It’s race day and what a fascinating race we have in prospect especially after the overnight rain in Korea.
Join us for live comments from one hour before the start and remember to keep the F1 Fanatic Championship Calculator to hand throughout the race.
Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Schumacher masking his inner emotions, says Todt (Reuters)
“He is protecting himself, which I can understand, but he is a very human, very fragile person, and he’s not at all this strong kind of a robot as he was portrayed very often in his career.”
Korean GP – Conference 3 (FIA)
Sebastian Vettel: “Turn 18, obviously the last corner where they have put a lump on the inside in order to prevent us from cutting too much – I don’t think that’s changed anything. I was not looking forward to the change in turn 16, to be honest, yesterday. I didn’t think that would be the right decision but I was proved wrong. I think we did the right thing. It makes it a bit trickier to hit the apex but in the end it’s our job to still get the best out of it, and I think it’s safer for the cars. You hit the bump less in turn 16, so I’m happy with it. I think it’s better now than it was.”
Hamilton concerned about ‘tricky’ pit exit (Adam Cooper)
“One other interesting point is that cars coming out of the pits will potentially have more momentum going into and out of Turn Two, and thus get a better run down the long straight that follows. So even if you lose out at a pit stop you might still be able to gain a position at Turn Three.”
What happens after qually? (Renault F1 blog)
Sporting Director Steve Nielsen: "Parc ferm?â?® actually begins when the car exits the pit lane at the start of qualifying. This regulation means that the car that takes part in qualifying should be exactly the same as the car that starts the race on Sunday afternoon. So once qualifying is underway, there is very little we can change on the car."
Lewis Hamilton & Jenson Button ‘must win all races’ (BBC)
Lewis Hamilton: “We need to win all of them and that is what we’re trying to do.”
Comment of the day
Ben has lost patience with Vitantonio Liuzzi:
He’s shown no improvement since his first drive back in about 2005. The guy is an absolute clown and deserves to lose his seat. He didn’t deserve to get a seat this year anyway.
Ben
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On this day in F1
Honda scored their first victory as a Formula 1 constructor in the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. Richie Ginther drove the RA272 to victory at the Mexico City circuit. From third on the grid Ginther shot into the lead and was never usurped.
This was the last race run under the 1.5-litre engine rules before the ‘return to power’ in 1966 when three-litre engines were allowed by the regulations.
Below is a rather twee Honda-produced video about the win. I’d love to hear the same narration applied to their 2006-2008 F1 venture!
It was also the first of 368 F1 race wins for F1’s most successful tyre manufacturer, Goodyear.
Read more: F1 in numbers: F1?óÔé¼??s tyre wars
Jake
24th October 2010, 0:08
Keith, do you know whats going on with the weather in Korea at the moment. Or anyone else for that matter?
US_Peter (@us_peter)
24th October 2010, 0:25
First reports are starting to come in from F1 people waking up in Mokpo and it’s still raining (has been all night) and apparently not showing any signs of letting up anytime soon.
Alex Bkk
24th October 2010, 0:37
Yep my tweets and the weather forecast are saying the same. It’s raining at the track, but we about 7 hours till the race so it go either way.
Mike
24th October 2010, 3:18
Will the rain cause the oily track surface, potentially, to become even more slippery?
I hope it does, more tyre wear and more driver errors makes for a great race I say!
US_Peter (@us_peter)
24th October 2010, 5:06
Apparently the engineers are worried about the water and oil somehow emulsifying into an even more slippery goo. I was under the impression heavy rain would wash the oil off the surface. That’s assuming there’s proper runoff and drainage though.
Sounds like it’s stopped raining now but there’s no indication it will dry by race time. There was a massive multi car shunt in the 1st lap of the support race and because there are no cranes in the area with walls, the ENTIRE RACE was run under the safety car. Hopefully if it comes to that during the F1 race they’ll red flag it while they get the car cleared rather than run that long behind the safety car.
macahan
24th October 2010, 1:03
@radarguruf1 is a awesome resource to follow for F1 weather related issues. Very skilled weather person “Autosport.com’s weather and radar guru, keeping an eye on F1 weather as well as significant weather events affecting the world’s motor racing circuits.”
Called the weather in Suzuka very accurately.
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
24th October 2010, 3:31
thanks for the tip!
