while Schumacher stayed out on slicks.

Hill caught Schumacher who defended his lead vigorously – earning a one-race ban, suspended for four races, after making contact with the Williams.

Hill eventually gave up and returned to the pits for slicks. Schumacher won while Hill passed Martin Brundle for second place on the final lap having been delayed by a penalty for speeding in the pits on one of his many visits.

Surprise winner

Here’s another F1 history question from Pete Johnson.

Keith,

When do you reckon was the last genuine surprise winner of a Grand Prix? My definition of a surprise winner would be someone who wasn’t from one of the top teams form-wise for any given year. For example this year for me a surprise winner if it happened now, based on results so far for this year, would come from say Mercedes or Renault and then any of the others further down in the points.

Perhaps Button’s win in Hungary was the last one? Button’s first win for Brawn in 2009 wasn’t really a surprise as testing gave a few major clues as to the way things may turn out for the year.

Anyway I reckon F1 is way overdue for a ‘surprise winner’!

Cheers,

Pete Johnson

You could make a case for two of Button’s wins – his maiden triumph with Honda in 2006, or that memorable victory for Brawn in the first race of 2009.

But I would say the last true ‘surprise win’ was Giancarlo Fisichella’s for Jordan at Interlagos in 2003.

Of course he wasn’t declared the winner on the day – the trophy was incorrectly given to Kimi Raikkonen, and only later was the mess sorted out.

That rather took the shine off what was a fabulous maiden win for Fisichella and the last for Jordan and Ford-Cosworth.

Private messages

Let’s wrap up with a question about the site from Anagh.

Hi,

I was just wondering why isn’t there a facility to send private messages to other members of the site? It’d be nice if there was some way of sending PMs to other members. Or is there one and I don’t know about it?

Thanks,

Anagh Desai

I always like to see readers using the site to arrange to meet up at races and other events. Usually that means there comes a point where contact details have to be swapped.

At the moment there isn’t a means of doing that privately via the site. This is one of several features currently under development for the site which I hope to introduce soon. As you’d expect, it will only be available for registered users.

There are several other improvements to the community side of things in the pipeline. At the moment I’m not able to say when they’ll be ready to go on the live site but a lot of work is being put into this at present.

Got a question for F1 Fanatic? Send it in via the contact form. Please include your real name.

Your questions answered

• 'Sky for free', Alonso on Hamilton, Trulli in 2012 and races without champions
• Schumacher in the rain, surprise wins and visiting McLaren
• The driver who started an F1 race illegally
• Engine use in 2011, Button's Canada penalty and car numbers
• Fake winners, DRS and the manhole cover that stopped a race
• The engine situation with two races to go
• Your questions: "F1 2010", overtaking, pit lane penalties and more
• Your questions: Lewis Hamilton, F1 tickets and races in the snow
• Your questions: Most champions in a seasons and Massa's team mates
• Your questions: anthems and Glock-gate

Image © McLaren

No illegal starters on F1's last visit to Hockenheim

I’ve had many emails complaining about Red Bull’s team orders at Silverstone.

There’s nothing I can do about that. But hopefully I can answer some of your other questions.

Here’s the latest batch.

Hans Heyer’s illegal start

Let’s start off with a history question from Ponas:

I know that there was one German who started an F1 race illegally, but sadly that’s pretty much all the information I know about him.
Ponas Myznius

It’s fair to say that if HRT had ignored their failure to qualify in Melbourne this year and simply sent their cars onto the track, they’d have been handed a massive fine and probably thrown out of the sport.

But it didn’t deter Hans Heyer when he missed the cut for the 1977 German Grand Prix by four-tenths of a second.

Heyer, who had won the European Touring Car Championship three years earlier, was driving a Penske PC4 for Gunther Schmid’s ATS team.

The Hockenheimring had just taken over the from the Nürburgring as the home of the German Grand Prix. At the start, a problem with the lights caused widespread confusion. As the race finally got underway, no-one spotted Heyer’s Penske making its way out of the pits.

He completed nine laps before the gear linkage broke on the PC4 and he stopped. This was his only appearance at an F1 race weekend. Whether it should be counted as an official start is another matter entirely.

I’m afraid I don’t have a picture of Heyer (hence the rather generic image above). However his sole F1 race weekend appearance was captured for posterity by a camera car:

Metric vs imperial

I’d never considered this question from Arnols before:

Why are the onboard graphics (speed) in KPH and not MPH in F1?
Arnols Ansell

The teams have been working in metric measurements for some time – going back to the eighties and even earlier, the use of metric was widespread among most teams.

That is the case even here in Britain where, although metric measurements have been taught in schools for decades, imperial measurements are still widely used including on car speedometers and distance signs on roads.

But given that the teams work in metric, and Formula One Management’s graphics are used around the world, it makes sense for the onboard graphics to be in metric rather than imperial.

Dress to impress

Another unusual question from Amira:

If you please, what is the dress code for the Grand Prix event?
Amira

It depends where you’re watching from. If you’re lucky enough to be in the Paddock Club the dress code is ‘smart casual’.

At the other end of the spectrum if you’re in the stands you can wear pretty much whatever you want. At Silverstone the choice of top runs the gamut from modern team wear to faded Nigel Mansell Williams T-shirts to nothing.

