Join us for live commenting during the two Monaco Grand Prix practice sessions today at 9am and 1pm British time. In the meantime, here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Monaco moves on from the credit crunch (Reuters)
Nick Fry: “I think the first part of last year was so close to the massive financial crisis at the end of the previous year that it was inappropriate for people to show up. I think things are looking up. You’ve only got to look at the level of sponsors on our car this year. I think there is growing confidence in the market and I think that will be reflected in the VIP attendance in Monaco.”
Turning vanes extract extra speed of RB6 (F1 Technical)
“The new turning vanes are similar to Ferrari’s items and of course triggered a series of other changes to the car.”
The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster (BBC)
Programme on Sunday 9pm on BBC Four. Added to the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar.
KERS edges closer to Formula 1 return (Autosport)
“Teams will be allowed free choice on which system they use – so they will not be forced to run a standard unit – while smaller teams are likely to be given the option of buying KERS from a manufacturer team or from independent supplier like Flybrid.”
Comment of the day
Sumedh thinks the problems facing the drivers in qualifying this weekend have been exaggerated:
I think the problems expected to be encountered in Q1 are being over-hyped by the teams. Lets check the numbers a bit.
In the best case scenario, "track evolution" will be worth a maximum of 0.5 seconds over the course of 20 minutes of Q1. Of the seven cars that exit after Q1, six of them are at least three to four seconds off the pace. So, those six cars are going out of Q1 no matter how much ever piece of clear tarmac they get.
The question left is only for the seventh driver. And in 20 minutes, there is definitely enough time for all the remaining 18 drivers to get one clean lap in.
Sumedh
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Stephen!
On this day in F1
Sixty years ago today Silverstone held the first ever round of the Formula 1 world championship. Five different makes of car took the start – Alfa Romeo, Talbot Lago, ERA, Maserati anf Alta – with a total of 21 cars on the grid.
The race was dominated by the sole manufacturer entrant, Alfa Romeo, whose quarteet of drivers exchanged the lead throughout the race.
Only one of them failed to take the flag – Juan Manuel Fangio retired from second place with nine laps to go when an oil line broke. That left pole sitter Giuseppe Farina to win the first ever world championship F1 race from team mates Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell.
Enigma
13th May 2010, 0:27
Keith, links to comments don’t work for comments not on page 1.
Ned Flanders
13th May 2010, 0:54
Nick Fry might think F1 finances are no longer an issue, but I still see huge cause for concern. Renault’s livery still has plenty of free space, Toro Rosso seem desperate for new sponsors but they can’t find any, McLaren haven’t found a replacement for Santander yet, and Sauber and Hispania have no significant permanent sponsors whatsoever.
How many major companies have invested in F1 in the past 12 months? I can’t think of many off the top of my head- I suppose there’s LG, and Santander have really upped their sponsorship of late, but on the whole more money is going out than is coming in. All this despite Formula 1’s vast global TV audience, and the huge anticipation of the 2010 season. If that isn’t a cause for concern then I don’t know what is
Icthyes
13th May 2010, 1:28
This may be why it’s rumoured that the teams are going to ask for a heftier piece of the pie in the next Concorde Agreement. Joe Saward speculated it could be as low as 15% for Bernie’s slice, but whatever it is, any extra revenue going to the teams from the money made from the show they provide is a good thing.
Pinball - roadography.com
13th May 2010, 5:02
I think there is still money around, it’s just not with the people / companies that have traditionally sponsored F1. F1 however is still mainly catering for the market that these old companies used to target.
F1 needs to target the market that the non-traditional F1 companies want to reach, and that’ll solve the sponsorship crisi.
BasCB
13th May 2010, 6:45
I think your right on Fry and the sponsorship situation. Renault is picking things up and Mercedes as well. These teams are now going forward and showing promise for future years.
But still over 1/3 of all sponsorship money is going to Ferrari and the backmarkers as well as the whole second halve of the grid have only very little of it.
The article is interesting because of the comments made about the changing nature of these deals. I think Branson, Fernandes and Mallyia are leading here, McLaren are doing buissiness as well, but not being that open about it.
PJA
13th May 2010, 13:39
The main reason the Mercedes car has more sponsors than the Brawn car did last year is that it a much more attractive proposition.
It is now the Mercedes works team not a new privateer. They have Michael Schumacher driving for them, the most famous driver in F1 and they are the reigning constructors’ champions.
Some may also comment on how good the old Honda/Brawn people were at attracting sponsors. If Honda had some big name sponsors would they really have gone with the sponsor free MyEarthdreams idea.
