In the round-up: Renault’s Carlos Tavares says the new rules are “perfectly aligned” with the company’s interests.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Carlos Tavares: Interview (Renault Sport)
On the switch to six-cylinder engines in 2014: “This was one of the conditions explained to our teams for us to be in F1, and it still applies. Renault has always had an ability to innovate. We want our innovation to be useful to our clients and to the general health of the planet. Therefore this ‘downsizing’ we’ve put all our support behind is perfectly aligned. There needs to be a convergence between the technologies seen in F1 and the wishes of our clients and the societies we operate in.”
Allison becomes FOTA technical head (Autosport)
“Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn had led the technical section of FOTA until the start of this year, when he stood down so he could devote more time to his team.”
“Lewis and I woke up this morning and read we were engaged! Sorry to disappoint you all but it’s not true.”
In-season F1 testing can’t come soon enough (Autocar)
“Todt admitted during the Turkish Grand Prix weekend that he was looking to have in-season testing return in 2012 pending the approval of the teams, but would push it through without their agreement if necessary for 2013.”
Technical Focus: Active Suspension (Williams)
“At this first test at Silverstone, a hydraulic pipe came off and we had a massive fire at the back of the car. We didn’t put a lot of mileage on the system, but we managed to establish that it needed a much more sophisticated electro-hydraulic controller on it.”
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Comment of the day
Some thoughts from Robbie on how Nico Rosberg compares to Michael Schumacher.
I think the point here is that Schumacher, as a seven-time champion, is the one that is supposed to have been trouncing Rosberg. Many thought that would happen after a few races of Schumacher getting acclimatized to F1 upon his return??now it is a season and a half and Schumacher has not fazed Rosberg one bit, in fact Rosberg still leads him in points. Schumacher has had usually better starts than Rosberg, but tends to squander them with front wing damage.
Rosberg sits ‘best of the rest’ after the top three teams even though he hasn’t ‘looked’ as strong as last year. But isn’t that because last year Rosberg looked stronger versus Schumacher because Schumacher was understandably needing time to get re-acquainted with F1. But Schumacher still looks to be in that mode in a way, or at least if he has a better handle on things he has squandered it and Rosberg still leads??there was a time when having Schumacher as a teammate meant huge pressure. Either Schumacher no longer fazes drivers and doesn’t apply pressure any longer, or NR is great at dealing with the pressure. It’s a two-sided coin. Perhaps it is Rosberg’s handling of Schumacher that is the reason other drivers are not fazed by Rosberg being on the track, and they’re all taking the fight to him without hesitation.
Bottom line for me??if you are one who puts Schumacher on a pedestal for all he has done in F1, then Rosberg deserves to be on a pedestal for how he has dealt with Schumacher as a team mate.
Robbie
From the forum
Shadow13 wants your suggestions for Best Livery Ever.
Site updates
Due to a technical problem yesterday’s article “New rules produced most popular races in four years” had to be taken down temporarily. Part of the article has been deleted, however none of your comments have been lost. Once I can restore the missing part of the article I will restore it on the site. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Cube and Phil G!
On this day in F1
Jim Clark won the non-championship Solitude Grand Prix on this day in 1964.
The race was held at the Solitudering near Stuttgart in Germany.
It took him just over an hour and a half to complete 20 laps of the 11.4km (7m) circuit. John Surtees finished second for Ferrari in front. Bob Anderson’s Brabham completed an all-British podium.
Calum (@calum)
19th July 2011, 0:05
Glad the engines will be V6 turbos, it’s just a shame we didn’t get venturi ground effects as well though, that would have produced equally good non-gimmicky racing to DRS in my opinion!
Mike
19th July 2011, 0:26
Probably would have helped the racing by reducing the gaps mid corner…. It’s a pity, because if F1 teams didn’t purposefully make their cars hard to follow, well. We’d have racing to match GP2.
BasCB (@bascb)
19th July 2011, 6:59
Agree that it would have enabled more close racing. Shame the teams blocked it for the cost and risk in getting it wrong.
andrewf1
19th July 2011, 0:11
I don’t really understand this statement, how can Todt PUSH through testing without the teams’ agreement? Its not like he’ll be testing anything, it’s all about the teams. Of course he needs their agreement.