Chipping in

Thomas hit trouble while trying to contribute to F1 Fanatic.

I’m from the US and I was wondering if could support F1 Fanatic using Amazon.com in the states. I click the link but it takes me to Amazon.co.uk and I’m just not sure how to do it.

If I can’t then no big deal, I’ll just have to set up a Paypal account and donate sometime. Thanks!
Thomas

F1 Fanatic users can support the site by shopping through the UK Amazon site:

• Support F1 Fanatic when you shop with Amazon

At the moment, I’ve not got a similar option set up for America or other countries, but I will look into it for the future.

In the meantime if you wish to make a donation you can do that very easily through PayPal.

• Donate to F1 Fanatic

As ever, sincere thanks to anyone who has helped contribute towards running the site. It’s sincerely appreciated.

Ker-ching!

Another question on the site from Lallan:

A very bad question to ask, but have you ever thought of selling off F1 Fanatic?
Lallan Yadav

Definitely not – what on earth would I do with my time if I did?

Predictions Champion

Lastly, it was great to receive this email from last year’s Predictions Championship grand prize winner. He won two tickets to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last week:

Hi Keith,

What a fantastic weekend! Great race and an absolutely superb view.

Particularly enjoyed Hamilton and Massa at the last corner, and also the classic comedy moment of Alonso chasing after the drivers’ parade truck – he got the last laugh though!

My son was enthralled by the whole experience – he’s been to BTCC at Knockhill with me before and loved it, but this was something else! He’ll be an F1 Fanatic for life after this.

Once again, thanks for everything!

Regards

Jim

If you want to emulate Jim and win a pair of tickets to next year’s race, add your entry here:

• Predictions Championship

Got a question for F1 Fanatic? Send it in via the contact form. Please include your real name.

Your questions answered

• 'Sky for free', Alonso on Hamilton, Trulli in 2012 and races without champions
• Schumacher in the rain, surprise wins and visiting McLaren
• The driver who started an F1 race illegally
• Engine use in 2011, Button's Canada penalty and car numbers
• Fake winners, DRS and the manhole cover that stopped a race
• The engine situation with two races to go
• Your questions: "F1 2010", overtaking, pit lane penalties and more
• Your questions: Lewis Hamilton, F1 tickets and races in the snow
• Your questions: Most champions in a seasons and Massa's team mates
• Your questions: anthems and Glock-gate

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

Here’s the answers:

How many engines drivers have used

Cosworth CA2010 engines

Skylar isn’t the only person to have written in with this question:

I noticed that last year’s statistics had a running count of how many engines each driver used. Will you be continuing that this year?
Skylar Wilson

The FIA limits how many engines drivers and teams can use during a season. If they use up their allocation too quickly they can get a penalty, so it’s important to know how many engines each driver has used.

However the FIA has stopped publishing on their site the details of how many engines each driver has used at each race.

I have made repeated enquiries to the FIA to obtain the data but without success.

The data we used to receive was quite limited in that it only showed when a driver had used a new engine – it did not show which engine was used at which race. The FIA said this information was kept confidential between it and the teams.

At the FOTA Fans Forum last year the teams were talking about giving more technical information to fans. This is exactly the sort of thing they should be sharing more, not less of.

Button’s drive-through penalty

Jenson Button, McLaren, Montreal, 2011

Tristan Cliffe asks by why Jenson Button got his first penalty during the Canadian Grand Prix:

Can you explain Jenson’s drive through penalty at the recent Canadian Grand Prix?

As far as I can tell, the penalty was given for a misdemeanour during the first safety car period (the start of the race) for exceeding his permitted sector time.

But as they were behind a safety car, how did he manage this?

From the timing of the penalty, I don’t think it was from later safety car periods, but I’d love to hear your explanation and views on the matter.
Tristan Cliffe

Button’s penalty was for exceeding the speed limit behind the safety car. Article 40.7 of the Sporting Regulations says:

In order to ensure that drivers reduce speed sufficiently, from the time at which the “Safety car deployed” message is shown on the timing monitors until the time that each car crosses the first safety car line for the first time, drivers must stay above the minimum time set by the FIA Engine Control Unit.

This is often referred to as the “delta time” in team radio broadcasts.

It was at the heart of the problems following last year’s European Grand Prix where nine drivers were given time penalties for going too quickly during the safety car period.

Of course, just because the safety car is out doesn’t mean all the drivers are doing the same sector times – it can vary as they get close to and drop back from each other.

Car numbers

It wouldn’t be an instalment of “Your questions answered” without a question about car numbers:

How do the cars get allocated their numbers? We see messages such as “Investigation against cars four and six” – how do we know which driver and teams are involved?
Lynn Smith

The car numbers are allocated as follows:

Damon Hill, Williams, 1994

1. The reigning drivers’ champion gets the number one on his car, and his team mate gets number two. If the world champion is not racing, the driver who’s taken his place in his former team uses number zero.

This last happened with Damon Hill at Williams in 1994.

2. After that, the car numbers are allocated based on finishing positions in the constructors’ championship, with the best-placed team first.

The teams decide which driver gets which of their two numbers, and usually the driver which scored best for them the previous year gets the lower number. But this is not a hard-and-fast rule and is sometimes adjusted for driver preference: Michael Schumacher says he prefers odd numbers, and has had the lower number at Mercedes for the last two years.

