Here’s today’s F1 Fanatic round-up. It’s April Fool’s Day, so think twice if you see any ‘Schumacher-to-HRT’ stories…
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Exclusivo: os detalhes da reabertura de Spielberg (Blog Do Ico, Portuguese)
Red Bull are to do a demonstration at the Red Bull Ring, formerly known as the A1 Ring.
Speed TV considering showing F1 qualifying live (Austin-American Statesman)
“Speed TV says they’ve heard the complaints and are considering showing Formula One qualifying sessions live, possibly as early as April 9 for the Malaysian Grand Prix.”
McLaren confident of car performance (CNN)
Copycats McLaren have made huge leap, says Newey (Reuters)
“McLaren made a huge leap forward — by copying our exhaust, it has to be said. But the bottom line is they still made huge leaps forward. I am sure they will be pushing us hard.”
Morning after the weekend before (Grand Prix)
“If gaining admission to this Holy of Holies is difficult during the Grand Prix, it’s impossible now. The entire area is fenced off and officially deemed a building site during deconstruction. You don’t get in without a high-viz vest and a hard hat. For once, an FIA credential is about as much use as a parking ticket for the pit straight would have been during the previous week. Because that’s exactly what one side of this strip of Tarmac is for 50 weeks of the year.”
Sauber hails ‘outstanding’ Perez (Autosport)
“My first impression was okay because we followed him the last season in GP2 and he did a good job and also during the pre-season tests we were happy with him but in the race he was outstanding. Thirty-five laps with used soft tyres, that is incredible.”
Formula One Fantasy – Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel (Formula 1)
“Q: You can only drive at one circuit for the rest of your life – which circuit, past or present from anywhere in the world, do you choose?
SV: It would either be Suzuka, Spa or Nurburgring Nordschleife. Obviously we would have to discuss the run-off areas here and there, but at these tracks you would never get bored.”
Team Lotus takes to the streets of Putrajaya
“We are holding the Putrajaya Grand Prix Demonstration event on Saturday 2nd April, where you will have the chance to come along, see Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli drive the Formula 1 car live, and meet the team ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix.”
Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.
Comment of the day
With Kimi Raikkonen eyeing up a move to American tin-tops Adam Tate opines the loss of Juan Pablo Montoya to NASCAR five years ago:
The loss of Montoya to Nascar is one of the worst things to happen to F1 in the past decade. In no way did he fulfill his potential and instead of trying to find a way to accommodate one of the most talented and exciting drivers in years Ron Dennis just argued him out of F1.
When you look at all the drivers McLaren had around the middle of the decade you wonder how on earth they didn’t win more championships. I mean they had DC (in his good days) Kimi, Montoya, Alonso, Hamilton and all they had to show for it was a WDC with Hamilton.
Adam Tate
From the forum
Karan01 asks if F1 should copy IndyCar’s double-file rolling restarts?
Site updates
A treat for all you stats fans coming up on the site later today…
Happy birthday!
No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.
On this day in F1
An exciting Brazilian Grand Prix was won by David Coulthard on this day ten years ago.
Juan Pablo Montoya was taken out while leading by the lapped Arrows of Jos Verstappen:
Image © Renault/LAT
RIISE (@riise)
1st April 2011, 0:05
I remember the Montoya crash quite well, he had a horrid season full of retirements.
bananarama (@bananarama)
1st April 2011, 1:14
I remember Montoya crash quite a bit .. just off the top of my head there was some crashing on the american continent (Canada wall, US start), Germany (in a beautiful slide), Japan .. couple of times in Monaco, even in the tunnel behind the safetycar (don’t tell me it was Schumachers fault, we aren’t discussing this here), “”on a tennis court”” …
This one was bad luck though.
Montoya sure was fun and a really quick driver, but I don’t really miss him too much.
Jay
1st April 2011, 2:29
What a great comment by Adam Tate. Pretty much what Ive been saying all along.
