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I took a guess at this a few weeks ago and came up with a calendar like this:
1. Australia 18 March
2. China 1 April
3. Bahrain 8 April
4. Russia 22 April
5. Spain 6 May
6. Monaco 20 May
7. Austria 27 May
8. Canada 10 June
9. Azerbaijan 24 June
10. France 8 July
11. Britain 15 July
12. Germany 29 July
13. Hungary 5 August
14. Belgium 2 September
15. Italy 9 September
16. Singapore 23 September
17. Japan 7 October
18. USA 21 October
19. Mexico 28 October
20. Brazil 11 November
21. Abu Dhabi 25 NovemberCCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster sponsored Jordan in 2003 and Williams in 2004
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Canon Williams livery, especially in the Renault days when it was combined with Camel colours.
Another F1 sponsor I liked which wasn’t on a car, but rather on the advertising hoardings, was Fosters. I don’t know why but I liked their signs and I do miss them from Formula 1.
Season 1 – Round 17 – Korea – Qualifying – 6th
As usual, the car was a bit tricky, but nothing I couldn’t handle. My lap was pretty bang on and I qualified a fine 6th. I had a great sector 3 but the first two thirds of my lap let me down. I actually posted the same time as Lewis Hamilton, however I got 6th on account of doing my lap first.Race – 14th
I initially made a good start, but I was probably too ambitious at the first corner and tangled with Vettel. We got away scot free but they couldn’t be said for some behind us. I kept my 6th position despite a challenge from Kobayshi for most of the first lap and I moved up to 5th by slipstreaming Rosberg on the pit straight, then outfoxing him at the first turn. Then later on Lap 2, there was a bizarre crash involving 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, which I narrowly avoided and so I moved up to 2nd behind Mark Webber. However I had a battle on my hand to keep the position as Alonso was behind me, challenging hard as he wanted to stay in the title race.On Lap 4, I pitted and there my race took a turn for the worse. The stupid lollipop man was so polite, he let everyone out ahead of me in the pits. Eventually by the time he let me out I was stone dead last. I had a hard fight on my hands now. Michael Schumacher helped me by crashing, moving me up to 23rd, and a pitstopper ahead saw me up to 22nd at the beginning of Lap 6. Things get better at the first corner as I overtook Sutil to move up to 21st. I was now following Barrichello, who bizarrely slowed down in the twisty bits, which saw me plow him of the track though my car was not damaged.
Pitstops at the beginning of Lap 7 saw me move up to 16th, and at the end of the first long straight I passed Vitaly Petrov in the Renault to move up to 15th. On Lap 9, there was more pitters and I would have moved up to 13th, however I had a half-spin at the first corner and lost the chance to move up a couple of places. It got worse as Kobayashi took me on the straight and I went down to 16th position. However this was a blessing in disguise because he soon began to challenge Trulli in 14th, which slowed both down and bunched them up. Therefore on Lap 10, I had a chance to overtake them both, which I did at the end of the first straight to move up to 14th. And that was where I stayed for the remainder of the race.
Considering my qualifying, 14th was a big disappointment and without the daft pitstop I would have definitely finished high up in the points. However it wasn’t all bad for Virgin. Lucas Di Grassi had an incredible race and finished 5th to take his first points of the season. It is the first time this season he has beaten in a race we both finished. Webber won to extend his championship and if he gets 3 points more than Alonso in Brazil, he is world champion.
However, there was some worrying news for me. I have been holding out to see what offers I could get from higher up teams on the grid. I have delayed it so much that Virgin have pulled their offer for next season and currently I don’t have any other offers on the table. My future is far from certain.