To see which drivers have which numbers this year, have a look at the list of 2011 F1 drivers and teams (accessible via the 2011 F1 season tab in the top menu).

Tyres

I wish my name had a cool letter in it like this one:

I am delighted to discover your article of May 6th regarding tyre performance on Friday for the Turkish Grand Prix. Thank you for this information.

Can you tell me how you collect this info, please?
Øyvind Thorvaldsen

Happily, Pirelli do not take the same attitude regarding tyre use as the FIA do about engines. They publish a list of which drivers used which tyres, which I cross-reference with my own notes to produce the data used on F1 Fanatic.

You can see which drivers have used which tyres the most across all the races this year on the statistics page:

• 2011 F1 statistics: Tyres

Form guides

Thanks to Luke for this suggestion:

I love your form guide but I wish it showed all drivers at once. Would it be possible to make something like this in PDF form so we could print it out for reference during F1 weekends?
Luke

You can find an abbreviated version of the form guides (plus links to the detailed version) in today’s European Grand Prix preview. If you want to print it out, it should fit neatly on a single sheet.

• 2011 European Grand Prix preview: Will rules change slow Red Bull in Valencia?

Recent pictures

Jenson Button, Brawn, Singapore, 2009

Last question from Phillip Dutton-White:

Can you tell me how i can access photos of the F1 races in the period of 2010 and 2009. Are these photos still available?
Phillip Dutton-White

You certainly can – got to Pictures in the top menu tab and you can navigate back through all the images galleries under More F1 pictures.

• More F1 pictures

Got a question for F1 Fanatic? Send it in via the contact form. Please include your real name.

Your questions answered

• 'Sky for free', Alonso on Hamilton, Trulli in 2012 and races without champions
• Schumacher in the rain, surprise wins and visiting McLaren
• The driver who started an F1 race illegally
• Engine use in 2011, Button's Canada penalty and car numbers
• Fake winners, DRS and the manhole cover that stopped a race
• The engine situation with two races to go
• Your questions: "F1 2010", overtaking, pit lane penalties and more
• Your questions: Lewis Hamilton, F1 tickets and races in the snow
• Your questions: Most champions in a seasons and Massa's team mates
• Your questions: anthems and Glock-gate

Image © Cosworth, McLaren, Williams/LAT, Brawn GP

Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld, Spa-Francorchamps, 2008

Can a driver finish first without winning the race?

And did an F1 driver really stop a race by crashing into a manhole cover?

It’s time to answer another batch of F1 Fanatic readers’ questions.

‘Fake’ winners

Sounds like Racefan is planning the next big F1 controversy:

Do they now or have they ever had a rule in place involving on track timing that would allow the driver crossing the finish line first to not be the winner?

In other words, if the leader has a ten second lead and the safety car comes out, does the leader still have a ten second lead when the green flag comes out again?
Racefan

Yes to the first question, no to the second one.

Yes, a driver could be given a time penalty which means that they cross the line first but don’t win – this is what happened to Lewis Hamilton at Belgium in 2008:

• 2008 Belgian Grand Prix review: Lewis Hamilton is moral victor in Spa thriller

These days it’s unusual for us to know in advance of the chequered flag that it’s going to happen. However it’s not hard to imagine a situation in which it would be quite predictable.

It has happened in the past: in the 1990 Canadian Grand Prix Gerhard Berger crossed the finish line first but had already been given a 60-second penalty for jumping the start (this was in the days before drive-through and stop-go penalties). He was classified fourth.

Here are some other drivers who were stripped of race wins, though not all the circumstances Racefan alludes to:

• Hamilton joins Senna, Prost, Schumacher and others who had F1 wins confiscated

Manhole cover ends race

Speaking of races at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 1990, here’s a question from Stanislao Avogadro:

I have read that in the 1990 Montreal GP a manhole cover was lifted by a Group C car and nearly killed a driver, typically said to be Jesus Pareja.

Thing is, I have never seen video of this and half the information on this incident is copied from Wikipedia. Do you know if this actually happened?
Stanislao Avogadro

There seems to be a huge amount of misinformation about this on the internet so let’s clear it up.

First of all, yes, the crash did happen but no, it was not a Grand Prix. The race in question was round eight of the FIA World Sports-Prototype Championship for Group C cars.

Jesus Pareja was on his 59th lap driving a Porsche 962C entered by (and shared with) Walter Brun when he hit a fragment of a manhole cover which had been torn out of the ground by a car further ahead.

Several cars hit the debris but Pareja was especially unfortunate. His fuel tank was ruptured and the car immediately burst into flames.

Remarkably, the marshals were able to put the fire out and rescue Pareja. But his car was written off, as was a second Brun Porsche driven by Harald Huysman.

No footage of the crash appears to exist but here are some pictures of Pareja’s blazing car and the aftermath.

To say this was a lucky escape would be a gigantic understatement. Here’s a video showing what happened from around five-and-a-half minutes in, including a fragment of the solid metal cover the cars hit:

Brun threatened legal action against the race organisers afterwards. Making matters worse, another of his cars was written off during practice for the next race in Mexico.

Which way to Istanbul?