David-A (@david-a)
24th October 2010, 3:30
A BBC weather report I just saw claimed there could be “a band of rain during the race”. Looks like this race will be even more interesting than expected! :D
electrolite (@electrolite)
24th October 2010, 0:10
COTD: Ouch! I have to agree though. Earlier on in the season I felt a bit sorry for the guy and thought nah, he does have something every now and then. But now I’ve given up like Ben and, well, just think he’s a bit rubbish really.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
24th October 2010, 0:26
Yeah, I think he’s probably a really great guy, but really should be canned to make way for some more talented drivers.
Alex Bkk
24th October 2010, 1:29
#F1 Radar Sunday 09:24 KST: 13.5mm of rain has fallen at the #Koreangp track in the last 11 hrs. Temp 16c, humidity 99%. Becoming showery.
I think we’re going to be looking at a cold damp to wet track.
The race winner might be the one who can keep the tire temps up.
Turn one is going to be exciting.
Alex Bkk
24th October 2010, 1:47
It just occurred to me that all that dust in the runoff areas will now be mud!
Fun fun fun!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
24th October 2010, 1:49
GOOOD! Overnight rain.
So those on the dirty side will have it a bit easier ? :)
GO Mark! :D!
macahan
24th October 2010, 3:05
Don’t think they will need wet tires or intermediates they will need mud tires…..
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
24th October 2010, 4:18
Loeb for the win :D
paxdog57
24th October 2010, 1:50
When was this Honda video produced? If this year are they toying with coming back into f1?
KNF
24th October 2010, 6:11
2007 I think? This is when they had their awful “Earth Dreams” and mint candy cane colour schemes on their equally awful cars…
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
24th October 2010, 2:14
Agree on Ben, his head is already cut from 2011 drivers market.
Macca (@macca)
24th October 2010, 4:24
How is that comment of the day. All he is doing is baggind a driver for his own pleasure. It’s not a constructive comment at all.
Ben
24th October 2010, 5:04
of the comments I made yesterday, I actually thought this would have been least likely to be cotd lol. But to put it in context, it was part of a larger comment where I went on to talk about Barrichello and why he should not leave F1 like some people were saying.
I stand by the comment though, with the liklihood of guys like Petrov and Hulkenberg not getting drives next year it would be an absolute travesty if Liuzzi retains a drive.
I also still don’t understand why he got a seat this year to begin with. Sure he had those drives last year replacing Fisi, but his form away from F1 in the least 2 years hasn’t exactly warranted a recall. FI would have been far better throwing someone new in, a di Resta or similar. We knew what Liuzzi was capable of, and he’s shown again that he’s not capable of much at all.
Ben
24th October 2010, 5:08
actually no, I’ll rephrase that. Of the comments i made yesterday, its not the part of the comment i thought woud get cotd.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
24th October 2010, 5:10
I agree. If Liuzzi is in a car next year and either Petrov or Sulkenberg is not, Vijay Mallya will need to get his head checked. Liuzzi doesn’t even bring tons of $ponsorship a la Â¥enamoto does he?
David-A (@david-a)
24th October 2010, 11:53
Maybe Liuzzi read your comment before racing today! :D
US_Peter (@us_peter)
24th October 2010, 5:21
Did everyone catch that it’s Fairuz Fauzy and Bernie Ecclestone’s Birthday today? Red Bull presented Bernie with a special F1 style walker for his birthday: http://twitpic.com/30b78z fitted with an F1 steering wheel http://twitpic.com/30c7lg/full
alexf1man
24th October 2010, 7:50
The last win for Williams was 6 years ago today in Brazil, if anyone remembers.
alexf1man
25th October 2010, 9:48
It was won by Juan Pablo Montoya, with Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) 2nd and Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari) 3rd
Pachu
24th October 2010, 9:01
Car racings, including grandprix should be banned. It spits out enormous loads of CO2, which is avoidable. It is a shame that you guys are calling it a sport where the muscle of bloody lifeless machines are tested.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
24th October 2010, 11:00
You’re using a computer, sitting in a house, travelling on buses/in cars/on planes, eating food that is delivered in a truck and stored in electricity-consuming buildings… :)
Patrickl (@patrickl)
24th October 2010, 17:37
Tennis is just the strength of the racket and strings being tested.
Chess is just some pieces of wood being moved.
Besides, trolls are the biggest source of warmed up CO2 in the world …
Johnny5
25th October 2010, 1:14
Pachu: Football is globally responsible for much more CO2 pollution than F1, when you take into account all the fans travelling every week to watch their heroes. Are you planning on banning that, for consistancy?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
25th October 2010, 7:43
So do millions of other activities more polluting than motor racing.
They’re not driven by robots, You clearly have no idea of the physical and mental stresses a Formula 1 driver has to endure.