Montoya was probably the quickest driver we had in F1 during the 00’s along with Kimi before the rise of Seb. This is pure speed we’re talking about, if you look at the amount of poles he ammased and fastest laps, he couldnt argue his talent. He was bold and drove like a true racer.
Honestly, he had no chance against the Schumacher brigade at Ferrari during his time with Williams, he ran them close, but they didnt have enough. His first season should have so much better, but how unlucky he was.
You would have thought his move to Mclaren would have been a dream, but Ron Dennis triuphed again with his poor management skills.
Montoya was very unlucky during his run with Mclaren, coupled with poor reliability, but he did put up some really good drive, i.e. Silverstone 05.
I always maintain that if Montoya had somebody like Ross Brawn on his pit wall during his time in F1, he would have won the WDC.
Adam Tate (@adam-tate)
1st April 2011, 6:26
Thankyou so much Jay!
I agree with you, under so many other circumstances Montoya would have been a WDC and probably still be in the sport today.
Thankyou for the COTD Keith!
And on a final note, I am glad to see Redbull reopening the A-1 ring, shame it’s not like the old Österreichring anymore though.
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 6:37
I agree, we lost a very good and exiting driver in Montoya.
As for this incident, its another good example of just why I went from loving the guy (Verstappen, certainly not JPM) for gutsy racing to just hoping he would not crash out and blame something stupid.
verstappen
1st April 2011, 20:30
*silently mubling in corner: but Montoya braked sooo early…*
Jake
1st April 2011, 0:10
yet more mind games between red bull and mclaren. anyone get the impression they’re worried?
Polishboy808 (@polishboy808)
1st April 2011, 0:34
Well yeah McLaren are going to copy your idea, just like you copied their F-Duct last year. Thats just a part of the game, I thought Newey would know that….
bananarama (@bananarama)
1st April 2011, 1:37
I’m sure Newey copied now and then back in the days when Byrne designed magnificent cars. Its normal and Newey doesn’t imply that its unfair, he just states that its a bit sad not to be able to keep your great ideas for yourself alone. I guess everyone feels that way when having a great idea.
Now all he has to do is explain to Webber how to drive the car properly because even though Vettel may come out on top after a long season, I always felt like they aren’t much different in pace, certainly not more than half a second.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
1st April 2011, 9:11
Haha, I was about to post the same thing.
Strange article really. It’s not nearly as sensational as the headline makes it out to be (quelle surprise), but Newey doesn’t mention Ferrari copied them too and it didn’t work out. Not that he’s saying they’re only good from being copycats, but it would have been nice to see him clarify the point that they are damn smart people to be able to get a borrowed feature to work so quickly.
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 9:43
What I took from the article is him actually feeling a bit miffed by McLaren catching up as soon and get as close as they did with this!
Coxy
1st April 2011, 10:25
Well if it was my idea and everyone was scrambling around to copy it, i would be made up, what a compliment to have the rest of the worlds greates car designers wanting to copy me!
Scary Terry (@hatebreeder)
1st April 2011, 10:42
maybe hez jealous of mclaren cause rbr copied the fduct n couldn’t get it working that well and mclaren copied the exhaust n got it working spot on?
graigchq (@graigchq)
1st April 2011, 10:58
i was thinking the same thing the first time i saw this article and interview pop up on YallaF1. But as with all these things, Newey is slightly misquoted. He isn’t annoyed, he said it WOULD be annoying IF they ended up beating them with their own idea… like they beat McLaren with their F-Duct last year.
Honestly though, Red Bull didn’t need the F-Duct, they were so far ahead last year it belies belief
Laranja Mecanica
1st April 2011, 1:34
Well, McL had quite some good drivers… but alas, they had Ron Dennis also.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
1st April 2011, 9:12
Ironically, a lot of the fanboys have been blaming Dennis’ departure for Hamilton’s lack of titles, there was a lot of anger at Whitmarsh when the car threatened to be a tortoise.