Stephen Dutton wonders how the teams will get to round four:

Does anyone know if Turkey is a flyaway race or a European race, mainly do they carry the cars by trucks to Turkey or fly them there?
Stephen Dutton

They use the trucks. Head over to McLaren’s website to find out more about how they get the cars there:

• Trucking to Turkey: Day 4

Funky charts

Tristan Cliffe has his eye on the F1 Fanatic charts:

Having read a lot of your articles via your tweets, I’m very impressed by your interactive graphs – race positions, race lap times etc…

How do you create them? I can’t believe you program the data all by hand in notepad, so you must use some generation software.
Tristan Cliffe

Thanks very much – all credit for the charts design must go to Kareem Shaya who designed them for me last year. They use a combination of CSS and Javascript.

The data is supplied by the FIA and processed by me.

Have a look at the charts in the championship points table here:

• 2011 F1 statistics: Championship points

DRS danger

Sean Goodridge asks about the great bugbear of 2011 – the Drag Reduction System:

What would happen if the DRS was opened but got stuck open? Would they get penalised?

Sensibly, the rules instruct teams to design the wings to minimise that risk. Article 3.18.1 of the technical regulations says: “The design [must be] such that failure of the system will result in the uppermost closed section returning to
the normal high incidence position.”

However the system isn’t foolproof and during the Chinese Grand Prix Fernando Alonso’s rear wing was seen opening at a point on the circuit where it shouldn’t have.

This was because the control electronics were activated later than they should have been. Although the wing closed correctly when Alonso braked for the hairpin, it also briefly re-opened the wing on the way out.

He was not given a penalty, nor should he have been.

But the incident does raise the worrying possibility of the rear wing being opened in the middle of a high-speed corner – such as Eau Rouge or Istanbul’s turn eight – which could cause a serious accident.

Got a question for F1 Fanatic? Send it in via the contact form. Please include your real name.

Your questions answered

• 'Sky for free', Alonso on Hamilton, Trulli in 2012 and races without champions
• Schumacher in the rain, surprise wins and visiting McLaren
• The driver who started an F1 race illegally
• Engine use in 2011, Button's Canada penalty and car numbers
• Fake winners, DRS and the manhole cover that stopped a race
• The engine situation with two races to go
• Your questions: "F1 2010", overtaking, pit lane penalties and more
• Your questions: Lewis Hamilton, F1 tickets and races in the snow
• Your questions: Most champions in a seasons and Massa's team mates
• Your questions: anthems and Glock-gate

Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Korea, 2010

Tom Hogan wrote in to ask:

I have been trying to get my head around the engine situation among the championship contenders. Sebastian Vettel’s Korean engine was on its third race, Mark Webber has (barely) used his last engine.

How many does Fernando Alonso have left as he blew a few in the beginning of the year?

On a personal note thank so much for all your work this year you have made following F1 in Australia far more enjoyable than ever.
Tom Hogan

First thing first: you can find an up-to-date list of how many new engines each driver has used on the statistics page here: New engines used.

Drivers can use up to eight engines in a season without a penalty. Once they use a ninth engine they get a ten-place penalty. All five championship contenders have used all eight of their new engines.

But, as Tom points out, Alonso hit the magic eight much earlier than the others:

Remember that drivers can use their engines in any order and we don’t have a complete picture of who used which engine in which session (when asked for the data the FIA responded “This kind of information is confidential between each team and the FIA.”)

Therefore Alonso’s engine situation may not be that bad. Remember his engine that was replaced at Bahrain (along with Felipe Massa’s) was later used again in Shanghai. Alonso lost another engine at Malaysia.

Also keep in mind the following regulation ahead of the final race at Abu Dhabi next week:

If an engine is changed in accordance with Article 34.1 the engine which was replaced may not be used during any future qualifying session or race with the exception of the last Event of the Championship.
FIA Formula 1 Sporting Regulations Article 28.4 (e)

As for Sebastian Vettel, his Korean engine had also done race distances at Germany and Belgium (minus one lap) and the failure was traced to the con rod in the number four piston, according to Peter Windsor.

His Brazilian Grand Prix engine is the same one he used for the Monaco and Singapore Grands Prix – both circuits which do not stress engines too much (a lap of Singapore is 48% full throttle, Monaco 42%, Interlagos 63%).

Got an F1 question? Send it in using the contact form.

F1 technology

• How the 2012 rules will influence F1 car design
• Mid-season technical review part 2
• Mid-season technical review part 1
• Technical review: 2011 Canadian Grand Prix
• F1 technology in 2011 part 2: Diffusers and more
• F1 technology in 2011 part 1: Tyres and DRS
• Why F1 steering wheels have over 20 buttons - and what they all do
• Video guide to KERS and DRS with Sebastian Vettel
• McLaren cover least test distance with new car
• Pre-season technical review

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

F1 Fanatic reader Ian is off to watch the Spanish Grand Prix

I’ve left my inbox unattended far too long and it’s high time I rounded up a bunch of answers to readers’ questions.

Today’s batch includes questions on the forthcoming Codemasters “F1 2010″ game, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel’s Shanghai reprimands and how to hear radio commentary at the Spanish Grand Prux.

“F1 2010″

Let’s start things off with a quick question from Jake Merchant:

Hello Keith,

Please can you find out all you can about f1 2010 career mode.

Thanks, I am very grateful.