Season 1 – Round 16 – Japan – Qualifying – 11th
I had high hopes of a good qualifying around Suzuka, it’s a track I love and have always been good at. However I was plagued by dreadful understeer. I therefore qualified a rather lacklustre 11th, though I did outqualify my team mate for the 16th consecutive time this season.Race – 6th
For the race I went with a high downforce setting, which would help my handling but hamper my speed. At the start I made up a couple of places, however my lack of acceleration stopped me from gaining anymore. I stayed there for on Lap 2 until disaster. My front right tyre blew and I had to hobble back to the pits. I would have fallen to last had I not held up my teammate who came in for his scheduled pitstop (Sorry Lucas!). I emerged out of the pits in 23rd position and points were seemingly out of the question. However I had no more pitstops and I decided that since I had nothing to lose, I might as well push like hell.I had emerged from the pits just behind Petrov and I overtook him on Lap 3 with a superb move at 130R that moved me up to 22nd. Pitstops ahead of me moved me up to 17th behind Pedro de La Rosa, who I dispensed with at the hairpin on Lap 5. More pitstops meant that at the end of lap 6 I was up to 12th, and points seemed like a possibility. Further pitstops on lap 7 ahead saw me go up to 10th and a points position and I was now behind homeboy Kamui Kobayashi. He however was stuck behind Bruno Senna, and I overtook the native with an audacious move on the outside at Dunlop. Jenson Button then helped my case by spinning at the chicane, and I now sat 9th. And that became 8th when i overtook Senna, in a slower car, on the pit straight at the beginning of lap 9. There I stayed for the next lap as I reeled in Michael Schumacher ahead. Eventually I had in my sights by lap 10 and shadowed him going down the back straight at the approach to 130R. Time was running out and I needed to make my move which I did at the exit of the Casio chicane forcing Michael on the gravel. It was a pretty ruthless move that Michael probably would have been proud of.
I maintained my position to the end to finish a superb 6th, with arguably my best drive to date. It had been a pretty mad race all round; Jarno Trulli finished 3rd to get his first points of the year, and Senna also opened his account with 8th. Fernando Alonso won the race to close the gap to Mark Webber at the top of the championship.
Season 1 – Round 15 – Singapore – Qualifying – 15th
A wet affair, I found it tricky to keep it on the island and made a mistake on each of my first three attempts. Eventually I managed to string a decent lap together and qualified in 13th positon.Race – 10th
I made an ok start but understeer at the first corner saw me drop to 14th. However for the remainder of the first lap, I made up positions by pushing my way through quite forcefully as I got three warnings. I then settled into the rythm until disaster on lap 4 when I had a big slide at the first corner. Fortunately though Rosberg stopped me spinning full circle and I got away scot free while Nico broke his front wing. I had mantained 8th place however I lost ground to Schumacher in 7th. Lap 6 saw me pit but traffic was hell and the net result was I fell to 9th behind Petrov. I chased the Russian but unfortunately on lap 8 the understeer caused trouble again and I hit the wall at turn 9 and damaged my front wing though thankfully it didn’t require a pitstop. Heikki Kovalainen, behind me in the Lotus overtook me. Luckily Kobayashi in 10th was quite a bit behind but still I had to drag the injured Virgin to the finishing line for a solitary point. In normal circumstances an incredible achievement but with the season I was having it was a bit of a disappointment. Mark Webber won the race to extend his championship lead and extingish my faint chance of being champion.I recently started this playing game again after a few years and started a new career mode. Thanks Harry for bumping this thread. First I will tell the story of my season so far and I will post details of my Singapore Grand Prix later.
In my first season, I would by driving for the new Virgin Racing team alongside the Brazilian Lucas Di Grassi.
I made my debut in Bahrain and qualified an altogether okay 18th. I progressed well enough in the race and was running 10th when I was struck by a puncture and crashed out. Bizarrely a fellow rookie won the race as Vitaly Petrov took a surprise win on his debut. In Australia I qualified a brilliant 13th position and in the race I also excelled to finish 5th and take my first points. The next two races in Malaysia and China were disappointments as I failed to finish in both.Back in Europe, at the Spanish Grand Prix I qualified an incredible 2nd on the grid. However the race wasn’t so good and dreadful traffic saw me fall all the way down to 19th position and I only just finished 18th, overtaking my teammate at the last corner. Monaco saw me qualify in 11th, but again I crashed out again and in the virtual world I was probably gaining a Maldonado lite reputation. I was off pace in Turkey, qualifying 21st and finishing 18th. The team were starting to get disillusioned with me and I needed results quick. And that was exactly what they got.