Sush Meerkat
1st April 2011, 9:47
But Dennis was a compulsive control freak with weird ideology, he always wanted to win the Monaco GP, unfortunately current regulations limit a cars potential if its superb round Monaco.
Obviously there are exceptions but more often than not good at Monaco = not a title chaser.
DasWauto (@daswauto)
1st April 2011, 2:00
Keith,
I’m afraid you’ve been duped by (or are in on) Force India’s little April Fool’s joke. If you go to the Terms and Conditions you will see that one of the tests required to win is the “looflirpa” online examination, which spells “april fool” backwards.
Cheers.
Laranja Mecanica
1st April 2011, 2:06
Ditto the URBNGFULD department, the employees of UARSTIL BNG FULD, and IFWISHESWEREHORSES Inc. Didn’t quite get the FIA FMSCI OBESE physical test, though.
Burnout
1st April 2011, 6:29
Heh, that was a good one by Force India. Are any other teams pulling April Fool’s gags as well?
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 6:39
Still, this is a very nice link (oh, Keith is the linke working OK? I had to have it display the source code to copy it into my browser), a fun Idea.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
1st April 2011, 8:09
Well the fool’s on them because it was on their site yesterday!
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 8:30
LOL, maybe they wanted it not to be to obvious.
Actually i really had a laugh desciphering the “acronyms” in the terms and conditions.
and
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
1st April 2011, 9:45
They’ve admitted it’s an April Fool so I’ve taken the link out of the round-up. Someone needs to buy them a calendar, though.
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 9:58
At least Nico Hulkenberg does have nice humor and timing!
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 10:10
To see what it does, I filled in their form, and this is what they sent per e-mail.
Omar Roncal
1st April 2011, 15:05
or maybe because it’s April 1st in India BEFORE than in England? Anyway in Peru there’s something similar to April’s Fool but it’s on Dec 26th
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
1st April 2011, 15:24
That could be it, but I did see it pretty early on yesterday. And I don’t recall seeing a date on the page.
F1Yankee (@f1yankee)
1st April 2011, 2:24
nice to see speed “consider” live qualifying (the tape delay was for viewers’ benefit, of course) but really it’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as their issues go. i would gladly pay for bbc america twice to get the uk content live and uninterrupted.
Scalextric
1st April 2011, 4:32
At least now we’ll be able to follow along on the live blog here, which helps keep one in touch during commercial breaks. How can they have a break in a 15min session you ask? Well, they used to have a 2 min break with an added 60 sec delay so that one only missed 60 secs. Now we might miss 2 mins for the same break during live coverage. Hmm.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
1st April 2011, 6:54
Plus we can then actually use live timing on F1.com, which arguably is more useful in qualifying than any other sessions. If they do go to an ad and someone posts a new time you’ll see it on live timing, and as you said via the F1F live blog. I’ve emailed SPEED numerous times about this and have always gotten form letter type company-line responses about how they strive to offer the best coverage, etc… Recently two of their producers joined twitter, I tweeted at both of them about qualifying (as I’m sure others did as well), and within a couple of days after Australia Dan Shutte (the main producer) tweeted that they’re working to figure out how to do live qualifying possibly as early as Malaysia. Needless to say I was impressed with the response after the auto replies I’ve always gotten through their website.
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 6:56
From the article I take the positives are, Speed is hearing the complaints and reacting. After all these years!
You would think they need to ramp up the activity running up to the US GP next year. This might be the first step.
Cole (@cole)
1st April 2011, 3:28
Hi Keith.
A bit off topic, but could you explain how Mercedes does the housing of the wing mechanism thru the endplates?, as they have no central pillars.
DasWauto (@daswauto)
1st April 2011, 4:01
I’ll take a crack at it.
The hydraulic cylinder to actuate the wing does not have to be a thick cylindrical shape, as used in the central pillar of cars like the Ferrari.
