F1 Fanatic round-up: 15/10/2010

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A copy of the 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed DVD landed on my doormat yesterday so expect a review of that very soon and we should have some competition prizes too!

Here’s today’s round-up:

Links

Sochi Grand Prix: F1 comes to Russia in 2014 (Youtube)

Video piece on yesterday’s big story.

Virgin says 2011 car progressing well (Autosport)

Virgin Racing CEO Graeme Lowdon: “We have a contract with Timo [Glock] for next year. We have an option with Lucas [di Grassi] who is doing a really good job with the team. There is a lot of competition for seats because there aren’t that many around so we are in a good place.”

Life in the 300kmph zone (Overdrive)

Karun Chandhok: “F1 cars today are unbelievably complex machines. Having recently driven Keke Rosberg’s Williams FW08 at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, I got a stark reminder of how things have changed in Formula 1. We could quite easily fire that car up and run it with a couple of mechanics if we had to but today, we can’t even get the bloody car started without an array of laptops and an army of people going through hundreds of procedures.”

Comment of the day

Damonsmedley is glad to see a new country appearing on the F1 calendar:

I don’t know about everyone else, but I am very pleased to hear this actually. I have always thought that Russia has deserved a Grand Prix – especially now Petrov is racing. It is amazing to think that there are two Grands Prix in the Middle-East and Spain, yet none in the largest country on Earth.
Damonsnedley

From the forum

Lots of discussion over the BBC using Lee McKenzie as a stand-in for Jake Humphrey at Suzuka.

Site updates

Yesterday’s work on the server wasn’t completed so there may be further downtime tonight. Yesterday’s downtime only last a few minutes, however.

Happy birthday!

Wishing very happy birthdays to Fer No. 65 and Sebastiaan Huizinga!

On this day in F1

Happy birthday to Bruno Senna who is 27 today.

In an interesting coincidence, he was born on the day of the last race of the 1983 F1 season. The next race was the first one contested by his uncle Ayrton Senna.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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36 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 15/10/2010”

  1. Is it just me, or does Eddie Irvine look like he should be a part of a 1980s boy band, like WHAM?

    1. Also, Bernie’s looking really good for once.

      1. I thought Bernie looked either confused or on high dosages of pain killers/muscle relaxers…

  2. :D Happy Birthday me! and Huizinga! :)

    1. Yes, Happy birthday to you and Sebastiaan Huizinga!

    2. Happy birthday Fer(nando?) and Sebastiaan!!!

    3. Happy birthday!

    4. Yes, happy birthday to you.

      and a very happy birthday to Sebastiaan Huizinga as well :-D

    5. Happy birthday ‘nando!

    6. Happy birthday!

    7. thanks all :)! thanks all! :) thanks all! :)

      (comment too short… :P)

  3. ‘but today, we can’t even get the bloody car started without an array of laptops and an army of people going through hundreds of procedures.’

    yeah but… i think that’s kinda cool.

  4. Yes, we are the first to admit the HRT F1 isn’t a car at the sharp end of the field, but it’s still a Formula 1 car and that does make it one of the 12 fastest cars to go around a race circuit this year.

    Well, 13 anyway, what with the GP2 car and all…

    1. Actually, the Hispania F110 has only been slower than a GP2 car on one occasion this year – at Monaco.

      1. The Hispania is still an incredible car… I think it’s just a credit to all the other teams that the HRT looks so slow. Not that long ago and its pace (or lack there of), wouldn’t have even raised an eyebrow…

  5. Happy Bday Brunno!!

  6. @ Damonsmedley

    Will Petrov be around in F1 by 2014? I think as they should expand their local interest by the logos of Lada, the Russian car brand owned by AvtoVAZ, which Renault own 25% of,until some other Russian driver comes in F1 in the future.

    1. I can’t see the Petrov’s future but I wouldn’t count on him being around in 4 years time. If there are no Russians in F1 then yes, it is essential for them to invest in sponsoring some teams to retain local interest.

      1. The guy who owns Marussia – they sponsor Virgin, sort of Russia’s supercar manufacturer – has said he wants to join Formula 1 in the future with his own team.

        1. @ PM
          Many people over the years have said that they wants to join the sports but some dissapointed us,some weren’t taken by the FIA so it’s tough to call as who will come & who will not.

        2. He might be a bit of a long term partner for Virgin, although they would have to sell about 10 times the amount of cars to be able to be a major supporter there.

          In years to come, there might be other Russian drivers coming in (Aleshin, …), Petrov is just the first of them and i agree, that we cannot be too certain weather he will be on the grid in ’14.

  7. Thats a brilliant article by Karun. The amount of information these guys have to sort through whilst also pushing a very fast piece of machinery is mind blowing.
    I guess thats why to be successful in a sport like this one has to start at a young age.

    1. If you take this into account, I have a bit more respect for Bruno. He has been away from racing after his uncle died for around 8 (?) years, and still manages to drive sometimes faster then his teammate(s).

    2. Fully agree. I think the Indian race promotors did well to choose him to represent them.
      Just think what might have been, if Karthikayan would have been as good at promoting the sport, we could have a lot more fans.

  8. Happy birthday Fer no.65!!and thanks Keith for putting me in the round-up!

    everyone have a nice Friday!

    1. Happy birthday Sebastiaan!

    2. Happy birthday, Sebas!

  9. Happy Birthday you two! And Fer no.65 you are becoming one of my favourite F1F’s!

    1. thanks!!!

      byt why? :O xD

      1. Well, after that unbelieveable question on the trivia and your other interesting views, I think that you are good to listen to.

        Yes! My comment came up!

        1. haha… well, im glad you see it that way, specially after ruinning your afternoon :P

  10. Looks like Silverstone will be a lot more ready with the new pit complex for next year than Korea is right now.

    http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/244989/work-on-new-silverstone-complex-on-schedule/

  11. Doesn’t anybody else think the location for the proposed Russian GP is a bit out of the way? I’d like to know from any Russian F1 Fanatics if they are looking at the map and thinking ‘where???’. It looks a great venue for all the Eastern Bloc and Turkish fans to travel to, but Russians?
    Given that Bernie prefers his big cities as backdrops, I would have thought he would have really really pushed for a upgrade or a new track somewhere in the Moscow/St Petersburg area.
    This has remarkable echoes of the US circuit, where he gave all the hype about New York, then went for Texas (not that I am against Austin or Sochi as places). It just strikes me as odd, given the power Bernie is supposed to have that, in actual fact, he isn’t thinking of either the fans or the possible sponsors, just as long as he finds somewhere (anywhere!) gullible enough to pay the price of a new cicuit and his fees as well. Look out India, do you know what you are letting yourselves in for?

  12. The FOM race edit from Japan is out, shame there still is no good footage of Kubica, nor of Rosberg losing his wheel. The inboard from Massa and Hulkenberg are obvious though.

    http://www.formula1.com/video/race_edits.html

  13. And here’s a bit of news from the USA about those traffic plans for the Austin GP weekend – http://impactnews.com/central-austin/293-recent-news/10135-formula-one-traffic-study-to-conclude-soon

    And they seem to have taken heart from Mexican interest and opened a spanish language version of their site (http://www.formula1unitedstates.com/index.sp.html), look at the mexican flag symbol! Quick thinking, look at that USF1!

  14. Kubica in another rally event. Didnt even know about it.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R29NM_X5mI&feature=player_embedded

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