I had a chance to play an early version of Codemasters’ “F1 2010″ last month. At this stage all it had was a basic version of the racing engine and 2009-specification cars. I’ll be in touch with them soon to see how the game is progressing.

In the meantime, you can find everything I know about the game including its career mode here: “F1 2010″ – first play (Pictures & video)

Introduction to F1

A question from Mike in America:

Hello there!

My name is Mike and I’m from the US. As you know, there is 0 mainstream coverage of F1 here in the states. I am interested in getting to know the sport and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions at where to get started. I try to read news blogs and such but having absolutely no background to the sport it’s hard for me to get a grasp on what is going on, who is who, and what is what. Is there anything you can suggest for me to help me get my feet wet? Do you know of any good recaps of major events in recent seasons or any types of introductions to the sport? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

You can find some information on past F1 seasons in the F1 information section of the site which includes lots of driver biographies, though I admit the F1 history part needs some improvements.

I’d also urge you to check out the official F1 season review DVDs. And I’m sure we’ll get lots more suggestions for your next steps in discovering F1 in the comments.

Lap times

Ivan Vetisch wants to know:

I’m wondering, where do you get your timing data from?

The FIA publish the data after each session – you can find the Chinese Grand Prix data here.

Overtaking

Also on the subject of lap times Richard Mellish asks:

Hi Keith,

It’s been stated that Lewis has made 32 competitive overtakes this season. It would be really cool if you could show some sort of overtake league table at the end of each race, i.e. how many overtakes people did, how many were on 1st lap, how much overtaking there is at various points in the race? I guess you could do this from the lap time data.

Just an idea…

Rich

This was also asked in the Chinese GP analysis comments.

Yes, it is something I’m looking at doing, but I haven’t got a satisfactory solution yet. I have seen data produced by other sites but it’s a little complicated to do as you have to filter out changes of position which aren’t overtaking moves – such as pit stops, spins, etc…

There’s also a problem with the degree of accuracy you get doing it from lap time data. For example, Driver A could pass Driver B at turn one, then get re-passed at turn two, and at the end of the lap as far as the timing is concerned no overtaking has been done.

Because of this I’d rather work out the figures to an accuracy I’m satisfied with than rely on figures other sites have come up with. Once I’ve got a formula I’m happy with I’ll publish them.

More racing

Shaun C has been enjoying the “Why you should watch…” series and is looking for other forms of motor racing to watch:

I’d like to see a page highlighting TV times for forthcoming racing events, such as touring cars on ITV4 or Indycar online etc.
I’m rubbish at checking around various websites/tv schedules and don’t often remember when their racing events are, and one of your biggest successes is highlighting other things for us so we don’t have to look elsewhere! Something for you to buld on maybe?

I think it’s a great idea and I’ll look into doing it in the future – either as a separate article or as part of the round-ups.

Hamilton and Vettel’s penalties

Denis Jackson wants some clarity on Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel’s Chinese Grand Prix penalties:

Kevin Eason (Times-on-Line Sunday) seems to think that only Vettel was given a reprimand. So apparently does the author of the ‘Chinese GP Analyis’ on formula1.com.

I have read differing web reports claiming to be quoting the FIA statement. One read ” …the Stewards decided that Sebastian Vettel had driven dangerously and awarded a penalty of a reprimand.” The other had exactly the same wording except for saying “…Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel had driven dangerously…”

Can you clear this up for me? If it was only Vettel reprimanded then it will probably start another posting frenzy!

Hamilton and Vettel both got reprimands for what the stewards called dangerous driving in the pit lane. These were stewards’ decisions 39 and 40 which you can read here:

View chn-document-39-pdf
View chn-document-40-pdf

Spanish Grand Prix radio

Ian and Denise from South Yorkshire are going to the next round of the world championship at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain. Ian asks:

Hi,

I’ve booked tickets for me and my wife and we’ll ride down to view the Spanish Grand Prix in 3 weeks time.

Do you know if its possible to get an English speaking live radio commentary at the circuit? And if so what is the band & frequency of the station? please.

I’ve searched but cannot find any info. Thanks,

Ian

I would have recommended renting a Kangaroo TV which allows you to listen to BBC Radio 5 Live’s broadcasts, but from their website it looks like they’re not available at the Spanish Grand Prix.

So I’m going to have to throw this one out to the F1 Fanatic faithful who may be able to help you out. Try these links:

2010 Spanish Grand Prix discussion
Circuit de Catalunya – spectators’ experiences

Pole position

Lastly, Paul Dawson has a short-and-sweet stats question:

What percentage of pole sitters win the race?
Thanks,
Paul Dawson

The answer is 39.4%. However no races have been won from pole position so far this year. I expect that will change in Catalunya, however…

As ever if you’ve got an F1 question of any kind please get in touch and I’ll do my best to answer it. Find the contact form here.

Does Lewis Hamilton have a Twitter account? Your questions answered below

I’ve had a lot of questions sent in over the couple of weeks. I’ve finally got round to answering some of them covering topics as diverse as F1 tickets, avatars and getting a job in F1:

Lewis Hamilton

First up we have a pair of questions on Lewis Hamilton:

I am doing a project at Oakmead College of Technology and I need some background information on because I am trying to find out what it takes to be a Formula One driver. By background information I mean: Where did it all start? How does a driver prepare himself for all of it? What does it require to drive a racing car with such speed, adrenaline and power?
Sean Warnock

You can find a biography of Hamilton on the site here: Lewis Hamilton biography

For more information there are several books out there on Hamilton but be warned – some of them are real stinkers. I recommend Mark Hughes’ “Lewis Hamilton: The Full Story” or for a lighter read try Andrew van der Burgt’s “Lewis Hamilton: A Portrait of Britain’s New F1 Star”.