To hide the mechanism in the endplates the hydraulic lines (only about 1/4 inch diameter) can be run through the bottom (beam) wing and up through the endplates which are only a bit thicker than the lines. The mechanism can be made of 2 smaller cylinders rather than one bigger, which can be of a flattened or ovalized design to minimize the size.
Check out this site for all sorts of technical info regarding all things F1:
Cheers.
The Limit
1st April 2011, 3:39
Adam Tate’s comments made alot of sense, but I always felt that Montoya was a fish out of water in F1. I am not suggesting that he wasn’t good enough, infact the opposite, its just that the differences between F1 and the American racing scene are very different.
Personally, I suspect that Montoya saw through Ron Dennis and found Chip Ganassi’s offer of NASCAR too hard to resist. I always felt there was more to Montoya’s tennis accident than met the eye, something that did not escape Dennis which may have hastened Juan’s departure.
Raikkonen has one thing in common with Montoya. They were both never interested in the political element and b.s of F1. They simply wanted to race and compete, and both became disillusioned with the sport. Kimi knew for several years that he was living on borrowed time at Ferrari, but by then he didn’t care. He had enough money in the bank not to care, and pursue the life he wanted not what others wanted him to have.
Thats how it appeared to me anyway.
bananarama (@bananarama)
1st April 2011, 4:36
JP at BMW seemed fine, but at McLaren it didn’t seem perfect. He had his problems and for F1 (maybe we can get a new comparison in Nascar) I’d rate Kimi as the better driver which might have turned him off aswell. He was always standing out (I’m not judging, but sometimes not in the most positive ways) which was a big plus but at the same time maybe hampered his chances to become a champion. I think he was a fine driver, surely had (has) the speed in him but I’m not a big fan of the way he races. Often I felt like the reason he overtook people was because they were sane enough not to wreck both cars (bit like Kamikaze Kobayashi seems to me sometimes), sometimes he had flashes of genius. That kind of personality on and off the track might fit the american market better than F1.
To get to a point somehow: he is a good driver, a good racer/fighter and I don’t really see whats hoding him back from big success in Nascar (2 wins and best foreigner so far isn’t the kind of success he should have .. maybe his day will come) but as I mentioned eariler, I don’t feel like missing him too much and probably he isn’t missing it too much either.
Nin13 (@)
1st April 2011, 6:52
But “Schumacher on HRT” would be worth reading. LOL!!
HounslowBusGarage (@hounslowbusgarage)
1st April 2011, 8:51
I’d really respect Schumi if he went to HRT as driver or even team manager!
Dan Newton
1st April 2011, 9:28
They’d drop him if he didn’t pay or perform well enough.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
1st April 2011, 6:55
I hope there will be some good footage of the Red Bulls on the A1 Ring. Definitely the most scenic of F1 circuits.
axosf1 (@)
1st April 2011, 7:09
Last time I saw the A1 Ring it was all overgrown and buildings in very poor condition.
Basically like the old straights at Hockenheim.
Be interesting to see how it scrubs up and how much of the circuit will be used or shown
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 7:15
Nice interview with Paffet as well. Is CNN actually getting interested in F1 now?
They do the Team Lotus sponsorship and Heikki had an interview with them a while back as well (haven’t seen it, just Heikki’s tweets about going there).
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
1st April 2011, 7:23
I’m curious to see the A1 Ring. Never seen it before.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
1st April 2011, 8:10
Some more April Foolery:
http://www.express.co.uk/motorsport/view/237975/Rising-fuel-costs-threaten-British-Grant-Prix
http://www.nicohulkenberg.net/en/news/hulk-tattoos-katjes-logo
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
1st April 2011, 8:15
Nico’s is pure class ;)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
1st April 2011, 8:19
For me, April Fool’s are only worth it if they’re funny. Hülkenberg’s is quite good, the Express one isn’t. Pitpass have put one up that’s just plain weak and I can’t be bothered linking to it.