Ned Flanders
13th May 2010, 16:49
Nope. Apparently they were going to drop it for 2009 and sign up Petrobras anyway
Sush Meerkat
13th May 2010, 0:57
Happy birthday to me as well! hooray!.
I forgot to put my name on the calender, I always forget this sort of stuff, like my own birthday, it only just dawned on me its my birthday.
Icthyes
13th May 2010, 1:35
Happy Birthday Sush Meerkat!
Magnificent Geoffrey
13th May 2010, 5:29
Happy Birthday, Sush!
Happy Birthday to the Formula 1 World Championship, as well! Still looking good for Sixty!
BasCB
13th May 2010, 6:46
Happy birthday to you, Sush!
Sush Meerkat
13th May 2010, 8:37
cheers guys! :D
wasiF1
13th May 2010, 2:40
Should we celebrate 13th May as the Formula 1 day??
BasCB
13th May 2010, 6:50
After hearing from Klein, that HRT should focus on next years car instead of this year, because it would be a waste, we then had an interview with Trulli where he was pushing the team to start focussing on next year as well.
Now Kovalainen has spoken aobut this as well, saying that the Barcelona update showed, that they know what they are doing and should focus on 2011 now, switching attention fully to 2011 after Silverstone.
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=48397
Only new team we have not heard about doing the same is Virgin. I suppose they still want to get the new package to work and bring some updates before switchin to next year as well.
Joey-Poey
13th May 2010, 6:58
Hill is the steward… that doesn’t bode well for Schumacher.
BasCB
13th May 2010, 7:00
I like this pun on Webber throwing his helmet into the crowd by Rob Sinfield on the ITV website:
Mike
13th May 2010, 7:19
Rather amusing ^^. But the bit about calling a fan racist is not good, unless he can prove it of course!
IDR
13th May 2010, 11:16
“was busy working out new racist chants with his mates…”
I sincerely hope they have found some good enough to define Rob Sinfield style.
Mike
13th May 2010, 7:28
“Five different makes of car took the start – Alfa Romeo, Talbot Lago, ERA, Maserati anf Alta”
anf? are you feeling particularly German?
This actually prompted me to look the race up, ripping stuff
dsob
13th May 2010, 11:06
First of all, Happy Birthday Sush!
And then Happy Anniversary to Formula 1 and Silverstone. I missed that first race, being in diapers still. But I did make the 1956 Silverstone race. Fangio won on his way to the WDC that year. Don’t remember all of it, just the thrill of the cars and the noise, and getting into the garages after the race(my Granda knew some people) and getting to sit in Fangio’s car. A day that will always be a happy memory for me.
May 13th as Formula 1 Day? I think that’s a great idea. Maybe we could talk Bernie into scheduling the Silverstone race on the weekend closest to the 13th.
Magnificent Geoffrey
13th May 2010, 14:38
You saw Fangio? Live? In the flesh? And even sat in his car?
If I ever met you sir, I would buy you a beer.
Enigma
13th May 2010, 21:48
Wow, that’s amazing.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
13th May 2010, 22:45
That’s really cool dsob. Would love to hear more about it!
BasCB
13th May 2010, 11:29
So its official now, ART has submitted an F1 application.
http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/formula-1-news/234532/art-grand-prix-submits-2011-f1-application/
This Cypher groop seems to have got in as well (read an article on them today). So we have ART, Cypher, Epsilon Euskadi, Stefan GP, maybe “let down by the team” Anderson and not to forget the great Durango team bidding.
DC
13th May 2010, 14:30
This is an off-topic question, but I can’t figure it out. Here is a picture of Takuma Sato, who is now in IndyCars: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/83565
What in the world is “Lotus” doing on his suit? I thought he raced for KV or something like that.
What, if anything, does Lotus in F1 have to do with Lotus in IndyCar?
Ned Flanders
13th May 2010, 15:27
Well the cars are built by Dallara (I think) and the engines are built by Honda, so Lotus is little more than their title sponsor. It’s nothing to do with the F1 Team.
But I’ve got to say, the Lotus Indy Car overalls look way better than their F1 overalls
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
13th May 2010, 22:42
See: Sato to drive Lotus IndyCar
OEL
13th May 2010, 19:41
I found out one thing about Williams. They contracted Barrichello for this season, and he’s a race winner. But when was the last time they got a race winner from another team before Rubens? If I’m not wrong it was in 1994, and the driver was Ayrton Senna. It’s 16 years ago…
sumedh
15th May 2010, 5:32
Hey!! My first Comment of the Day!!
Mike
15th May 2010, 5:57
Congrats ^^
It was very well thought out