Meanwhile Sean wants to hear direct from the man himself:

I’ve just been doing a search on Twitter and I’ve found an account which seems possible that it could be the real Lewis Hamilton. I know there are many fake ones, so I thought I’d let you have a look: http://twitter.com/LewisHamiltonF1
Nathan Bradley

Twitter’s great but unfortunately some people choose to use it to set up fake accounts and post false news on it to mislead people. Figuring out which are the real ones and which are the fakers can be tricky.

I’ve set up the F1 Twitter Directory on this site to keep track of genuine Twitter accounts. I’ve had a look at the LewisHamiltonF1 account and as far as I’m concerned nothing’s been posted that suggests it’s real, and it isn’t linked to from any official Hamilton or McLaren sites.

But Rubens Barrichello got Jenson Button into Twitter while the pair were team mates last year, so maybe Button will do the same with Hamilton.

F1 testing

Action-starved ahmej is looking forward to seeing F1 cars on track again and asks:

Will BBC show pre-season testing 2010 on Red Button (live coverage)?
ahmej010?

Jake Humphrey was asked this question recently via his (non-fake) Twitter account. Afraid you’re in for a disappointment with the reply:

I don’t think we’ll have live footage.
Jake Humphrey

F1 car parts

An unusual question, this one:

Do you have any Benetton f1 car parts for sale?
Kash

Afraid not Kash but you might be interested in our next question:

I have an original side pod which I believe was used by Jean Alesi. I am considering selling it. It has seen action and it looks like he must of come off as it has some marks and chips on it. It has a build number on it too (not to hand at the moment, so interested in what it is worth or how I would sell it through your site?
Steve

There isn’t a ‘buy/sell’ section on F1 Fanatic at the moment, but if this is something a lot of people are interested in I could always look into it. If Kash is interested in buying your sidepod I can put you in touch with each other!

Emails

Your emails from which I register for updates come through as a phishing emails. Therefore my computer deletes them. Why is this?
Dave

I subscribe to the F1 Fanatic Updates by Email feature myself to make sure they are being sent out correctly. I have no problem receiving them and I haven’t had any similar queries about that so I think the problem might be with your email software.

Some emails clients give you the option to add email addresses to ‘whitelist’ so that emails from them are never treated as spam or phishing, perhaps try that.

Getting a job in F1

I get a lot of enquiries about this:

I would like to enquire about any entry-level job opportunities that F1 Fanatic may offer or if you perhaps know of any other possible opportunities (or people I could contact) within motorsport that I may pursue, I would appreciate your help in this regard. I am basically looking to get my foot in the door (even if this means that I start out as a PA or even sitting filing documents in a dark room – I am willing to do what is takes) and find a job in motorsport and in particular, in the marketing/PR side.

I know that you are very experienced and wise in the ways of motorsport and as such I would really appreciate any advice or help that you could possible give me.
Charlene Sampson

The first thing to say is that F1 Fanatic is not hiring staff at the moment but if we do it will be announced clearly on the site.

As for getting a job in F1, if you’re looking for a basic administrative role it’s best to start by sending your CVs to the teams (find their addresses on their websites) but you may find some of them warn that such roles do not lead to opportunities on the racing side of the business. Good luck!

Avatars (not the film)

Another frequently-asked question:

I have tried every way to add an avatar to my profile without success! Grateful for advice?
Peter Rippon

Here’s how: Get a picture next to your name

At the moment avatars only appear in the forum, though they will be returned to the site at a later date.

Sepang and Montreal tickets

Here are questions from a couple of fans making their Grand Prix trip plans:

I am lucky enough to be on holiday in the far east over the Sepang f1 weekend. Could you advise on what you think would be the best seating location? Could you comment between Emerald and Sapphire seats in the mall area?
Scott

I can’t but I know a few fans who can. Check out these pages:

• 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix discussion
• Sepang International Circuit – spectators’ experiences

I am Canadian and have recently become a huge F1 fan.

I am super eager to buy tickets for the Montreal GP, but I am unsure the best way to go about it. There are many 3rd party websites that are advertising tickets for sale, but according to the official F1 site, they are not on sale yet.

Do you have any advice on where the best place to buy tickets would be? Should I wait for the official site?
Andrew Brown

There’s already a lot of discussion going on between fans heading to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve now they’ve got their race back. You can find out more here:

• 2010 Canadian Grand Prix discussion
• Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal – spectators’ experiences
• Are F1 fans getting ripped off? Cheapest and dearest tickets prices revealed

F1 in the snow

I always like a quirky historical question to end with. Over to Andy:

Has their ever been a F1 race run in the snow, I don’t think there has, has there?
Andy

You’re right, there has never been an F1 race run in the snow. The closest thing I could come up with was the fourth round of the inaugural F3000 season in 1985. The race, due to be run at the Nürburgring on April 27th, was cancelled due to snowfall. I managed to find a short video:

Thanks for all your questions – if you’ve got one you’d like to send in please get in touch by emailling me, using Twitter or leave a comment below.