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 11:18
Here is another nice one, about a new venue for the french GP.
Give away – look at the shape to the track.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
1st April 2011, 11:35
Also the project manager’s name is Donald Canard. That should be a giveaway to anyone who knows a bit of French!
RBAlonso
1st April 2011, 12:21
@BasCB, thanks for that. The quote, “when designing a Mickey Mouse circuit who better to turn to than Tilke” has made my morning
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
1st April 2011, 13:46
That Express one is daft…
“We wanted a fuel subsidy from Bernie Ecclestone but he is now talking to countries like the US, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Qatar about staging races where we can fill up for about £3.”
Coxy
1st April 2011, 10:41
and in German for nico : voll geil!!
Class fool but just imagine if sponsors take note and say “hey what a great idea”!?!?!?!?!?!
robbiepblake (@driftin)
1st April 2011, 8:36
Is the Newey comment an April Fool’s joke?
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 9:35
I just ran into another pretty interesting site which aims at analyses of the data, thanks to a tweet from Craig Scarborough.
Really worth having a look for all of us who like going into the details of who, where and most of all why to analyse the laps.
Coxy
1st April 2011, 10:21
Ok Stupid question time as i am sure its been answered but i cant seem to find an answer for want of looking. what happened in the team lotus, lotus racing renault confusing as hell thingy? do we have 2 lotus teams for good or does one have to change their name!!!!!!
OEL
1st April 2011, 10:53
Lotus Renault GP is officially refered to as Renault.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
1st April 2011, 11:14
Lotus vs Lotus: Time to stop the nonsense
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 11:46
Not a stupid question at all. As Keith posted above, this is still running.
Todays’ the last day of the initial planned court hearings. But a decision will probably take another couple of weeks.
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 19:01
this is what Ted Kravitz had to say after getting out of the court room:
ajokay (@)
1st April 2011, 10:33
Today’s best piece of automotive journalism, courtasy of F1F regular, Dan Thorn
http://f1lists.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/top-10-greatest-drivers-of-all-time/
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 10:42
Nice one Dan!
Dan Thorn (@dan-thorn)
1st April 2011, 11:19
Thanks for the promo but on reflection I picked a bad day to release that article. Those are my genuine thoughts…
BasCB (@bascb)
1st April 2011, 12:11
LOL, coincidence?
All 10 of them have really added a lot to F1 as entertainment.
bananarama (@bananarama)
1st April 2011, 12:58
Where are Delatraz, Apicella, Nissany, Inoue, Amati or my personal number one of all time, Hans Heyer, a touring car master, whose unparalleled genius made him the only driver ever to understand that not qualifying for a race doesn’t have any meaning when you know you can win. And thats what he did, after just a few laps he had finished the grand prix and went back to touring cars because F1 was just too easy for him.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
1st April 2011, 13:41
I’m in tears with that one :D
verstappen
1st April 2011, 20:49
today is a good day to go to bed early
Mustalainen (@mustalainen)
1st April 2011, 12:12
Doesn’t Gary Paffett look a bit like Jacques Villeneuve?
Fixy (@)
1st April 2011, 14:09
I didn’t know the A-1 RIng was renamed! I like that track, at least to play it in F1 games.
RIISE (@riise)
1st April 2011, 23:07
Definitely a brilliant track. One of Tilke’s better tracks (Or revised trakcs), just a shame it’s outdated now.
And Red Bull Ring just sounds strange, they are taking over the world!!!
HounslowBusGarage (@hounslowbusgarage)
1st April 2011, 17:51
Does anyone know the layout of the new/revised Red Bull Ring at Spielberg? Or is it the same as the old A1 Ring?
HounslowBusGarage (@hounslowbusgarage)
1st April 2011, 17:53
Keith, can you delete this question – I found the answer, and it’s the same as the A1.