Canada’s qualifying was wet-dry and I put in a marvellous lap to take pole position for the first time in my career. What’s more in the race I stayed there and took a dominant win. Things were now starting to look a bit brighter. I came back down to earth with a bump in Valencia with another crash, but that would be last retirement so far this season. At Silverstone I qualified 11th but I endured a difficult race and finished outside the points. But my season was took a step in the right direction since then.
In Germany, I took my second pole position and again I led from the front to take a dominant second victory. I was running well in Hungary until traffic after my pitstop dropped me down to 7th. However from there I fought back to finish 3rd. I had a good race in Belgium to finish 4th and in Italy and I again finished on the podium with 3rd.
As I head into Singapore, I sit 5th in the championship with 102 points with a very slim chance of taking the title.
Top 10 Standings after 14 rounds
1. Mark Webber 198
2. Fernando Alonso 183
3. Sebastian Vettel 178
4. Lewis Hamilton 166
5. Jenson Button 108
6. Ciaran Walsh 102
7. Felipe Massa 88
8. Michael Schumacher 81
9. Tonio Liuzzi 73
10. Nico Rosberg 68@junior-pilot Mika Salo wasn’t particularly memorable either apart from his brief spell for Ferrari.
What about Franck Montagny and Tomas Enge, better know for other highs instead of their F1 highpoints.
1994 had a lot of drivers who people forget. Eric Bernard who scored a podium for Ligier, Franck Lagorce who ended up in sportscars, Oliver Beretta who is probably best known for driving Corvettes and and Ferrari’s in LeMans. There was also Philippe Adams who was hopelessly out of his depth for Lotus.
There is many others forgotten. Alex Caffi who did a couple seasons for Footwork, Michael Bartels who’s better known for dating Steffi Graf. What about Patrick Frisacher who’s pretty much forgotten despite been one of the six stars of Indy 2005.
And speaking of Emmanuele Pirro and Allan McNish, don’t forget 4 times LeMans winner Yannick Dalmas.
If this was a double points race would they get a 440 point penalty? They would be on -312 points then.
You are 100% right. The power in Formula 1 has definitely gone to the wrong people.
People think Bernie is getting extra greedy at the moment but the fact is that he is leaned on heavily by CVC who sole objection with F1, as with any investment firm is to make as big as profit as possible. The history of Formula 1 is meaningless to them, as there is little money to be made out of it.
You’re bang on with the Strategy Group as well. Putting the power with the elite is just going to widen the gap between the have and have nots. It’s an inevitability.
But the problem is that those who have power will not want to give it up. CVC are still getting a hell of a lot of money from F1 and the offer to buy back FOM would have to be simply enormous. Even harder is wrestling control back from the Strategy Group. Strategy Group teams are not going to accept terms that are worse than what they have now and been too forceful, you run the risk of losing half of the current F1 teams and the iconic teams like Williams, Ferrari and McLaren.
@rocknrolla The results are not put up until the Tuesday after the race, so until then you won’t be able to see the leaderboard.
Thank you. OK my clue:
This date saw the beginning of something glorious, and it’s also been a glorious day for an Anglo-French combination, as twice on this date they have come together to bridge a long gap.@jackysteeg Really had to rack my brains for this one but I think I’ve gotten it – 16th August
On 16 August 1992, Ayrton Senna won the Hungarian Grand Prix as Nigel Mansell clinched the championship.
On 16 August 1998, Michael Schumacher won the Hungarian Grand Prix thanks to Ross Brawn’s tactical masterstroke of three stopping him.