Image (C) www.mclaren.com

Michael Schumacher will race against three other champions next year

Time for another crop of questions sent to the F1 Fanatic inbox.

This week, as Michael Schumacher makes his F1 comeback along three other world champions, what’s the greatest number title-winners to race against each other?

See below for the answers to this and more questions.

Most F1 champions

Since I have a pretty shallow knowledge of F1 history, I’m curious if you know which season and/or race had the most F1 champions racing? By my count, we have four champions and 11 race winners now. That seems pretty competitive, but I’m curious how that compares to the past. Maybe a post on this one? Thanks.
Muckymuck

With the return of Schumacher next year we will have three active champions in Formula 1: the German seven-times champion, plus Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and defending title holder Jenson Button.

The last time F1 was so well-populated with former champions was 1999, when Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve were all on the grid.

It’s a shame Kimi Räikkönen has decided to go to the World Rally Championship, robbing us of a potential fifth world champion.

By my reckoning that would have equalled the most former world champions ever assembled on an F1 starting grid. There were five champions on the grid at the Mexican Grand Prix in 1970 – Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, John Surtees and Denny Hulme. If you can find a past race with more champions in let us know in the comments.

But 15 years ago F1 was briefly bereft of former champions. The last time this happened was at the 1994 Portuguese Grand Prix, where none of the drivers on the grid had won a world championship.

As for the race which featured the most race-winners, I would venture the 1979 British Grand Prix as a starting point. Of the 26 drivers entered half had won a race previously. They were Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Carlos Reutemann, Niki Lauda, John Watson, Jody Scheckter, Gilles Villeneuve, Jochen Mass, Jacky Ickx, Jacques Laffite, Alan Jones, Clay Regazzoni and the winner of the previous race, Jean-Pierre Jabouille.

A further seven drivers on the grid that day would go on to win races: Didier Pironi, Nelson Piquet and Rene Arnoux in 1980, and Patrick Tambay, Elio de Angelis, Keke Rosberg and Ricardo Patrese in 1982.

If anyone can think of a race which featured more previous winners than the 13 at Silverstone in 1979, please let us know in the comments.

One more thing about champions…

Next year, Felipe Massa will be team mate to a world champion for the fourth time in a row (Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso).

Can you think of any other occasions this has happened in history?
Ed Greenhalgh

In a word, no! But if anyone else can beat that do post it in the comments…

Girls!

I just would like to ask you if you are looking for promotional girls for next season in Silverstone. Thanks.
Nika

Erm, I think you might have me confused with someone else…

Onboard cameras

Just a quick question about onboard cameras in F1. I did a little research and found out that all F1 cars are fitted with onboard cameras (whether that is true or not is what I wish to find out).

If this is true, why is it that FOM don’t show the footage from onboard cameras when they would solve “mysteries” as to what happened in various incidents otherwise not caught on film? An example could be Heikki Kovalainen’s crash in Malaysia this year. I only found out recently that Kovalainen actually made contact with the barrier after spinning off. If they had have shown it from Heikki’s car then we would have known.

Anyway it has been bothering me for ages and I just don’t understand. For all I know, only a couple of the cars could be fitted with onboard cameras.
Damon Smedley

Any relation to Rob there, Damon?

FOM don’t say much about the amount of footage they capture at race weekends and how much of it ends up being broadcast. But it’s clear from the amount of new material which crops up on the end-of-season DVD review that the live broadcast only accounts for a small portion of what gets shown.

As Damon points out, this is especially annoying when it comes to accidents or controversial incidents which could be better illuminated by extra camera angles. We were promised greater use of video technology to explain stewards’ decisions but we haven’t seen much of it so far.

Sponsorship

It used to be the big tobacco companies who were the major sponsors in F1, any fan of the sport can tell you about the John Player Special Lotus or the Marlboro livery McLaren used to have.

A couple of years back though that sort of sponsorship was banned so we had names like AT&T and Vodafone taking their place, and lately it’s been banks like ING and Santander that’s had the biggest marketing campaigns.

My question is that now that we have a financial crisis and the banks are doing everything to save money we probably won’t seem them sponsoring F1 teams for long so what type of industry do you think will fancy it’s chances next? Or rather if you were a Formula 1 team boss where would you look for money?
Michael

Thanks for that interesting and original question. With RBS and ING receiving government support it’s hardly surprising they’ve pulled their sponsorship of F1 teams as well as the big race-branding deals ING had been doing.

One of the growth areas for F1 sponsorship at the moment seems to be airlines. In recent years we’ve had Emirates sponsoring McLaren plus the arrivals of Kingfisher and Air Asia, and Virgin has an airline arm too.

If you can help expand the answers to these questions, please post in the comments.

Got an F1 question that needs answering? Send it in by email or using Twitter.

Timo Glock's dry-tyre gamble last year is still a source of debate

The inbox is groaning full so it’s time to tackle another round-up of your F1 questions.

This time we’re talking national anthems, libel, 2010 F1 testing, what to take to a Grand Prix…

…and Lewis Hamilton passing Timo Glock in last year’s Brazilian Grand Prx. Tinfoil hats at the ready!