JustAnF1Fanatic (@justanf1fanatic)
19th July 2011, 1:12
but if he made a rule the made in season testing compulsory to show up with cars and minimum number of team members etc, theyd have no choice
Adrian J
20th July 2011, 10:30
Or if he made it that in season testing was allowed then at some point one of the teams (perhaps with red cars) would feel the need to take advantage of that and then the flood gates would open…
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
19th July 2011, 1:49
I believe the President of the FIA has the power to bring a rule change into effect if the teams cannot settle on a conclusion. It’s rather like a hung jury – if the teams have wildly opposing opinions and cannot reconcile them in time for a deadline to be met, then Todt can decide one way or the other on the rule change.
JustAnF1Fanatic (@justanf1fanatic)
19th July 2011, 2:22
i always assumed that being head of the sports governing body meant that at the end of the day, if u wanted to bring in a rule, you could, for example with the EBD debarcle etc
BasCB (@bascb)
19th July 2011, 7:01
Yes, the FIA can put in just about any new rule they want, only he needs to put it in the rulebook with enough lead time before a new season.
Obviously the preffered method is at least discussing with the teams though.
Calum (@calum)
19th July 2011, 3:36
Just a minute ago on the F1F homepage, using Firefox, the drop downs on ‘stats’ ‘community’ ect were getting stuck behind the top banner ad so you couldn’t click on the options.
It was a Mercedes Benz ad, but this has not happened since, I’ve clicked on a few articles to see if it happens again, but no… strange.
Calum (@calum)
19th July 2011, 3:38
The Merc C Class banner is back and it’s doing it again.
I’ve had Renault, Barclay and no problems, but every time the Merc C Class banner ad appears, the drop downs get hidden by the advert.
BasCB (@bascb)
19th July 2011, 7:03
Make a screenshot and send it to Keith via the contact form. Works perfectly and fast.
donz
19th July 2011, 4:52
Thought for a second that Williams had admitted to running active suspension last week!
BasCB (@bascb)
19th July 2011, 7:02
Hello and have a nice Birthday the both of you, Cube and Phil G!
smifaye (@)
19th July 2011, 8:32
I bet that was a lonely win for Jim Clark at the Solitudering…. ba dum tsh
damonsmedley (@damonsmedley)
19th July 2011, 8:35
Keith, thought it might be worth mentioning that FOM’s new race edit from Silverstone is online. :)
Icthyes
19th July 2011, 9:21
I don’t entirely agree with the COTD.
It’s been five years since Schumacher competed for a championship. Anyone who needs to visualise what that time frame does to a F1 driver only needs to look at Graham Hill in 1973 (though to be fair he had horribly damaged his legs).
I would say it was more a case of Schumacher being average than Rosberg being extra-special. And if he didn’t have so many damn crashes, his pace would have got him a few results better than Rosberg this year.
Steph (@)
19th July 2011, 14:11
I have to say I agree with you Icthyes. This isn’t really the same Schumacher for me and for that reason I find it really tough to evaluate Nico although I do thinki he’s a good driver.
Hallard
19th July 2011, 18:23
Yep. I was scrolling down to post a similar comment but you’ve taken the words from my mouth.
Schumacher spent 3 years in retirement, he’s now the oldest driver on the grid and its widely believed that driving in the simulator makes him ill. Schumacher simply isnt the force that he used to be, and I think its a little unrealistic to expect otherwise.
Does his conspicuous lack of performance today detract from his dominant, record-obliterating performances of old? Certainly not, at least not for me.
Nico is good, but lets not give him too much credit here. I think that most of the mid-level drivers on the grid could out-perform this current iteration of Schumacher.
Fixy (@)
19th July 2011, 11:04
Lol, and everyone was saying their parents said they were!
iBlaze (@)
19th July 2011, 15:14
They have some very interesting stats on overtakes from the first half of the season at Autosport today.
JerseyF1
19th July 2011, 16:14
Interesting conclusions. It looks like all the drivers needed was to be reminded that they could overtake after all, the new rules have removed the old mindset of just sitting in and waiting.
batador
20th July 2011, 18:08
wasn’t williams the only team running an active suspension in ’91 before it got banned?
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
20th July 2011, 19:02
Yes, that’s right.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
20th July 2011, 19:01
I think its a fair compromise, regarding the new engines.
Does in-season testing only apply for the testing of new drivers or testing of potential future aero parts etc?