Libel

Bigbadderboom kicks things off with a serious question:

I was just surfing the normal F1 sites this afternoon, and noticed that the Planet F1 editor has put up a note stating that they will not be publishing comments on the recent Piquet stories. There may be an innocent reason for this but it got me thinking. I am not that wise in the ways of blogging, in fact F1 and football are mostly all I comment on. But more out of interest than anything, I wondered can F1 Fanatic be held liable for comments made on this site, if somebody writes facts proven to be innacurate could there be legal ramifications for you or the site?

Obviously I have no knowledge of the Planet F1 situation and can’t comment on that.

But there are potential legal ramifications arising from people leaving damaging comments on this site. There have been some cases in Britain of website operators being held responsible for libellous (or similar) comments made on their site (Mumsnet and Owlstalk are examples).

This is why there are certain restrictions on commenting at F1 Fanatic – for example, I can’t allow non-English comments because I can’t verfy their content.

Other sites prefer to require all comments to be checked by a moderator before they appear on the site. I don’t like that aproach because I feel it spoils the site for the vast majority of readers just because of the actions of a minorty.

National anthems

I’ve had two questions about national anthems recently. The first is from Viktor:

Do you know from what year organizers play national anthem for the winner constructor? Is it started in 1958, when the constructors’ championship begun?

The short answer is: No. I don’t know when they started playing the national anthem for constructors. Can anyone volunteer an answer?

However I can help Chittaranjan with this question:

Hi Keith, can you please clarify as which national anthem would have been played if Force India had won at Spa?

The team is based out of UK so would the British national anthem have been played or since the owner is Indian, the Indian national anthem would have been played?

According to the Sporting Regulations (Apendix 3, article 3a):

The national anthem of the winning driver and winning team will be played. The nationalities of the teams and drivers will be notified to the organiser by the FIA and will accord with Article 112 of the
code.

And article 112 of the International Sportig Code says:

As far as the application of this Code is concerned, every competitor or driver who has obtained their licence from an ASN [national sporting club] takes the nationality of that ASN for the period of validity of that licence.

To the best of by knowledge, Force India are registered with the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India – the honourary chairman of which is team boss Vijay Mallya.

So, if Force India win a race, the Indian national anthem will be played, even though the team’s factory is in Silverstone. Similarly, the Japanese national anthem was payed when Brackley-based Honda won in Hungary in 2006, and the German national anthem sounded for BMW at Montreal in 2008, even though the tea is based at Hinwil in Switzerland.

2010 F1 testing

Colin Hall wants to know when the teams will start getting ready for 2010:

Can you tell me what the test schedule is (or where i can find it) for the end of 2009 start of 2010 as I would like to arrange my holidays around the Jerez test session in Decemeber 2009 or March 2010.

Building a holiday around F1 testing – never mind racing – is a sign of a true fan. I’m not aware of any official details about times for pre-2010 F1 testing yet, but as they become available they will be adde to the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar.

Glock and Trulli

I think this question from Billy is about the Brazilian Grand Prix last year.

I’m looking for some info from last year’s race relating to lap times for Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli, Google searches have taken me to all kinds of articles and sites but all have proved fruitless.

I read an article some time back (in either Autosport or F1 magazine I think) and it published the lap times for both Toyotas during the final 3 laps. I can’t seem to find this info anywhere and I’m wondering if you can help?

Glock and Trulli were, of course, the only two cars still on dry tyres at the end of last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix. It put Glock ahead of Hamilton, which made for an unforgettable conclusion to the championship battle, as Hamilton passed the stricken Glock as the rain came down heavily on the final lap.

The analysis of the Toyota drivers’ lap times published here last year will hopefully do the job of skewering any nonsense put about by the tinfoil hat brigade.

Nigel Mansell and number zero

I often get questions about the number zero, but David Pedro found an interesting new take on it:

I’ve been thinking this for a long time: Mansell decided to not participate in the 1993 season after becoming champion in 1992. He rejoined in 94.

But, what if he decided to join after the begining of the ’93 season in another team? Would his new team recieve number one and two, changing the other cars’ numbers? I’ve been with this doubt for a while…

There doesn’t seem to be any dispensation for this in the rules so my guess would be the returning champion would just have to deal with not having the number one on their car.

What to take to a Grand Prix

Jay is going to the season finale and wants to know what to take:

i am new to this sport and will be watching the seasons last race live in abu dhabi. I would like to know as a spectator what things i should take with me to the circuit to watch the race. Will the noise be tolerable? or is binoculars realy required?

I’m sure we’ll get some great suggestions for this in the comments. To get you started here’s a list of thing I take which I wrote here a few years ago: What to take to a Grand Prix weekend.

Don’t forget to tell us how the race went Jay!

Send in your questions – and answers

Thanks very much for all your emails and questions. If you can help add to any of these answers please post a comment below.

And if you’ve got an F1 question of your own please send them in – you can email me, contact me on Twitter or leave a comment.

More questions

• Your questions: Crashed Ferrari, The Stig and a bridge that fell on a track
• Your questions: pit TVs and car numbers
• Your questions: Silverstone tips, Monza track invasions and, erm, number twos
• Your questions: 2010 F1 calendar, helmet designs and more…
• Your questions: F1 car numbers
• Your questions: Drivers’ Grand Prix lap times
• Your questions: Schumacher’s British wins
• Your questions: Two hour time limit